Ingush IDPs must Have a Voice in Resolution of Prigorodny Conflict, Activists Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, September 18 – An attempt by Ingush Republic and North Caucasus Federal District officials to show their concern for the problems of the Ingush IDPS who remain 27 years after the deadly clashes between North Ossetia and Ingushetia over the Prigorodny District has backfired.

            Yesterday’s meeting (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/09/ingush-supreme-court-liquidates.html) was supposed to allow Ingush IDPs to share their grievances with these officials, but there were too many of the IDPs – activists estimated there were 500 – and too few officials ready to give too little time to allow that to happen.

            One of those waiting, Anzhela Matiyeva, came up with a joint declaration that was quickly signed by 140 other IDPs demanding that Moscow stop backing North Ossetia and that it give the Ingush people generally and the IDPs in particular a decisive vote in resolving the border dispute (fortanga.org/2019/09/odin-den-lichnogo-priema-dlya-rassmotreniya-ingushskoj-problemy-obshhenatsionalnogo-masshtaba/).

            As a result, a new group, at least virtual and probably real as well, has emerged, one that will press Magas and Moscow on an issue about which no real progress has been made since 1992 and one whose signal failure to be resolved is certain to feed into new demonstrations against the September 2018 deal in which Yunus-Bek Yevkurov gave away 26,000 hectares of Ingush land to Chechnya.

            Meanwhile, Fortanga commentator Elberd Sagov says that the authorities are trying to break the will of the Ingush opposition by moving its arrested leaders from place to place without informing lawyers or family members (fortanga.org/2019/09/postoyannaya-smena-izolyatorov-metod-psihologicheskogo-davleniya-na-politzaklyuchennyh/).

            The analyst suggested that protesters in other regions should pay attention to this “innovation” in punishment because what the powers that be are now doing in Ingushetia is likely to be a model for what they will do elsewhere when they believe the need has arisen.

            And in another development that may be part of a new trend, prosecutors reduced charges against Adam Badiyev from using force against the authorities to using force against other citizens. The latter charge carries a far lighter sentence, and he may thus get out of detention far sooner than if the earlier indictment had stood (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/340308/).