Former leaders of Chechnya admit their ideology was wrong
RIA-Novosti
Groznyy, 30 May: Former leaders of so-called Ichkeria have gathered in Groznyy - for the first time ever- to give a negative assessment of the events that took place in Chechnya in the 1990s, admitting that the ideology they promoted, was wrong. They said this speaking live in an overnight programme of the republic's (State) TV (and radio) company Groznyy, which broadcasts in many world countries via satellite.
The programme in which Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as former clerical leaders and leaders of law enforcement agencies of Ichkeria took part, lasted for more than four hours and ended in the early hours of the morning, a RIA correspondent reports.
Former mufti of Ichkeria Bay-Ali Tevsiyev who declared gazavat (a holy war prescribed by the Koran and declared by Muslims on infidels) in the republic at the end of 1999, said that this was a false step and there was no ground to declare a holy war. Recently Tevsiyev had come back from Austria where he had been living for the past years.
"There was no ground for declaring gazavat in late 1999 but the then president, Aslan Maskhadov, under false pretences forced us to take this decision, saying: 'This is a formality and after gazavat has been declared, Russia will sit down to the negotiating table'. However, a bloody war followed, after which I refused to be a mufti and left the republic," Tevsiyev said.
"This was not gazavat, this was the Ichkerian leadership letting down their own people for their personal advantage," Tevsiyev added.
He said he had in fact become a mufti illegally. "By his decree Maskhadov relieved Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov, who was a mufti at that time, of his duties, although he had no right to do so, as a clerical leader is elected or removed by a decision of the clergy assembly - medzhlis. At that time leading religious figures did not recognize Maskhadov's decree and considered Kadyrov their leader," Tevsiyev said.
Maskhadov demanded that Tevsiyev issue a fatwa (religious legal opinion), which allows for Chechens working for state structures to be killed. "I told him that I would never agree to this, to which he replied that he 'would find another mufti who would do as he said,'" Tevsiyev said.
Former Ichkerian Interior Minister Kazbek Makhashev, who had come back to Chechnya from abroad, said that "as a matter of fact, legal chaos reigned in Chechnya before the war with Russia, power was seized by armed gangs, the then president, Aslan Maskhadov, did not influence the situation".
"It was not even clear what kind of republic we were creating. In accordance with the constitution Ichkeria was a secular republic, but in practice a Shari'ah ((Islamic law) form of government was being imposed," Makhashev said.
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