Soul-Searching After Kabardino-Balkaria Violence

As the dust settles from the attack on Nalchik by a so far unidentified group of militants, there is widespread public anger at the insurgents. But some are voicing concern that excessively heavy-handed government in Kabardino-Balkaria may have contributed to the desperation that spurred the rebels.

The final death toll still differs according to the various official sources. Kabardino-Balkaria's interior minister, Khachim Shogenov, has said that 91 militants were killed, a figure close to the 92 now being cited by Russian television. Russian deputy interior minister Andrei Novikov had earlier given a figure of 72 militants killed and 31 arrested. Most officials are still saying the total number of attackers involved was around 100.

Official figures for the number of police and civilians killed are more consistent, at 24 and 12 respectively. At least 100 people are in hospital.

As the violence unfolded on the morning of October 13, it was virtually impossible for journalists to get any facts out of officials. Many official press offices said they had no information to give.

In place of hard facts, some wild rumours circulated in the city – tales of many hundreds of people dead, and – in an uncomfortable reminder of last year's siege in Beslan - kindergartens and schools seized by hostage-takers.

There appeared to be little attempt to counter these stories until Russian president Vladimir Putin's representative for southern Russia, Dmitry Kozak, made an appearance to assure people that no schools had been attacked.

The authorities have characterised the multiple attacks as a coordinated, pre-planned operation. But a law-enforcement source told IWPR on condition of anonymity that this description exaggerated the true military capacity of the rebels.

For example, although they attacked buildings belonging to security forces across the city, they did not really attempt to storm them. IWPR's source says the level of coordination between the various groups was "very poor".

"This action was more like a show [of strength], an attention-seeking exercise," he concluded.

As people recover from the initial shock, they are beginning to ask how such a massed attack could have happened – and who is to blame.

There is naturally a sense of outrage at the rebels themselves.

"There should be no mercy for these people," said Madina Kardanova, an elderly housewive. "They're not Muslims at all. They should be wiped out ruthlessly."

Others, though, are asking whether repressive policies in Kabardino-Balkaria – which has the status of a republic within the Russian Federation - might have contributed to the outbreak of violence.

Last month, the republic's president Valery Kokov stepped down after 15 years in office. He had been a tough leader, but his control seemed to falter as rumours of his illness circulated over the past two years. He dealt with the growing signs of instability with heavy-handed measures that his critics warned could prove counter-productive.

This year, police in Nalchik stormed buildings occupied by Islamic radicals, and unknown attackers have attacked police and military patrols. Human rights activists say police have rounded up and maltreated people they suspect of Islamic extremism.

"Of course I blame the people who carried out this attack. But above all, it is the law-enforcement agencies who are to blame," said dentist Muhamed Kushkhov, whose views appeared to be shared by many of those interviewed by IWPR. "It's the police who, through their completely unjustified repression of some Muslims, have driven them underground.

Kushkhov suspects the gunmen may have been able to bribe their way into the city. "The police force is corrupt through and through – how else can you explain the fact that such numbers of gunmen were able to get into Nalchik and mount what came close to being a military operation?" he said.

Larisa Dorogova, a lawyer who defends Muslims who claim ill-treatment by the police, says the decision by young people to take up arms points to a sense of desperation. "Many of them no longer believe they can defend their rights by legal methods," she said.

Although the precise composition of the armed group is not known – officials say they have found the body of one of the ringleaders, an ethnic Ingush – many seem to have come from Kabardino-Balkaria itself rather than from outside.

The bodies of many of them remained lying on the streets of Nalchik until late on October 14. Relatives of the dead insurgents stood nearby but the authorities would not allow them to approach the bodies.

Luiza Orazaeva, the head of the local party branch of the Union of Right Forces, was critical of what she called "a form of psychological pressure on the Muslims".

"There's no reason to hold onto these bodies," she said.

The attack came just two weeks after Arsen Kanokov, a successful Moscow businessman, took over from Kokov as Kabardino-Balkaria's president. On the night of October 13, Kanokov appeared on local television to urge the public to remain calm.

Some observers in the republic are concerned that the attack could be used to derail Kanokov before he has really started his rule.

"After Kokov was replaced, a real opportunity arose to carry out some reforms and to calm the atmosphere within the Muslim community," said Zalim Tashuev, deputy head of the Kabardino-Balkar Public Human Rights Centre.

"The new president is trying to get rid of some of the most odious characters from the Kokov regime. But now these same forces may exploit the situation to try to convince the Russian leadership that it needs to leave the Kokov system in place as a way of restoring stability.

"Yet in fact it was the Kokov regime that got the republic into this situation."

Zaur Naloyev, a well known writer and public figure in Kabardino-Balkaria, worries that Nalchik's day of violence may leave deep fractures in society as its legacy.

"Most of the police and the gunmen who were killed are residents of our republic," he said. "Each of them has relatives, and everyone here knows each other. We need to unite around our new president and find a way out of this situation."

Valery Khatazhukov is director of the Human Rights Centre in Nalchik, and an independent journalist.