Russia says Kosovo will become model for other disputes

MOSCOW, January 10 (RIA Novosti) - Any solution for Kosovo's status will be directly used to settle territorial disputes in other regions, including in the post-Soviet area, a Russian deputy foreign minister said Thursday.

Throughout long-lasting talks aimed at finding a solution to the status of Serbia's breakaway province, Russia has backed Belgrade in opposing Kosovo's sovereignty, warning it would have a knock on effect for other secessionist areas, such as Transdnestr in Moldova, South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia and Nagorny Karabakh in Azerbaijan, so-called frozen conflicts since the 1990s.

"I can not say that the Kosovo precedent will only be reflected in territorial disputes in the post-Soviet area," Grigory Karasin said in an interview with Nezavisimy Obozrevatel Stran Sodruzhestva magazine. "Currently about 200 regions are seeking self-determination in one form or another."

The Albanian-dominated Serbian province has been a UN protectorate since the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia ended a conflict between Albanian and Serb forces in 1999.

The UN Security Council failed last year to bridge divisions over Kosovo's future. Belgrade is opposed to the region's independence, and has offered it broad autonomy within Serbia. Pristina insists on full sovereignty, however.

The UN Security Council is to discuss a report on Kosovo by UN Secretary General Pan Ki-moon on January 16.

Karasin said if decisions on a time frame on the Kosovo dispute were made that did not suit both sides then it would be like opening "Pandora's box" with "unpredictable consequences," adding it could lead to "an escalation and possible bloodshed."

Most Western states have backed the volatile area's drive for independence, and said recently that Kosovo's status would now be determined by the European Union and NATO. Russia insists that Belgrade and Pristina continue to try to reach a compromise.

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Abkhazia to Open Representation in Northern Cyprus

The Abkhaz authorities will open a representation in the unrecognized Turkish Cypriot state of Northern Cyprus, Apsnypress news agency reported on January 9.

The decision was made during the visit of Abkhaz Deputy Foreign Minister Maksim Gvinjia to Northern Cyprus on January 5-8.

Gvinjia held talks with the Turkish Cypriot authorities and the Abkhaz Diaspora. About 500 Abkhazians live there.

“We have common interests and are interested in the international recognition of our independence,” Gvinjia said.

The Abkhaz authorities also plan to establish relations with other unrecognized states, including Taiwan, Apsnypress news agency reported.

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Dress Code for Chechen Women

IWPR, Caucasus Reporting Service

Morality drive focuses on low-cut clothing and other signs of behaviour seen as un-traditional and therefore inappropriate.

By Artur Israilov in Grozny (CRS No. 426 09-Jan-08)

The authorities in Chechnya are engaged in a drive to revive and institutionalise Chechen national values, but some argue they are going about it the wrong way, with instructions issued from on high telling women what they should and shouldn’t wear.

Outside the entrance to the Youth Chamber in the Chechen capital Grozny hangs a new sign saying, “Women without headgear not allowed in the building”.

Similar signs have appeared outside many other government buildings.

The Press House got its signpost with similar wording last month, but changed it a week later for a slightly politer one saying, “Women are respectfully asked to observe national dress traditions”.

Either way, though, the rules are being strictly enforced – the security guards refuse to allow women in if they are not wearing headscarves, whether they are guests or are employed by the press ministry or one of the newspapers located in the building.

The dress code for women is just part of a wider campaign launched late last year to promote “morality and the revival of national traditions”, after pro-Moscow president Ramzan Kadyrov spoke out on the issue on a number of occasions.

On one visit to the Chechen State University in Grozny, Kadyrov appeared unhappy at the un-Chechen-like way students were dressed, not to mention the number who were bunking off classes.

Approaching a group of youngsters in the yard, he asked one of them, “Are you a Chechen?” The lad said he was, but looking at him with his unshaven face and his hands stuck in his pockets, the president muttered, “Doesn’t look like it”.

That same evening, Kadyrov summoned education officials and the rectors of all higher educational institutions for an emergency meeting at which he hectored them on their performance. He said he had been so angry with what he had seen at the university that his first instinct had been to resign from the presidency.

