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Interethnic tension high in Stavropol

By Ruslan Isayev

RUSSIA - On Tuesday the funeral took place in Stavropol of two students who were killed there this past weekend. Even though the investigation has not yet established the motives for the crime or the identity of the criminals, public opinion has already decided who the culprits are.

Local people say that they are Chechens who were taking revenge for the death of their co-national Gilani Atayev, who was killed on May 24 as the result of a clash between Chechens and local youths. About 300 people took part in that fight, and police called to the scene detained local college student Atayev and three others involved in the fight. That same evening Gilani Atayev died.

Ten days later, an unknown assailant killed two students, Dmitry Blokhin and Pavel Chadin. According to the local law enforcement agencies, the murders were committed for the purpose of robbery. However local people think that the real motive was vengeance on the part of Chechens for Atayev's killing.

Gilani's uncle, Ibragim Gunoyev, is astonished by the revenge theory, when the true culprits are OMON police officers. This version is also backed up by Gilani's friend Zaurbek, who was with him in the police car that evening. He talked about this to Radio Liberty:

"That evening we'd had a call from some Chechens we knew asking us to come and join a 'scrap' with the local skinheads. Earlier a Chechen had been beaten up, and then an Ingush also beat up a Russian in a one-to-one fight. The Russians went on the attack and we had to withdraw. When I looked back I saw that they were beating a Chechen. It was Gilani. He was being badly beaten, and two policemen, holding handcuffs, were watching. I ran up and tried to help him. I managed to get one of the attackers off Gilani, but after that somebody shot at me with a pistol," Zaurbek said.

"Then we were thrown into a small police jeep. Gilani lay on the bottom, then they threw a Dagestani in with him, and I was on the top. They put a Russian into the vehicle, and he started to beat up Gilani. Gilani was panting and gasping. I knocked on the door and shouted and asked them to open the door, take off his handcuffs and give him first aid. They refused and said that if he died it would be one less wailer of Allahu akbar! They drove the jeep around Stavropol for about an hour and then brought it back to where the incident had taken place. There they made us get into another vehicle. They hurled Gilani straight from the jeep face down on the asphalt. After about 40 minutes a doctor arrived, examined Gilani, and said he was dead," he added.

Zaurbek is convinced that if the policemen had not incited the youths, the clash would have ended without casualties. "The policemen were egging the locals on, saying things like 'Go on, there's more of you than there are of them. There's not enough of them. On you go.' If they hadn't incited them there would only have been a one-to-one fight, and then we'd have dispersed," Zaurbek concluded.

(D/T)