Hoping to Avoid a Clash, Ingush Union of Teips Asks for Permission to Take Part in February 23 Memorial Meeting

Paul Goble

            Staunton, February 12 – In hopes of avoiding any clash with the authorities, the Union of Teips has asked Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov for permission to take part in the February 23 commemoration of the deportation of the Ingush. The absence of such permission last year led to the clashes that resulted in arrests that are still working their way through the legal system.

            The approach of the Council, despite all the pressure officials have put on it over the last year, typifies that of civil society in Ingushetia. The teips and all other organizations have consistently sought to stay with the law; the problems have arisen because the authorities haven’t (fortanga.org/2020/02/sovet-tejpov-prosit-dat-im-vozmozhnost-vystupit-na-mitinge-23-fevralya/).

            (In two additional confirmations of this, Ruslan Dzeytov, one of those arrested for taking part in the March 2019 protests, testified today that he did not use violence against the police as prosecutors charge but that the police used it against others (fortanga.org/2020/02/5611/  and kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/345829/); and detainee Dzhokhar Aliyev testified that he was not even a participant in the protests but was rounded by the police (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/345834/).

            Meanwhile, the Ingush police continue their raids. In one, they discovered that a 72-year-old man had an unregistered arms horde that the powers that be may try to play up to suggest that they are facing the potential of violence and thus are justified in their tough approach (capost.media/news/pravonarusheniya/v-ingushetii-pensioner-khranil-doma-arsenal-boepripasov/).

            There were three other developments today worthy of note.  First, Fortanga says that its sources now are indicating that the authorities have decided to use “any means” in order to find and detain Akhmed Pogorov, the former Ingush minister who has been a thorn in their side for a year because of his postings online (fortanga.org/2020/02/najti-i-zaderzhat-silovikam-prikazano-dostavit-pogorova/).

           

            Second, lawyers for Ingush detainee Akhmed Barakhoyev say that his health has deteriorated while in jail but that “as a Caucasus man,” he won’t complain about that, forcing others to intervene as his behalf (fortanga.org/2020/02/advokaty-podali-zhaloby-na-narushenie-prav-barahoeva/).

            And third, the Permanent Representation of Ingushetia in Moscow, the republic’s de facto “embassy” there, announced that a new Ingush plenipotentiary for Lipetsk Oblast has been appointed. He is Bei-Ali Bekbotov, who has been a resident of that region since 1988 (zamanho.com/?p=16535).