Ingush Opposition Seeks Only That Everyone Obey the Law, Two Leaders Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 28 – Two prominent opposition figures, Sarazhdin Sultygov and Akhmed Pogorov said in separate appeals today that the Ingush people seek only that everyone, be he a janitor or the head of the republic obey the law rather than violate it or bend it to the breaking point. 

            Sultygov stressed that “we want the law be one for Yevkurov and for a janitor,” adding that “none of those who have been arrested had violated the law because people have the right to go to meetings with just demands.” Those who say otherwise and act on their own statements are the real violators of the law (zamanho.com/?p=6957).

            He expressed particular concern about the decision of the authorities to move those they have illegally detained to jails outside the republic in order to keep family and defense from coming to their aid. Such actions, Sultygov continued, “are the crudest violations of the law.” He called on law enforcement personnel to stay within the law.

            And in conclusion, the activist stressed that “in Ingushetia, there are no enemies of the state system, the regime, or the powers. The people demand that the law be obeyed.”

            Pogorov, vice president of the World Congress of the Ingush People and a leader of the Ingush National Unity Committee, echoed these concerns and said that the republic government must not violate the law as it has been doing in recent weeks (zamanho.com/?p=6948).

            Meanwhile, activists in neighboring Daghestan issued an appeal to Vladimir Putin and republic head Vladimir Vasilyev to take steps to ensure that any border changes between Chechnya and Daghestan were taken in full conformity to the law. If that doesn’t happen, they say, Daghestan could go the way of Ingushetia (chernovik.net/content/respublika/otkrytoe-obrashchenie-k-putinu).