Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 22 – Reports last
March that a group of Ingush policemen had refused to obey orders to use force
to disperse demonstrators in Magas inspired the Ingush people to conclude the Yevkurov
government was coming apart, especially when the authorities appeared to
confirm the story by firing 17 policemen and disbanding the unit of which they
were a part.
But the story was always more murky
than that, and now the 13 policemen who face charges of disobeying orders are
contesting the charges, saying that they tried to disperse the crowd but did
not use force (fortanga.org/2019/08/vlasti-ugrozhayut-politsejskim-za-ih-otkaz-razognat-grazhdan-s-ploshhadi-magasa/).
Their
lawyer, Magomed Kuriyev, says that the men who could be sentenced to as much as
five years in prison have a video tape confirming their version of events as
well as witnesses who are prepared to testify on their behalf. He adds that the
government has not yet produced any evidence for its charges against the men.
On
the one hand, if the policemen are able to show that they did not disobey
orders, that will effectively destroy the notion, widespread in Ingushetia,
that the local police are in fact on the side of the people. But on the other, their
trial will exacerbate tensions because it will suggest that the authorities in
Moscow if not in Magas wanted to uses violence against the demonstrators.
Meanwhile,
the Ingush section of the Yabloko Party stepped up its efforts to organize a
boycott of the September 8 local and regional elections in the republic. Party
leaders are giving three reasons for this action: the suppression of Ingush
protests about the border change, the failure of authorities to register
opposition candidates, and their certainty the results will be falsified (fortanga.org/2019/08/yabloko-prizyvaet-k-bojkotu-vyborov-v-ingushetii/).
“We do not want to participate in
this farce,” the party says.
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