The education chiefs were electrified into action, and they were quickly followed by officials in charge of other state-run institutions.

Now female students are not admitted to classes at the State University unless they are wearing dresses rather than other forms of clothing, while their male counterparts have to wear ties.

The university has also become the first academic institution in Russia where smoking is formally banned everywhere on its premises, for students and staff alike.

“In civilised countries they set aside special smoking areas even in those places where it’s natural to smoke, such as restaurants, cafes and bars. But there’s such a small percentage of smokers in our institution that we decided to ban it outright,” said Professor Baudin Bakhmadov, dean of the law faculty, and a supporter of the move.

“The new rules impose discipline on the students and require them to adopt a more respectful attitude towards study. Introducing such rules is conducive to respect for the traditions of the Chechen people and for Muslim standards.”

European-style wedding dresses considered too revealing, with a décolleté or bare shoulders, are no longer on sale in Chechnya. Again, this goes back to the president’s own views. “Brides are a symbol of modesty, but recently they’ve begun wearing dresses that are too revealing,” he said. “If things carry on like this, we’ll soon have forgotten all our national traditions and our identity.”
In addition to banning things, the authorities are actively trying to promote their vision of traditional Chechen culture through the media.

Local television has begun running broadcasts telling people of the evils of drugs and tobacco, explaining the national traditions, and showing footage of students and teachers discussing Chechen ethical values.

Some government institutions have begun holding fashion shows to let their employees see the kind of clothing that does not conflict with Chechen tradition.

The culture ministry has revived the Soviet-era institution of “arts councils” made up of established authors, poets, composers and choreographers who debate the merits of new songs and other productions. Only once they have approved a new work can it be placed in the public domain. They are looking at the personal appearance of artists as well as their output.

“The nature of their profession means artists are always at the centre of attention so they have to set an example with behaviour and outward appearance that correspond to the Vainakh [Chechen] ethic,” said culture minister Dikalu Muzakayev.

Chechnya is a constituent republic within the Russian Federation and the “national traditions” campaign has provoked a storm of media criticism in the rest of the country. Various commentators have complained that Islamic law is being introduced in Chechnya or that Soviet-style censorship of the arts is coming back in, and predicting that the end result will be a new outburst of Chechen separatism founded on radical Islamic ideas.

Kadyrov is unrepentant in the face of such accusations, telling his critics, “Shouldn’t one feel sorry for parents who have devoted years and their last penny to bringing up their children and giving them then best they can, only to see them become smokers, alcoholics and drug addicts, of no use to them or to society at large? That’s what we’re fighting against,” he said. “I’ve personally never touched a cigarette or a drop of alcohol.”

Inside Chechnya, many older women and plenty of men, too, approve of stricter rules of behaviour.

Aset Ibragimova, a 63-year-old resident of Grozny, “I remember how young people were in past decades, the girls always neatly dressed and behaving in the manner prescribed by tradition, while it was considered shameful for boys to be ignorant of the traditions. Now that’s all being eroded.”

However, many others are left feeling uncomfortable at the somewhat high-handed methods being used to impose these standards, and at the idea that morality can be reduced to what people wear.

“My behaviour hardly depends on whether I wear a headscarf or not,” said Rumisa, a 22-year-old female student.

“There does need to be a campaign for spiritual and ethical values in public life – that’s great,” added Grozny resident Luiza Isaeva. “But it shouldn’t be done by the methods they are now employing. There needs to be a proper programme, instead of the situation we have now where everyone is making it up as they go along.”

Many believe that the way women dress should be a matter for themselves and their families, and that to try to modify it is an unwarranted intrusion.

“Attempts by outsiders to tell women how to behave or what to wear amounts to interference in family matters, in other words it is in violation of traditional Chechen social relationships,” said historian Islam Dadayev.

Political scientist Edilbek Khasmagomadov agrees it is wrong to judge moral standards by the way people dress. Nor does he think the campaign will have much success. “This propaganda would make sense if Chechnya were isolated from outside information, but we have all the TV channels and internet access, so it’s hardly going to work”.

Instead of instructions, he argues,“we need moral authorities whom young people might want to emulate”.

