The war in Chechnya is continuing

The Russian politicians and mass media are lying when they say that the war in Chechnya is over. The situation is just becoming worse and worse all the time, says Isa Dzjabrailov, deputy Minister of Information in the Chechen exile government.
Vladimir Putin attended the opening ceremonies of the Russian parliament in Chechnya, in an attempt to show that the situation in the war-torn republic is getting stabilized. But for Isa Dzjabrailov and the other members of the rebel exile government this new parliament does not have any kind of legacy.
– This spectacle they call an election is just a farce. It has nothing to do with the Chechen people, it is just a part of Russian propaganda in order to legitimate the occupation, he says scornfully.
According to Dzjabrailov, many sources tell that the turnout percentage of voting was between 5 and 7 percent, very far from 57 percent that the electoral officials announced.
A former civil servant
An interview with Dzjabrailov is an intensive experience. His conviction regarding the justification of the exile government and the Chechen fight for freedom is complete.
Before the war he worked as a civil servant in the Chechen Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After that he has supported the fight for independence. In year 2003 he was captured by the Russian security forces, or he supposes that he was a prisoner of them. He was kept as hostage in a basement until his relatives and friends gathered money enough to buy his freedom.
– When I came out from Chechnya I could hardly walk myself, I was that weak and sick.
After a period of medical treatment outside Chechnya, he is careful not to tell where, he came to Sweden and applied for asylum. In September this year he was appointed deputy Minister of Information in the exile government.
The rest of his family is spread around different countries, only his elderly parents are still living in Chechnya.
– I can’t return. It was impossible also earlier, but now as a Minister it’s totally impossible. I would be tortured and murdered within half an hour.
A companion in the exile government is Shamil Basajev, the most wanted man in Russia, who has taken responsibility for the hostage drama in Beslan, where more than 300 people, mostly children, were killed. The rebel leader has also been behind other terror activities, such as the bombs that blew up two airplanes in August 2004 and the hostage drama in a Moscow theatre in October 2002. He was also behind the explosion in a stadium in Groznyi in May 2004, where one of the numerous killed persons was the Russian supported president Ahmad Kadyrov.
In September this year Basajev was appointed deputy Prime Minister of the exile government and he has command over the armed forces. For Dzjabrailov it’s completely clear that the exile government has armed forces and their duty is to fight against the Russian forces.
– Violence is inevitable. The war has now continued already eleven years, but we are only fighting against the Russian army, against armed troupes. We have nothing against the Russian people.
But at the same time as he says that the Chechens by no means are any terrorists, he defends Basajev and his actions, although Basajev himself says he is a terrorist.
According to Dzjabrailov, Basajev can’t be regarded as responsible for Beslan before he has been convicted by an international court.
– Our president and government have said that we approve that Basajev is brought to trial, but we have one condition. In that case also the man – Vladimir Putin – who has killed 250.000 people shall be brought to court, Dzjabrailov says and hits his fist in the table.
Believes in his country
According to Dzjabrailov only a minor part of the Chechens accepts the Russian administration, as he calls them.
– This puppet government does not make any decisions of their own; the Russians are in charge of all threads and wires. That government has no respect within Chechnya, because people who sell their country and their people enjoy no respect.
Dzjabrailov has no doubts at all that Chechnya one day will become an independent country. But he dares not tell when it will happen.
– Only God decides that. But it won’t take so long time before it happens. Soon the intellectual and material resources of Russia have come to an end.