Praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds, Who created us Muslims and who blessed us with Jihad on His Straight Way. Peace and blessing of the Almighty Allah be on Prophet Muhammad, his family, his disciples and all of those who follow the Straight Way until the Day of Judgment. And then:

The past year was marked by the ’active’ job of CRI [Chechen Republic of Ichkeria] Foreign Ministry in two trends:

• By advertising the good-for-nothing notorious ’Akhmadov Plan’, which casts doubt on the very fact of independence of CRI, endorsed by the Constitution and beyond any discussions. But we are not calling it treason, we are calling it ignorance.
  
  
• The second trend in CRI Foreign Ministry’s activities was coming to condemning «terrorist acts in all its forms» after each successful operation conducted by Brigade of Shaheeds ’Riyadus Salihiin’, which has been trying to have the genocide of the Chechen people stopped at any cost available and repulse Russia’s aggression against CRI.

CRI Foreign Ministry is merely calling all these acts ’terrorist acts’ without even bothering to give a legal evaluation in according to the same so-called ’international law’, let alone the Shariah law. At the same time CRI Foreign Ministry has been proclaiming its ardent «adherence to the international law and strict compliance therewith». By its ignorance CRI Foreign Ministry has virtually been contributing to the fact that the war is getting protracted and becoming fiercer, as well as to the forming of the image of a ’Chechen terrorist’ who fights for the sake of the war itself and blows up each and every thing for money or for the fun of it.

Hmmmm... Yeah. That sounds about right...

And now concerning the so-called ’international law and terrorism’. Each law, including the international law, is a code of rules of behavior and activities of the negotiating sides, which are making a commitment to adhere to it. Needless to say, the law is supposed to be equally mandatory for all and equal measures of compulsion and punishment for the violators must be applied. And if the law is mandatory for one side and not mandatory for the other, it is called ’dictates’, and not a ’law’.

Proceeding from the fact that the leaders of virtually all sides, the UN, the European Union, CRI Foreign Ministry and especially Russian president Putin are claiming they are for peace and international law, the Brigade of Shaheeds ’Riyadus Salihiin’ is hereby officially declaring:

• If president of Russia Putin makes an official statement that he pledges to strictly comply with the international law in the solution of the Russian-Chechen armed conflict, we will stop all subversive activities and acts of sabotage against unarmed civilians on the territory of Russia (there are no peaceful civilians in Russia), except for special military operations against the military and secret services in the places where they are deployed. We can even give that up as well.
  
  
• If president of Russia Putin will start to strictly comply with the international law, it would no longer make sense to be waging the war. It will be peace in CRI and in Russia, and mediators are not even needed to solve all problems.
  
  
• If Bush, Schroeder, Blair, Chirac, Kofi Annan and other ’supporters of international law’ will demand that Putin starts strictly complying with this international law on the issue of solving the Russian-Chechen armed conflict, and if they themselves will comply with it, and if they introduce sanctions against Russia if Putin refuses, then the war in the Caucasus and all problems of terrorism will vanish immediately, because the Chechen side is never against peaceful solution of the conflict.

As we all know, President of CRI Aslan Maskhadov has always been stressing not on the adherence, but on strict compliance with the international law. And our acts are only retaliatory actions in response to terrorism of the Russian state and an attempt to stop the genocide of the Chechen people.

And if our proposal remains unanswered, it will mean that there is no international law whatsoever, and that there are no common rules of warfare. Everything is hypocrisy. There is only one international law – the Law of Force, there is the right of the stronger ones to have everything and there is the lack of rights of the weaker ones. And we are not from the weak ones, by the Mercy of Allah!

Thus the international community and CRI Foreign Ministry, which is especially important for us, have the opportunity to make their own contribution to the restoration of peace and justice on the Chechen land, and the entire world has the chance to find out who is really complying with the international law, and who is sticking to international terrorism.

And may Allah help us on His Straight Way!

Allah Akbar! (God is Great!)

Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris,
Commander (Amir) of Brigade of Shaheeds ’Riyadus Salihiin’