Ingushetian Opposition Leaders Arrested

Ingushetian Deputy Interior Minister Vadim Selivanov announced on February 14 that one of the main organizers of the abortive January 26 opposition demonstration in Nazran, Maksharip Aushev, had been detained and taken along with his brother-in-law Magomed Yevloev, who was detained earlier, to a detention center in Nalchik, the capital of neighboring Kabardino-Balkaria. Kavkazky Uzel reported on February 19 that representatives of Ingushetia’s opposition are demanding the release of all those detained on suspicion of organizing and participating in the January 26 demonstration and have threatened to hold a new protest if they remain in custody (Chechnya Weekly, February 14 and January 31).

Magomed Mutsolgov, who heads the Ingush human rights NGO “Mashr,” recently traveled to several European countries to brief officials and human rights activists about the situation in Ingushetia, Kavkazky Uzel reported on February 19. According to the website, Mutsolgov met in Budapest with human rights activists and in Vienna with human rights activists and officials of the European Union and Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, among others.

Mutsolgov said that he told his European counterparts about “the most acute problems in Ingushetia.” The first of these, he said, is the disputed Prigorodny district of North Ossetia and related issues, including the return of Ingush displaced from the district to their homes, the abduction of Ingush in the district, the non-fulfillment of the law ‘On rehabilitating repressed peoples’ and “the need to establish good-neighborly relations between the two republics.” The second problem, he said, is kidnappings in Ingushetia. According to Mutsolgov, 158 people have been abducted in the republic since 2002. The third problem, he said, is the murder of both civilians and law-enforcement personnel in Ingushetia. More than 600 have been murdered in the republic since 2002, he said.

“I also told my Western colleagues that the aforementioned problems and the current situation are a big tragedy for our republic,” Mutsolgov told Kavkazky Uzel. “And for the resolution of the existing problems it is necessary to unite the efforts of non-governmental organizations and the regional and federal power bodies, and also, if need be, to use international experience in resolving similar problems.”