Ingushetia: 19 feudists reconciled within five months

During the time in power of President Yunus-Bek Evkurov, and he took the office in the end of October 2008, the special reconciliation commission managed to reconcile 19 feudists (blood feud avengers), as Ruslan Neiriev, office manager of the Spiritual Centre of Ingush Moslems, said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

"A special reconciliation commission set up in our Centre is in charge of settling relations among the clans in the state of blood feud," Mr Neiriev has explained. "It has four permanent employees who also attract authoritative people and spiritual leaders in localities."

"We talk with feudists and try to convince them that in the name of Allah they should forgive the blood of their relatives or other insults," said Ruslan Neiriev. "When the arrangement is reached, the feudists, accompanied by clergy and elders, go to be reconciled to the house of the family, with which they had blood feud. There, they embrace each other and publicly forgive the insults."

According to the office manager, during several latest months the overall efficiency of the commission has noticeably improved.

"Our Centre deals with reconciliation since 1993," said Ruslan Neiriev. "Earlier, we used to reconcile 5-6 feudists per year at the most. The figure now is 19 for the last five months."

According to his story, President Yunus-Bek Evkurov had personally asked to improve the commission's efficiency. In his interview to the "Caucasian Knot", President also said that struggle against the blood feud is actively conducted in the republic.

The Centre spokesman has added that there were no family members of the deceased Magomed Evloev, owner of the oppositional website "Ingushetia.Ru", or the people involved in his death, among the feudists reconciled recently.