Inside Dagestan's Counter-Terror Sweep
IWPR reporter visits village which the security forces say was a militant stronghold.
Inside Dagestan's Counter-Terror Sweep
IWPR reporter visits village which the security forces say was a militant stronghold.
The long road to Gimri is long and dotted with security checks. As you enter the mountains, the armoured vehicles begin to get more frequent.
On January 25, the Dagestani authorities arranged a trip for journalists to the mountainous village of Gimri, birthplace of 19th century warrior leader Imam Shamil and – in the last six weeks – the scene of clashes between security forces and Islamic militants.
Reporters travelling to the Untsukul region, where Gimri is located, were given a police escort on the grounds that the situation was still dangerous. There are checkpoints along the only road leading to Gimri and it is impossible to travel there without being accompanied or obtaining special permission.
The whole region was sealed off in December after the murder of a Dagestani parliamentary deputy, and more than 3,000 security personnel were sent to re-establish government control in the area. (See CRS 426, “ Troops Hunt Rebels in Dagestan Mountains.”)
After we passed the town of Buinaksk, not far from the Dagestani capital Makhachkala, the checks began as we entered the zone of what is being described as a counter-terrorism operation. When we reached the Gimri tunnel that goes through the mountains, we were checked again, this time not by normal police but by interior ministry troops.
Here for the first time we saw armoured vehicles and then, on emerging from the five-kilometre-long tunnel, a howitzer standing at another road-block. On a shelter made of concrete slabs the Russian soldiers had put up an improvised wooden cross, below which they had written the misspelt German phrase“Got mit uns” – “God be with us”.
As we approached Gimri, we saw a lot of posters promoting a different kind of religion. Most were written in Arabic, but one stood out in Russian saying “He who thinks of the consequences is a coward”. This was the phrase inscribed on the dagger of the village’s most famous son, Imam Shamil.
Outside the village, we were invited into a tent camp which serves as the headquarters of the operation. Dagestan’s deputy interior minister Abdulatip Abdulatipov leads the operation from this encampment and lives alongside his officers.
A month after the operation began on December 16, the security forces appear to be in control of the area. A few days before our visit, a group of seven militants led by one Magomed Suleimanov gave themselves up. They were placed under travel restrictions and some of them are being investigated, but they continue to reside in the village.
“We found a lot of bunkers, cellars and false walls in the village. As a rule, they were in the houses of people who are now hiding from our investigations,” said Abdulatipov.
“It’s hard to say how many people are still in hiding. But we are still searching for the main group of Ibragim Gajidadayev which consists of about ten or 12 people. We are working with their relatives to let those who are hiding know that they have a chance to surrender.”
Security officials were keen to stress that, after a period when life in the village was disrupted by the operation, normal life had resumed and the schools and shops were working properly.
Gimri is a very devout Muslim village. Outside the first house in the village, we saw what we were assured was the only dog in the village, living in a kennel. Unlike the rest of Dagestan, where dogs are regularly kept as pets, here they are regarded as unclean animals.
The security forces say the village was a major base for the militants where they stockpiled arms and set up a printing-press forging Russian banknotes.
“In one of the houses, our officers found what looked like the door of a safe, but was in fact the door to a saferoom,” Dagestani interior minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov told journalists. “Behind this door was a secret room containing forged banknotes and weapons.”
Villager Zakarya Mirzayev told us that the village was now quiet, although there were still tight security controls.
“When it all began, my 18-year-old son was taken to the [security forces’] headquarters, where they took his fingerprints, photographed him, checked him on their computer and then let him go immediately,” he said.
Kazimbek Akhmedov, head of the regional municipality, said that most of the population had welcomed the security operation because after months of unrest, the murder of parliamentary deputy Gazimagomed Magomedov had been “the last straw”.
Ramazan Gazimagomedov, the imam of Untsukul region, said he had been away on the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca when the operation began.
“When I came home, I did not recognise the region,” he said. “People said it was very hard to begin with. But I would say that we’d been waiting for this for a long time. As imam, I was always against what was happening in this village. The people now hiding from the police used to conceal their agenda behind religious slogans.”
Gaji Gajidadayev is the uncle of Ibragim Gajidadayev, the man accused of the murder of the parliamentary deputy. The suspect is still at large, either somewhere in the village or in the forests around it.
His uncle said a lot of innocent people had suffered because of his actions.
“My nephew wasn’t a bad man,” he said. “He had a higher education, he was twice European champion in wushu san da [a martial art]. Then his life broke down somehow. He grew up in a religious family.”
He was vitriolic about the influence of radical Islamic ideas, saying “I will say it so that every Dagestani family understands – these people are turned into zombies, they are led astray.”
Gajidadayev said his house had been searched 12 times but he more sorry for his neighbours.
“When I see my neighbour enduring this kind of search, too, only because he is my neighbour, it’s doubly hard for me,” he said. “They blame me and my nephews for everything. All the other villages in the region are blaming the people of Gimri because the roads are blocked and there are checkpoints everywhere.”
Gajidadayev used the presence of the press to make an appeal to his nephew, but also called on the authorities to observe the law.
He cited the example of a neighbour who had served eight years in jail as a younger man, but had returned home and was now married with children. “So I call on you to come back while it’s not too late and face the law,” he said. “I also want to call on the law-enforcement agencies and tell them that nothing should be higher than the law.”
