Moscow Destroying Ingush Language, Ingush Activist Tells United Nations

Paul Goble

            Staunton, November 30 – Zarina Sautiyeva, an ethnic Ingush who works for the Legal Initiative Organization, tells the United Nations that her nation’s language which was identified as under threat of extinction by UNESCO ten years ago, is now at even greater risk because of Russian government policies.

            It is in “serious danger not only because is not in a position to compete with the more widely used Russian but also because it is not given the resources needed for its popularization” and because Moscow has now eliminated the requirement that residents of Ingushetia study it in schools (6portal.ru/posts/цели-государственной-политики-по-обр/#more-718.)

            “Ingushetia,” Sautiyeva continues, “does not have its own publishing house. It does not have a single paper published in the Ingush language, and writers have to search for sponsors in order to publish their books, and children living in the Prigorodny district [occupied by North Ossetia] do not have textbooks for the study of their native language.”

            Moscow is not only going after non-Russian languages like Ingush: it is also attacking their traditional social systems, Portal Six commentator Akhmed Buzurtanov says.  As a result and despite repression, “Ingush society has not alternative for the defense of its interests besides continuing the process of transforming traditional institutions” so as to be in a position to fight for the nation’s survival (6portal.ru/posts/власти-вытесняя-адаты-не-всегда-гаран/).

            These two statements are indicative of the further radicalization of Ingush society and the commitment of its leaders to express that radicalism through existing institutions rather than by violence.  But there should be no doubt of just how strongly felt the ideas Sautiyeva and Burzurtanov are expressing are among the Ingush nation now.

            Meanwhile, as she did a month ago, St. Petersburg activist Marina Ken staged a one-person picket with pictures of Ingushetia’s political prisoners. She says that now “in essence, all the Ingush intelligentsia, all those who could support a link between the people and the powers … are behind bars” (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/342980/).

            The Ingush thus need support from outside because they are now so repressed they do not know what to do next, Ken says.