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SNA CHECHENPRESS. Official Information Section August, 24th 2008
Our interview today is with the Chairman of the ChRI Cabinet of Ministers Akhmed Zakaev
Chechenpress: What are your comments on the recent events in the Caucasus?
Akhmed Zakaev: Almost everyone has been talking about the events in question for the last three weeks so there is very little I can add. This is yet another act of aggression committed by Russia against the Georgian people. When I commented Russia’s position on the Kosovo issue I warned the world community that it was Russia preparing to formalise de jure the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia it annexed. Russia had provoked Georgia to take the necessary defensive steps in order to expedite the outcome. Our sympathies are with both the Georgian and the Ossetian peoples and we think that without Russia’s destructive role relations between the brotherly Caucasus nations would never have resulted in a bloodshed which we all became witnesses of, unfortunately.
ChP: As you are aware the former Minister of Health of the ChRI U.Khambiev has returned to Chechnya at his brother’s request. Your comments on his return.
A.Zakaev: Thousands of people in Chechnya, civilians and military personnel alike, owe if not their lives, then at least their health, to Umar, myself included. Professionally and in his government capacity Umar Khambiev dealt exclusively with saving people’s lives, irrespective of their nationality or religious belief. In the same honest way he performed his duty as a General Representative in Europe of the President Aslan Maskhadov. In the last two years Umar has no longer been a member of the ChRI Government so I do not think we should politicize his return to Chechnya. He is a private individual. Let us hope that he would be of use to the Chechen people in Chechnya who are living through very difficult times in its history.
ChP: Lately the media have been publishing articles alleging your own intention to return to Chechnya and claiming that Kadyrov has given you his guarantee that you would not be persecuted. What is your attitude to these assertions? Are you really planning to go to Chechnya?
Akhmed Zakaev: To begin with it has never occurred to me that I would not return to Chechnya. Insh’Allah all of us will return to Chechnya as soon as we can. Unlike Umar Khambiev I occupy a particular position in the political leadership of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya, namely, that of the Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers. Since the beginning of the second Russian aggression against the Chechen people I have been dealing with various issues to do with that war of aggression. The questions of my personal security or my personal well being cannot weigh upon my official duties. No matter what speculations are made around my person I shall continue fulfilling my duty as well as I can and it is to achieve a just political settlement of the Russian-Chechen conflict.
ChP: How do you imagine the future of Chechnya and what should be our policy in the world today?
Akhmed Zakaev: I do not exaggerate when I say that Russia has not achieved the goals it set itself. In fact it has achieved the reverse. Firstly, it has failed to get ‘Chechnya without the Chechens’. Secondly, it has failed to disarm the Chechens. This means that sooner or later Russia would have to come to terms with the fact that the Chechens are not some weak and indifferent observers of their own fate. Very soon Russia will realize that having a recognized independent Chechnya for a neighbour would cost it much less. Our task is to explain to Russia the futility of the military solution to the problem of the Russian-Chechen relations. |
