HRC "Memorial": in Dagestan, armed conflicts are religion-motivated

Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya, employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", has stated in the press conference in Moscow on November 24, dated to one year anniversary of the murder of Dagestan human rights activist and oppositional politician Farid Babaev, that armed conflicts in Dagestan have religious character.

Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya has recently returned from her trip to Dagestan. According to her story, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Dagestan said in one of his interviews that 1370 persons are now specially accounted by law enforcement bodies as professing the orthodox Islam trend of Salafism.

"By itself, Salafism is probably no special threat for the society - people just live under and profess their rites as they find it correct. However, during the last decade in the Republic of Dagestan the authorities have actually equated Salafism to terrorism and banditism," said Ms Sokiryanskaya.

During her trip to Dagestan, Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya visited two Districts - Utsukul and Karabudakhent, - which are thought to be most unsafe.

By results of her trip, Ms Sokiryanskaya has stated, in particular, "Instead of capturing militants, the employees of power agencies held a retaliatory operation against religious residents of Gubden village; they killed three of them, and, probably, reported that the operation was successful." As she said, the situation in the village is extremely strained. Illegal searches and detentions are conducted in Salafites' houses. The most active of them are shadowed; all the telephones are tapped.