Selimchan Abdumuslimowitsch Jandarbijew

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Cyrillic ( Russian )
Зелимхан Абдумуслимович Яндарбиев
Transl. : Zelimchan Abdumuslimovič Jandarbiev
Transcr. : Selimchan Abdumuslimowitsch Jandarbijew
Selimchan Abdumuslimowitsch Jandarbijew (2000)

Zelimkhan yandarbiyev ( Russian Зелимхан Абдулмуслимович Яндарбиев ; Chechen Яндарбин Абдул-Муслиман кант Зелимха, * 12. September 1952 in Wydrika (area East Kazakhstan ); † 13 February 2004 in Doha , Qatar ) was a Chechen separatist leader, poet, literary critic, children's author and from 1996 to 1997 temporarily held the office of President of the so-called Chechen Republic of Ichkeria , a breakaway from Russia .

Political career

Before Jandarbiev became one of the leaders of the Chechen separatists at the time of the looming collapse of the Soviet Union , he worked as a literary scholar , poet and children's book author. In May 1990 he founded the Wainach Democratic Party and became its leader. This was the first Chechen party to demand independence. Originally the party represented both Chechens and Ingush . This ended with the breakup of the Chechen-Ingush Republic as a result of the Chechen declaration of independence.

In November 1990, Yandarbiev became the deputy of Jokhar Dudayev in the office of chairman of the newly founded Chechen National Congress, which deposed the Soviet leadership of the Chechen republic. Together with Dudayev, Yandarbiev signed an agreement with the leaders of the Ingush, which provided for the division of the Chechen-Ingush republic into two parts. In the first Chechen parliament he was chairman of the media committee from 1991 to 1993. Since 1991 he has been vice president of the breakaway republic.

War and radicalization

During the First Chechen War from 1994 to 1996, Yandarbiyev was hardly involved in military operations. He spent this time writing books on the subject of Chechnya independence. From April 1996, as a result of the assassination of the Chechen President Jokhar Dudayev, Yandarbiev held the office of president. At the end of May 1996, a Chechen delegation under his leadership met Russian President Boris Yeltsin and Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin for peace negotiations. This resulted in a ceasefire agreement that was signed on May 27, 1996.

In February 1997, Yandarbiyev lost the Chechen presidential elections, from which the experienced military Aslan Maskhadov emerged victorious. Yandarbiev only got 10 percent of the vote. In the following year there was a break between him and Maskhadov. Yandarbiev was charged with assassinating the president. In September 1998, Yandarbiev was publicly discredited by President Aslan Maskhadov, alleging that he had brought political Wahhabitism to Chechnya and was responsible for "anti-state activities" such as anti-government speeches and public gatherings, as well as the establishment of illegal armed groups. Subsequently, Jandarbiev joined the radical Islamist opposition to Maskhadov's rule.

exile

Yandarbiev was seen as the mastermind behind the attack by Shamil Basayev's Islamist Chechen guerrilla movement on the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan in 1999. This action led to the Second Chechen War , as a result of which Yandarbiev left the country. After stays in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates , he finally settled in Qatar in 2001 , where he sought the support of his fellow Muslims for the Chechen cause. This led to considerable tensions between Russia and the emirate of Qatar, which in spite of Interpol - arrest warrant refused to extradite Yandarbiyev.

Jandarbiyev's name was on a UN list of people and groups with suspected links to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda and is also said to have had contacts with the Afghan Taliban (there was a Chechen embassy in Kabul until the Taliban was overthrown in 2001 ). He is said to have been a key figure in the fundraising network for Chechen separatists in the Islamic world. He was also accused of being involved in the hostage-taking in Moscow's Dubrovka Theater in October 2002, which killed around 130 people.

assassination

On 13 February 2004 Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was in a bomb assassination on his car in Doha , capital of Qatar, was killed. Two of his bodyguards were also killed and his 12-year-old son was seriously injured. The background to the attack could not be clarified. However, suspicions fell on the Russian secret services , which denied any involvement, as well as Yandarbiyev's opponents within the Chechen separatist movement. The Foreign Ministry of the Chechen separatist government condemned Yandarbiev's assassination as a Russian terrorist attack and linked it to the assassination of Dzhokhar Dudayev .

The attack led to the enactment of Qatar's first anti-terror law, which provides for the death penalty or life imprisonment for such acts . On February 19, three Russian nationals were arrested by Qatari authorities at the villa of the Russian Embassy on suspicion of being responsible for the attack. One of those arrested had to be released because of his diplomatic status. Charges were brought against the other two, Anatoly Yablotschkow and Vasily Bogachev. According to the Russian government, the two intelligence agents had been sent to the Russian embassy in Doha to gather information about international terrorism.

The trial was closed to the public after the defendants accused one of the prosecution witnesses, Qatari Colonel Dawi or Dawdi, of torture. In the first few days after their arrest, during which they were kept out of touch, they were beaten and tortured by sleep deprivation and attacks by guard dogs. Russia justified with these accusations as well as the fact that the two Russians on embassy premises, i.e. H. extraterritorial area, his demand for the immediate release of the accused. On June 30, 2004, both were sentenced to life imprisonment. In the verdict, the judge stated that the defendants had acted on orders from Moscow.

The guilty verdict created great tension in the relationship between Qatar and Russia. On December 23, 2004, Qatar agreed to have the two Russians repatriated to their homeland, where they would serve the remainder of their sentences. In Russia, the agents were received like heroes when they arrived in January 2005, but soon disappeared from the public eye. The Russian authorities later said they were not in jail because a sentence passed in the emirate of Qatar was invalid in Russia.

The event was one of a series of murders of exiled opposition activists from Russia and the former CIS states, allegedly committed as contract killings. The alleged perpetrators were either members of the Russian secret service or criminals he had hired. This mainly affected Chechens, who might be planning to resume the armed struggle in Chechnya or to carry out attacks in Russia. B. Opposition politicians from the Central Asian republics.

literature

  • Jandarbijew, Selimchan: Zodiakan ch'a'rkaš: stichaš . Groznyj: Nochč-Gʾalgʾajn Khižni Izd. 1983. (Poetry book "The Zodiac Signs", Chechen )

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Page Global Terrorism Analysis of the Jamestown Foundation on the murder Jandarbijews (English)
  2. ↑ Urgent Action by Amnesty International on the threatened deportation of Yandarbiev from Qatar to Russia in 2003
  3. ↑ obituary in the pages of the BBC (English)
  4. ↑ Have Russian hitmen been killing with impunity in Turkey? BBC News, December 13, 2016, accessed December 14, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Jandarbijew, Selimchan Abdumuslimowitsch
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Зелимхан Абдумуслимович Яндарбиев
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chechen poet, literary scholar, children's book author and acting President of Chechnya (1996–1997)
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Wydrika ( East Kazakhstan Region )
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 2004
Place of death Doha , Qatar