Circassians Call for All Ingush Prisoners to Be Treated as ‘Brothers’ and Returned to Ingushetia

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 4 – The leaders of various public organizations in Kabardino-Balkaria are calling for Nalchik jail officials to treat Ingush opposition figures as brothers who are being “repressed” until they can be returned as the law requires to their native Ingushetia. Only in that way can the rights of those under detention be guaranteed.

            Marks Shamurzov, a Circassian who heads the Association of Victims of Political Repressions, took the lead in making that argument at a meeting in Nalchik four days ago.  He was unanimously supported by others at the session and by lawyers who represent some of the 29 Ingush prisoners now being held in KBR facilities (zamanho.com/?p=11387).

            The lawyers are “unanimous in the view that the criminal cases have been falsified and bear a political (that is, ordered) character” rather than being the result of genuine investigations.  What has been done has featured violations of law and procedure at all stages, with officials regularly referring to “secret” information that they had but won’t share.

            To try to overcome these problems, the KBR rights activists invited the procurators of Nalchik and of the North Caucasus Federal District to come to the meeting and explain themselves. But the latter “cowardly ignored the invitation,” according to the Ingush independent news agency Zamanho.

            “The Federal powers that be want to ‘drive’ the Ingush who are in confinement at the present time and who came out in defense of our common Motherland, risking their lives, property, and security of their families into radicalism and then deal with them in rapid ways. But this didn’t happen,” Zamanho says.

            The news agency continues: “Now, the repressive regime has decided to deal with the problem of public protest by other methods: the neutralization of leaders, the liquidation of all financial opportunities, and the creation of inter-ethnic conflicts. However, thanks to people like you [the Circassians] the goal of hostile politicians can be redirected into fraternal unions.”

            “In Ingushetia,” Zamanho adds, “many are following the situation and are very grateful to those noble women who have not been afraid to speak out in defense of our sister Zarifa Sautiyeva. We are grateful to Kabardino-Balkar social leaders who are displaying real brotherhood” to Ingush captives.

            Meanwhile, Magomed Mutsolgov, a blogger who heads the Yabloko party in Ingushetia and who has been blocked by the authorities from running for a local city council, says that it is important for everyone to recognize that Moscow is using Ingushetia as a laboratory for methods it then applies elsewhere including in the capital (kavkaz-uzel.eu/blogs/342/posts/39006).

            Against activists in Moscow and St. Petersburg are now being applied methods that the Russian authorities first developed and applied in Ingushetia, Mutsolgov says. Consequently, everyone concerned with rights anywhere in the Russian Federation must focus on what is going on in Ingushetia and other republics and regions beyond the capital.

            And in yet another sign that Ingush society remains united against the repressive policies of the Magas regime, hundreds of people, an unprecedented number even for the republic, came to the funeral of Magomed-Sali Sautiyeva, the brother of imprisoned activist Zarifa Sautiyeva, to show solidarity with her (fortanga.org/2019/08/vash-dom-stoyal-za-pravdoj-i-spravedlivostyu/).