KBR: officials and public discuss methods to counteract armed underground

The extraordinary session of the parliament of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) discussed the situation in the region in the context of increased activities of the armed underground.

Two appeals were adopted in the aftermath of the sitting: to the federal centre asking to take additional measures to stabilize the situation; and to the people of the republic with a call to consolidate in front of the terrorist threat.

The session was held in the House of the Government of the KBR. The Chairman Anuar Chechenov noted that a series of resonant murders had shocked the republic; and panic moods appeared amidst the society. In his opinion, the media should find arguments to expose the ideology of extremism; since a lot stems from ignorance.

He also said that the society has the right to ask law enforcement bodies about what prevents them from working efficiently.

Alexander Merkulov, Chairman of the Government of the Kabardino-Balkaria, suggested taking immediate measures towards ensuring security of law enforcement officers themselves. To this end, the Government is ready to allocate additional financial resources and even to revise the budget.

According to Mr Merkulov, a whole complex of measures should be adopted in the sphere of education in order to "teach young people to know the difference between right and wrong, use media resources, particularly the Internet, to agitate against terrorism and religious extremism.

Valery Khatazhukov, Chairman of the Kabardino-Balkarian Public Human Rights Centre, said that the work of law enforcement and special agencies should be coordinated with the political leadership and controlled by broad public.

According to his story, the principle of "whacking everybody without selection" is very dangerous, since it can lead to a large-scale civil war. All the law enforcers' activities should take place within the bounds of the Russian and local legislation.

According to Mr Khatazhukov, the ideology of armed jihad should be also resisted by ideological methods. "There's not even an attempt to analyze the situation in the republic; except for flat and stamped articles, there's nothing more in Kabardino-Balkarian mass media," he said.

Boris Zherukov, Rector of the Kabardino-Balkarian State Agricultural Academy (KBSACA) named after V. M. Kokov, focused on the economic component of the problem. He said that after the collapse of the USSR not a single workplace was created in the territory of Kabardino-Balkaria for the money of the federal budget.

Mr Zherukov also said that the situation was also affected by the unresolved land problem. "Land belongs to anyone but to peasants; we've driven them away from the land," he said.

However, the most threatening factor, in the scientist's opinion, is the growth of social injustice. He stressed that the power is cut off from the people.

Sergey Vasiliev, Minister of Internal Affairs of Kabardino-Balkaria, highlighted "low professionalism of agents" as the main problem of local militia.

The head of the republic Arsen Kanokov said that on February 2 he made a visit to Chegem and examined the café, where five GIBDD (traffic militia) inspectors were shot dead. "It seems that nobody had explained them the need for security measures," said Kanokov and added that no efficient work to look for and find militants is conducted. According to his story, they move freely across dwelling settlements in passenger cars with no license plates and with tinted glasses.

The head of the republic also believes that there are traitors in the militia, since "bandits receive information they need about militiamen, businessmen and citizens."

Mr Kanokov said that he would like to travel to Chechnya and Dagestan, which had passed "this way" to study their experiences of fighting religious extremism.

He also reiterated his idea, expressed on February 1, to guard dwelling settlements by teams of local residents - recruited from athletes and former soldiers with appropriate payment for their work. "It will be expensive, but lives of our people are worth more," said President Kanokov.