This reads like a good novel.
URL is: Jamestown.org
HOPES FOR KREMLIN DIALOGUE WITH KABARDINO-BALKARIA
INSURGENTS FADE
On November 4, the Kabardino-Balkaria branch of the Russian Federal
Security Service (FSB) summoned Ruslan Nakhushov, chairman of the
local Islamic Institute, for interrogation. According to Kommersant,
Nakhushov visited the FSB the very day that the summons was served.
He returned to his office after the interrogation, but somebody called
him from the FSB and asked him to return. Nakhushov complied and,
after the second visit, called Susanna Varitlova, his deputy, to say that
everything was fine and that he would be in his office in 10 minutes.
Nobody has seen Nakhushov since. He apparently disappeared, and his
cell phone is not working (Kommersant, November 7).
Nakhushov, a former KGB officer who worked in North Africa, became a
famous public figure in Kabardino-Balkaria early the 1990s. After the
first Chechen war (1994-96) Nakhushov worked for the Peacemaking
Mission of Russian General Alexander Lebed. Nakhushov is credited with
freeing 180 Russian prisoners-of-war from Chechnya (Kommersant,
November 7).
Together with Anzor Astemirov and Musa Mukozhev, Nakhushov
organized the Islamic Institute, which seeks to protect the rights of the
Muslims in Kabardino-Balkaria. Nakhushov sharply criticized the local
security officials' repressive actions toward the Muslim population. Unlike
Astemirov, who became the leader of Yarmuk rebel group, and
Mukozhev, who went underground, Nakhushov had always tried to find
legal ways to solve problems, and he preferred to negotiate rather than
to use violence. After the October 13 attack on Nalchik, the capital of the
republic (see EDM, October 15), Nakhushov offered to negotiate
between the authorities and the Islamic rebels. Arsen Kanokov,
president of Kabardino-Balkaria, planned to meet with Nakhushov to
discuss a possible dialogue with the Muslims. In an interview with
Novaya gazeta Kanokov called Nakhushov "a candidate for building a
bridge to negotiate with young Muslims" (Novaya gazeta, October 31).
Nakhushov's relatives and friends immediately blamed security officials
for his disappearance. "We still hope that he will appear again, but such
witnesses are usually not left alive. Ruslan had a lot of information on
very sensitive issues about the activities of the special services in
Kabardino-Balkaria," journalist Orkhan Dzhemal told Kavkazsky Uzel
(November 7). The law-enforcement agencies did not like Nakhushov's
activity, and his office had been raided several times. On November 11,
Nikolai Shepel, the deputy Russian prosecutor-general for the Southern
Federal District, hinted that Nakhushov might have gone into hiding
because criminal proceedings had been started against him for assisting
terrorists. However, Shepel's words only served to fuel rumors that
Nakhushov had been kidnapped by security officials. "He did not plan to
hide or to be on the run," his lawyer insisted (Kavkazsky Uzel, November
11). Regnum news agency sources linked to law-enforcement agencies
also believe that Nakhushov was kidnapped by the local FSB (regnum,
November 11).
Nakhushov's disappearance from the Kabardino-Balkaria political scene
could stymie the last chance to start a peace process in the region. After
the raid on Nalchik, President Kanokov was ready for a dialogue. He
made a speech on local television and promised to return the bodies of
the rebels and civilians killed in the attack to their relatives. However,
he had to change his tone after meeting with Russian President Vladimir
Putin in Moscow. Kanokov claims that Putin told him that everything
should be done by the book, which in practice meant that no corpses
would be returned. Kanokov also obliquely indicated in his television
interview that the Russian authorities were very hesitant to build new
mosques in Kabardino-Balkaria, saying that they would start the process
"very slowly and carefully" (Novaya gazeta, October 31).
The Kremlin and local security officials did not welcome the measures
proposed by Kanokov, including a dialogue with the rebels through
Nakhushov, opening mosques, and returning the bodies. According to
Kommersant, Kanokov has a problem dealing with the republican
Ministry of Internal Affairs, which directly reports to Moscow. On
November 11, a group of Russian politicians, public figures, and human
rights activists, including Boris Nadezhdin, a deputy chairman of the
Union of the Right Forces political party, held a press conference in
Moscow at which they blamed the administration of the Russian
president and security officials for the "destabilization in the Caucasian
republics." The group demanded serious changes in Russia's ethnic
minority and religious policies (Kavkazsky Uzel, November 8).
However, the disappearance of Nakhushov and the failure of Kanokov to
control the law-enforcement agencies suggest that the policy is unlikely
to be significantly altered in the near future.
--Andrei Smirnov
11/16/2005, 6:21 p.m. ET
The Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A tanker truck hauling toxic ammonium chloride slammed into a passenger bus in northwest Mexico, killing 38 people as both vehicles plunged down an embankment, police said Wednesday.
Most of the victims in Tuesday night's crash had chemical burns and authorities were trying to determine if the ammonium chloride contributed to their deaths, Federal Police in Mexico City said in an accident report.
The driver of the tanker, who was among the dead, apparently lost control on a curve near the city of Los Mochis in Sinaloa state, crashing into the rear of the bus.
The report said both vehicles then plunged down slopes on the side of the highway. The bus flipped onto its roof and the tanker spilled it load of 25 tons of ammonium chloride.
Federal police and gas experts from state-run Mexican oil company Pemex have sealed off the area.
Television images showed a twisted truck laying on its side near the highway.
There was no immediate information on survivors of the crash or who owned the 1993-model tanker truck and where it was headed.
A separate accident early Wednesday on a highway between Mexico City and the central city of Queretaro killed six people and injured at least 36 others, said Luis Rivera, director of emergency response for Mexico state, which borders the capital. The crash involved a passenger bus and a cargo truck, Rivera said.
Some of the injured were in serious condition and had been transferred to a hospital, he said.