A member of Chechnya’s official Muslim establishment added that clerics, who have been recruited to help instil traditional values, must approach the issue with “painstaking finesse”.

“A sudden assault is not going to resolve the problem of moral education for young people,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abubakar Sambiev, a Grozny resident, argued that Kadyrov’s government should be devoting its energies to more pressing matters.

“Instead of fighting corruption, it’s a lot easier to pretend to be doing something by campaigning for morality,” he said.

Artur Israilov is an independent journalist in Chechnya.

• Dress Code for Chechen Women - IWPR Caucasus

Lawmaker unharmed in car bomb attack in North Caucasus

MAKHACHKALA, January 9 (RIA Novosti) - A local lawmaker escaped uninjured when his car exploded in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan, a spokesman for the regional prosecutor's office said.

An SUV carrying Gazi Gaziyev, deputy of Daghestan's People Assembly and regional railways chief, exploded at 8.20 a.m. Moscow time (5.20 a.m. GMT) in the center of the capital, Makhachkala.

According to unconfirmed reports, the blast injured two passersby.

The republic's emergencies service said earlier both Gaziyev and his driver had been wounded and taken to hospital.

The prosecutor's office has opened an attempted murder investigation.

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Clashes mark New Year in Dagestan

Press TV

Russian Police have killed two rebels in an operation against a group of gunmen in southern republic of Dagestan, officials say.

A special operation against insurgents has been underway on Tuesday, in the region's Derbent district, an area named after Dagestan's second city, about 300 km south of the capital, Makhachkala, on the Caspian Sea coast.

'Rebels opened gunfire in the morning. The exchange of fire has now ended,' Russian news agency Interfax quoted a local law enforcement source as saying.

The killings marked the first violence of the year in the troubled Dagestan Republic.

Shootouts between soldiers and rebels occur more often in Makhachkala and near the border with Chechnya to the west.
Two wars in Chechnya since 1994 have scarred the entire north Caucasus region and violence has spilt over its neighbors Dagestan and Ingushetia.

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A Potemkin Mosque for Sochi’s Olympic Village?

Paul Goble, Window on Eurasia

Baku, January 8 – Russian officials have told the leaders of the 20,000-strong Muslim community in Sochi that they will finally be allowed to open a mosque – but only for the period during which the 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be held in that North Caucasus city.

They will be allowed to set up a mosque just before the games open so that Muslim athletes will be able to say prayers and Western news agencies will be able to report on that fact, but then they will have to close it down immediately after the Olympic flame is extinguished.

Tavza Ramazanova, the head of the local Muslim community, told Islam.ru last week that this announcement was especially bitter because the Sochi Olympics had seemed to offer a breakthrough moment for a community that has had to make do without a mosque for many years
(http://www.islam.ru/pressclub/islamofobia/olimicsochi/).

The Sochi Muslim community has sought permission to open a mosque since the end of Soviet times, she said. Its members have routinely appealed to local leaders and written to Tatarstan President Mintimir Shaimiyev, to Union of Muftis of Russia (SMR) head Ravil’ Gainutdin, and even to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

But so far they have not been able to overcome the opposition of local officials, Ramazanova said. The latter have done everything they can to efface the Muslim history of the town, she continued, and former Governor Nikolai Kondratenko frequently said in public that the city and region would never give land to the followers of Islam.

More recently, Ramazanova said, Shaimiyev had asked the Krasnodar’s current governor Aleksandr Tkachev to intervene, and the latter had responded that Sochi’s Muslims should appeal to the leadership not of the region in which Sochi is located but to that of Adygeia.

What possible role could the Adygei play in Krasnodar kray where Sochi is, Ramazanova asked rhetorically. They have their own republic, and unlike the Muslims of Sochi who do not even have land for a mosque or a cemetery, they have long had their own mosque and other Muslim facilities.

The Olympics seemed to provide just the opening that Sochi’s Muslims had needed. On the one hand, there would be an enormous number of Muslim athletes and press attention to how they were treated. And on the other, Dubai and other Arab countries have announced plans to invest a billion dollars in helping the city prepare.

