Paul
Goble
Staunton, July 27 – The Arabo-Turkic
word amanat became prominent during the Russian imperial advance into
the North Caucasus to designate those from recalcitrant auls who were kept as hostages
to ensure good behavior from their extended families. Now, one Ingush prisoner
says, Moscow is using the same tactic again.
Barakh Chemurziyev, an Ingush activist
in pre-trial detention for his role in the March 2019 protests and who has been
in jail for 16 months, says t he and his fellow prisoners are amanats the
authorities are using to try to keep other Ingush from taking up the national
cause (fortanga.org/2020/07/my-amanaty-majora-naryzhnogo-zapiski-baraha-chemurzieva-iz-sizo/).
The Russian constitution and law
preclude the long detentions that Ingush activists are subject to, and even
President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Supreme Court have said that Russians
detained for pre-trial investigations should not be held for long. But in the
case of Ingushetia, Chermurziyev says, all these things are being ignored.
Many have assumed that the powers
that be are doing that to keep leaders off the streets and therefore limit the
chance they will organize new protests, the activist says. But the powers have
an additional reason for doing this: they want to use those they hold as
hostages and threaten to treat them worse if there are any new demonstrations.
It is entirely possible that at
least some of the extended families of the more than 30 Ingush activists still behind
bars do not want to put them at risk by going into the streets, but the longer
this new form of hostage-taking continues, the more likely it is that those on
the outside will see protests as necessary even if the authorities treat the
prisoners worse.
Meanwhile, family members of another
Ingush prisoner, Baraudin Myakiyev, who is being held in Stavropol, say that
the prison store there is now open only one day a week, making it impossible
for most of the 1500 prisoners to make purchases. Prison officials deny this is
the case (fortanga.org/2020/07/rodstvenniki-ingushskogo-aktivista-bagaudina-myakieva-pozhalovalis-na-zakrytie-magazina-v-kolonii/).
And Moscow said that 30 percent of
working-age people in Ingushetia are unemployed, far more than any other North
Caucasus republic and five times as much as the all-Russia average. Because
official figures dramatically understate this problem, the real number is
likely closer to 50 percent (doshdu.com/30-zhitelej-ingushetii-oficialno-javljajutsja-bezrabotnymi/).
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