Revaz Alikhanov is a journalist with Novoe Delo newspaper in Dagestan.
On January 25, the Dagestani authorities arranged a trip for journalists to the mountainous village of Gimri, birthplace of 19th century warrior leader Imam Shamil and – in the last six weeks – the scene of clashes between security forces and Islamic militants.
Reporters travelling to the Untsukul region, where Gimri is located, were given a police escort on the grounds that the situation was still dangerous. There are checkpoints along the only road leading to Gimri and it is impossible to travel there without being accompanied or obtaining special permission.
The whole region was sealed off in December after the murder of a Dagestani parliamentary deputy, and more than 3,000 security personnel were sent to re-establish government control in the area. (See CRS 426, “ Troops Hunt Rebels in Dagestan Mountains.”)
After we passed the town of Buinaksk, not far from the Dagestani capital Makhachkala, the checks began as we entered the zone of what is being described as a counter-terrorism operation. When we reached the Gimri tunnel that goes through the mountains, we were checked again, this time not by normal police but by interior ministry troops.
Here for the first time we saw armoured vehicles and then, on emerging from the five-kilometre-long tunnel, a howitzer standing at another road-block. On a shelter made of concrete slabs the Russian soldiers had put up an improvised wooden cross, below which they had written the misspelt German phrase“Got mit uns” – “God be with us”.
As we approached Gimri, we saw a lot of posters promoting a different kind of religion. Most were written in Arabic, but one stood out in Russian saying “He who thinks of the consequences is a coward”. This was the phrase inscribed on the dagger of the village’s most famous son, Imam Shamil.
Outside the village, we were invited into a tent camp which serves as the headquarters of the operation. Dagestan’s deputy interior minister Abdulatip Abdulatipov leads the operation from this encampment and lives alongside his officers.
A month after the operation began on December 16, the security forces appear to be in control of the area. A few days before our visit, a group of seven militants led by one Magomed Suleimanov gave themselves up. They were placed under travel restrictions and some of them are being investigated, but they continue to reside in the village.
“We found a lot of bunkers, cellars and false walls in the village. As a rule, they were in the houses of people who are now hiding from our investigations,” said Abdulatipov.
“It’s hard to say how many people are still in hiding. But we are still searching for the main group of Ibragim Gajidadayev which consists of about ten or 12 people. We are working with their relatives to let those who are hiding know that they have a chance to surrender.”
Security officials were keen to stress that, after a period when life in the village was disrupted by the operation, normal life had resumed and the schools and shops were working properly.
Gimri is a very devout Muslim village. Outside the first house in the village, we saw what we were assured was the only dog in the village, living in a kennel. Unlike the rest of Dagestan, where dogs are regularly kept as pets, here they are regarded as unclean animals.
The security forces say the village was a major base for the militants where they stockpiled arms and set up a printing-press forging Russian banknotes.
“In one of the houses, our officers found what looked like the door of a safe, but was in fact the door to a saferoom,” Dagestani interior minister Adilgerei Magomedtagirov told journalists. “Behind this door was a secret room containing forged banknotes and weapons.”
Villager Zakarya Mirzayev told us that the village was now quiet, although there were still tight security controls.
“When it all began, my 18-year-old son was taken to the [security forces’] headquarters, where they took his fingerprints, photographed him, checked him on their computer and then let him go immediately,” he said.
Kazimbek Akhmedov, head of the regional municipality, said that most of the population had welcomed the security operation because after months of unrest, the murder of parliamentary deputy Gazimagomed Magomedov had been “the last straw”.
Ramazan Gazimagomedov, the imam of Untsukul region, said he had been away on the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca when the operation began.
“When I came home, I did not recognise the region,” he said. “People said it was very hard to begin with. But I would say that we’d been waiting for this for a long time. As imam, I was always against what was happening in this village. The people now hiding from the police used to conceal their agenda behind religious slogans.”
Gaji Gajidadayev is the uncle of Ibragim Gajidadayev, the man accused of the murder of the parliamentary deputy. The suspect is still at large, either somewhere in the village or in the forests around it.
His uncle said a lot of innocent people had suffered because of his actions.
“My nephew wasn’t a bad man,” he said. “He had a higher education, he was twice European champion in wushu san da [a martial art]. Then his life broke down somehow. He grew up in a religious family.”
He was vitriolic about the influence of radical Islamic ideas, saying “I will say it so that every Dagestani family understands – these people are turned into zombies, they are led astray.”
Gajidadayev said his house had been searched 12 times but he more sorry for his neighbours.
“When I see my neighbour enduring this kind of search, too, only because he is my neighbour, it’s doubly hard for me,” he said. “They blame me and my nephews for everything. All the other villages in the region are blaming the people of Gimri because the roads are blocked and there are checkpoints everywhere.”
Gajidadayev used the presence of the press to make an appeal to his nephew, but also called on the authorities to observe the law.
He cited the example of a neighbour who had served eight years in jail as a younger man, but had returned home and was now married with children. “So I call on you to come back while it’s not too late and face the law,” he said. “I also want to call on the law-enforcement agencies and tell them that nothing should be higher than the law.”
Revaz Alikhanov is a journalist with Novoe Delo newspaper in Dagestan.