What has been both surprising and disappointing, the Muslim leader said, is that Muslim businessmen from Dubai have shown no interest in doing anything about the absence of a mosque in Sochi. And she suggested that this absence of interest helps to explain why Russian officials are continuing to behave as they are.

In many ways, the situation with regard to Sochi’s Muslims may even be deteriorating in advance of the Olympics, Ramazanova suggested. “Sochi was a normal city in which all lived comfortably until the head of the administration wanted to make the city ‘only for Russians’ so that there would not be any trace of Islam.”

She reported that city architect Gusev recently said to her: “’Tavza-khanum, you know that this is Orthodox land?’” a statement that officials have tried to make good by erecting churches and public crosses but that, she continued, is very much at odds with history.

Not only has Sochi had a Muslim population for centuries, indeed for longer than there have been Russians there, it was the site of the deportation of more than a million Circassians to the Ottoman Empire 140 years ago, something neither the Circassians abroad nor many of their co-ethnics in Sochi and the North Caucasus have ever forgotten.

Ramazanova told Islam.ru that she would continue the struggle she has waged for the last 13 years to open a mosque in Sochi. And when asked why she rather than a man was leading the community, she replied that it seems to be a Muslim woman can get away with more than a Muslim man whom many Russians will assume is a terrorist.

• Window on Eurasia: A Potemkin Mosque for Sochi’s Olympic Village?

Chechen Refugees Flee West After Fall of Schengen Borders

Deutsche Welle | 04.01.2008

Police have closed up their border checkpoints
and started conducting patrols

Police say crime hasn't increased since Europe's visa-free area was expanded on Dec. 21, but illegal immigration has peaked. Many of those caught heading for Germany are Chechens with asylum status in Poland.

Concerns that bands of criminals from eastern Europe would stream into Germany after its eastern borders were lifted last month have proved unfounded.

Burglaries, thefts and traffic offences have been about the same since Dec. 21 as they were prior to the expansion to the visa-free Schengen zone, said police.

The stable crime rate likely has to do with increased police presence, said Brandenburg state police spokesman Peter Salender.

"It's like the 2006 soccer World Cup when there were hardly any cases of theft or assault simply because there were so many police around," he said.

While border checks have been removed, police are now conducting mobile patrols in the border regions as part of a new strategy.

Immigrants overwhelmingly from Chechnya

The effective removal of passport checks on Germany's eastern border has led to more people attempting to enter Germany illegally. A disproportionate number of those caught come from the war-torn Russian province of Chechnya and hold asylum papers that are valid in Poland but not in the rest of the Schengen area.

Nine countries joined the Schengen area of Dec. 21, 2007

"The majority of the cases -- 99 percent -- involve Russian nationals from Chechnya," Jacek Sonta from the Polish border guard told DW-WORLD.DE.

On Dec. 25, police stopped 18 Chechens traveling in Polish taxis on the motorway connecting Berlin with Stettin in Poland. They were deported to Poland, where they had legal residency. Another 10 would-be immigrants from Chechnya were apprehended on the same highway later in the week.

Dozens more have been caught in trains between Warsaw and Berlin and between the southern Polish region of Silesia and Vienna, Austria.

"Illegal immigration is a business that is almost entirely run by organized crime," Josef Scheuring, chairman of the GdP police union, told the Associated Press. His organization had protested lifting border controls. "The transit gangs are only beginning to feel out the possibilities."

Asylum status only valid in Poland

Currently, more than 7,000 Chechens have leave to remain in Poland and 1,782 received legal asylum status in 2007, according to a report by DPA news agency.

Formerly part of the Soviet Union, Chechnya declared independence in 1991. The Caucasian republic was torn apart by two wars with Russia in the 1990s, causing many Chechens to flee westward.

Sonta said that the Polish parliament, the Sejm, is currently redrafting its asylum and immigration laws to bring them in alignment with European Union requirements.

Poland joined the EU in 2004. It became part of the Schengen area on Dec. 21 along with seven other eastern European countries, bringing total membership to 24 states. The agreement abolishes border checks and allows for free movement between member states.

• Chechen Refugees Flee West After Fall of Schengen Borders | Deutsche Welle | 04.01.2008