Military Assistance Hinders Chechen Police
// Says the local Interior Ministry
Fighting Corruption
The Chechen Interior Ministry presented its account of 2005 yesterday. According to the official data, presented by Chechen Deputy Interior Minister Akhmed Dakaev, the number of serious crimes, including terrorist acts, decreased, and the rate of their solution increased. Chechen authorities point to this as evidence that peaceful life is returning and the local police can take credit for the improvement and keep the peace without outside reinforcement. Federal officials are unconvinced so far, however.
The Interior Ministry said that about 700 rebels remain in the republic and, Dakaev said, of course that is thanks to the services of Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov. The police are now able to fight the rebels everywhere in the republic, and investigations of robbery, terrorism and kidnapping are meeting with increasing success – almost three-quarters of crimes are solved and more than half of serious crimes. One-third fewer people were kidnapped in 2005 than in the previous year. The deputy minister did not provide specific crime figures, speaking only proportionally.
Dakaev concluded by saying that Chechen security forces are capable of working independently and the presence of troops only hinders the matter.” Chechen President Alu Alkhanov interjected that the number of troops is being reduced but “when, how and how much it is reduced will be decided by the operations center and the Interior Ministry of Russia.”
Commander of the temporary operational group of divisions and subdivisions of the Russian Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus Lieut. Gen. Oleg Khotin was less sure of the situation. “We'll see how it comes together at least in the first half year and then, based on that, a decision will be made [on troop withdrawal],” he said.
“Of course, the local police have been more active lately,” commented Imran Vagapov, federal inspector on the staff of the presidential representative for the Southern Federal District, “but it is too early to talk of high professionalism.”
The problem of Chechen crime is not a purely Chechen problem, since much of it has spread throughout the Caucasus, and especially to neighboring Dagestan, where the number of terrorist acts has increased from nine in 2004 to 46 in 2005.
by
Musa Muradov
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 18, 2006
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