Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Russian troops raze Grozny's 'guerrilla' market |
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| Kashif |
| 11/30/00 at 18:32:06 |
| Russian troops raze Grozny's 'guerrilla' market By Patrick Cockburn in Moscow 1 December 2000 "I was near the central market in Grozny when they destroyed it," says Ahmed Abubakarov. "First I saw men in civilian clothes seal it off and let nobody in or out. Then they brought in 90 armoured cars and trucks and smashed all the market stalls and took the goods people were selling." Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin spokesman on Chechnya, admitted Russian troops sacked Grozny market last weekend. It is the main source of food and supplies in the Chechen capital. He claimed guerrillas used the market, which employed thousands of people, for hit-and-run attacks in which 18 Russian soldiers had been killed or kidnapped in November alone. Traders say the soldiers arrived on Sunday and told them to put their stocks of food and clothes in the market storerooms where they would be safe. "But when I had locked everything up they started to shoot the locks with machine guns," said Musa Akhatov. "Soldiers rushed inside and pilfered the shelves – sausages, butter and cheese." Another market worker said soldiers took off their battledress to put on stolen clothes. Events such as the destruction of Grozny market, the centre of economic activity in the city, explain the growing hostility of Chechen civilians towards the Russian forces. Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst in Moscow, says: "The critical change over the last year is the growing hatred of ordinary Chechens towards the Russian troops. You can be robbed, raped or shot at any any time – even if you are loyal to Russia." He fears Russian behaviour may provoke a general uprising, as it did in 1996 during the first Chechen war, when guerrillas recaptured Grozny. Russian forces retook the battered city on 6 February after a long siege. But they have been unable to stop guerrilla attacks in the city and villages. Small-scale ambushes, sniping and mines have exacted a daily toll on the 50,000 to 70,000 Russian force. This week Bislan Gantamirov, Gorzny's pro-Russian mayor, also claimed local Chechen police in the city, nominally under the command of the Russian Interior Ministry, were in league with the guerrillas. "They collaborate with the bandits, help them enter the city, move about and remove their wounded," he said. Mr Gantamirov is a controversial figure. Last year he was released from prison in Moscow where he was serving a sentence for siphoning off $6m (£4.2m) intended for the reconstruction of Grozny when he was mayor during the last Chechen war in 1994-96. But his view of the loyalty of eventhe nominally pro-Russian Chechen police is probably accurate. He says that in three districts "they work for the guerrillas not the Interior Ministry". Russian troops unlawfully kill up to 15 Chechens a day in Grozny, he added. As winter grips, the Russian forces in Chechnya are ill-equipped for a prolonged guerrilla campaign. Mr Felgenhauer says troops use equipment and ammunition from rapidly depleting old Soviet stocks. There is a shortage of heavy artillery shells and new rotor blades for helicopters. The helicopters are kept flying only by cannibalising others. * A Moscow human rights centre supposed to close today because of lack of funding had a last-minute reprieve with a $3m (£2.1m) grant from Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire tycoon who faces a criminal inquiry in Moscow and is now in self-imposed exile in America. Mr Berezovsky, who denies wrongdoing, said his donation to the Sakharov Museum was a protest against government authoritarianism. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Russia/2000-12/russia011200.shtml |
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