Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 21 – The Ingush
authorities, together with their colleagues from Moscow, have raided various non-governmental
organizations in Ingushetia and not found evidence that they can use against
them. As a result, Magomed Mutsolgov, the head of one of them, says the authorities
are now charging such groups with being “foreign agents.”
That represents another increase in
political repression in Ingushetia and underscores the way in which Moscow and Magas
are abusing such laws in order to repress the population, the MASHR head says,
noting that his group has become one of a long line of Ingush NGOs so targeted
(kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/37863).
According to Mutsolgov, the Ingush
leadership came up with this idea in the wake of mass protests against the border
change agreement last October but only began to use it in dragnet-fashion after
efforts to gather evidence against Yevkurov’s opponents fell short. Now, it
appears, this is where the next wave of repression is going to occur.
In his blog post, the MASHR leader
provides details on the groups the regimes have gone after, including a chronology
that shows how the decision to move against organizations after the arrests of
individuals failed to contain protest attitudes in the republic. Clearly, the
government now recognizes that it is opposed not by individuals but by almost
the entire population.
The most serious consequence of such
moves, however, may be very different than what the authorities imagine. Destroying
NGOs may slow the mobilization of people for a time, but as the Ingush have
shown in the past, if they cannot work through established channels, they will create
new ones.
So far, they have remained committed
to legal action. But if the authorities keep up their pressure, it is likely
that at least some will become committed to more radical measures, especially
if the restraining influence of leaders now under arrest and organizations now
banned or marginalized is reduced.
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