Urus-Martan residents claim oppressive situation after law enforcers' conflict

The situation in Urus-Martan after deployment of OMON (riot police) fighters to search for eyewitnesses of the conflict of two law enforcers remains tense; many of the men who videoed the incident were detained, local residents report. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, has a long-standing dislike for the Urus-Martan District, which explains his sharp reaction, Ali Magamadov, a political analyst, believes.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported citing Idris Cherkhigov, the head of the GIBDD (traffic police) department for Chechnya, that more than 500 law enforcers were involved in the search for the citizens who were watching the conflict with involvement of a GIBDD inspector. This was preceded by Ramzan Kadyrov's promise to send all the law enforcers to the city, to whom Urus-Martan townspeople "could express their claims." In the opinion of retired law enforcers, sending 500 law enforcers to Urus-Martan to settle the consequences of a minor conflict looks like Chechen authorities' overreaction.

Tumisha, a former Urus-Martan school teacher, said that on December 12, the city reminded her of the times when it was under the control of federals troops during the years of the Chechen conflicts; and the appearance of armoured vehicles and armed people in city streets did not bode well. According to her story, in the spring of 2000, during a passport check, two of her brothers were taken away from her home. Since then, as the woman says, nothing is known about their fate.

"Over twenty years have passed since, but today, as in the years of the armed conflict, there are unusually few people in the streets, but there are a lot of masked armed people in the city," Tumisha said, adding that after the conflict, law enforcers detained more than twenty men.

Zulai, an employee of one of the state bodies of the Urus-Martan District, said that they were searching for those who had filmed the conflict in the city.

Ali Magamadov, a political analyst, has noted that Kadyrov directed all his anger not at the participants in the conflict, but at Urus-Martan townspeople. According to his version, Kadyrov has a long-standing enmity towards the Urus-Martan District and its residents, who were in opposition during Dudaev's time.

"But in this case, the main reason for the anger was the fact that the audience treated this conflict as an entertaining performance," Mr Magamadov has noted, adding that Kadyrov took the incident as an attack on his "immutable authority."