Unfortunately, our gloomy prognosis continues to hold true. And do believe that we are not gloating about this. We would not like to have to say every time, “We told you so”. What place does gloating have when the lives of innocent victims are at stake, whoever they may be or wherever they live?

Who but the peaceful citizens of Chechnya have had to endure the terror of Russian forces – open to them; veiled to the rest of the world – for the last eleven years?

Where have mothers shed so many tears that a sea could be formed with them?

How should people behave: the ones who every hour kill, torture, kidnap, trade people as cattle, and abuse?

How is it possible to justify the Russian justice’s acquittal of Ulman, Kalaganovsky, Voevodin, Prelevsky, Arakcheev, Khudyakov, and many others?

Just think of the following: upper lieutenant Evgeny Hudyakov and second lieutenant Sergei Arakcheev were applauded in the courtroom when they were acquitted for the second time. Just think that they buried three innocent Chechens. Or the so-called Ulman Case: six bodies on his conscience, one of whom was a pregnant woman. That makes seven. They were killed twice, as the bodies were then burned.

Everything that is happening in Chechnya is a result of the tacit consent of the overwhelming majority of Russians: their non-interference, and calm only in the hope that the same does not befall them.

Or if each of the leaders of the North Caucasus regions would say that the war in Chechnya is unacceptable, that it complicates the situation in each of these republics, then we would not be confronted with tragedies of the Beslan type. The only leader with the courage to publicly declare his opposition to the war while in office was Ruslan Aushev, the first president of Ingushetia.

We repeatedly publicly denounce all forms of terrorism. We emphasise that terror will not end until the Russian forces’ terror is ended, until war in Chechnya is ended, until the Russian authorities agree with the Resistance on talks. This is exactly what Chechen Ichkeria President Aslan Maskhadov repeatedly called for, who in return for his sincere aspirations was cruelly and deceitfully killed by Russian special forces.

The events in Kabardino-Balkaria of 13 October 2005 are an echo of the ongoing war in Chechnya, or in Ingushetia (Nazran), in North Ossetia (Beslan), Dagestan (daily bombings and terrorism), Moscow (Nord-Ost theatre), Budyonnovsk (seizure of hospital), Volgodonsk (explosions in apartment blocks). The list, most sadly, will be added to.

The regional civic movement Chechen Committee of National Salvation again and again urges the Russian and international community to undertake all efforts to end the war in Chechnya, and not to remain silent observers to how a whole people is being destroyed by violence and lies: lies which portray this long-suffering people as murderers and terrorists. The diagnosis is incorrect: thus is the treatment also obviously wrong.

The CCNS offers its sincere condolences to the families of the dead and injured in this tragedy.

Ruslan Badalov, Chairman CCNS
14 October 2005, Nazran Ingushetia