Tuesday, June 4, 2019

As Ramadan Ends, Ingushetia Very Tense with Protests Likely to Resume


Paul Goble

            Staunton, June 4 – With the end of Ramadan, Ingushetia is particularly on edge, with many people predicting that the protests which had roiled the republic before the start of the Holy Month will resume.  In preparation for that, the Yevkurov regime continued its wave of arrests and the shifting of those detained from one place to another.

            The only positive development, if it can be called that, is that Yunus-Bek Yevkurov has suspended plans to tear down the barracks in which refugees from the 1992 border conflict with North Ossetia have been living, a move likely prompted by a desire that these people not join the protests or add their issue to the protesters’ agenda (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/336266/).

                But those who engaged in protest earlier fared far worse. A Nalchik court ordered that opposition activist Zelimkhan Bopkhoyev be jailed for two months as charges that he attacked police earlier are investigated (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/336279/). And teip leaders Akhmed Barakhoyev and Malsag Uzhakhov were shifted from jails in Vladikavkaz to Nalchik (fortanga.org/2019/06/ahmeda-barahoeva-i-malsaga-uzhahova-segodnya-snova-perevezli-v-sizo-nalchika/

.           Yevkurov’s tactic of moving those detained form one jail to another makes it more difficult for their lawyers and family members to make contact and adds to the uncertainty among prisoners as to how they will be treated. Those detained outside the republic as these two have been are at particular risk of abuse.

            Just how tense, even explosive the situation in Ingushetia has become was signaled today by a clash between Ingush young people and guards at the North Ossetian border. The young people refused and, according to the police, behaved in an “aggressive” manner. Several were arrested (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/336246/).

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