Magomed Khambiyev, a former aide to Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, has turned himself in to the federal authorities. Some reports suggest the ex-defense minister of the self-styled Chechen republic of Ichkeria was actually forced to surrender as a result of an operation carried out by the son of Chechnya’s pro-Moscow president. Even if that proves to be the case, the Chechen authorities will most probably amnesty the rebel warlord in an attempt to encourage other rebels to lay down their weapons.
| Sounds like a game of tag to me. Now he's tagged, he has to sit out the game. |
Khambiyev, who also commanded the eastern front of the Chechen resistance movement, may be released shortly. At the end of last week he turned himself in to the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities. It seems very likely that he will be exempted from criminal liability under an amnesty scheme developed for rebels who lay down their arms voluntarily.
| Everybody he's killed is now resurrected, and the people he's maimed have grown new limbs... |
No special amnesty act will have to be adopted in order to release Khambiyev, a source in Chechnya’s prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. Articles 208 and 222 of the Russian Criminal Code, which stipulate punishment for participating in illegal armed formations and the illegal possession of weapons, state that a person who voluntarily withdraws from an illegal armed group and surrenders his weapons is exempt from criminal liability. Those provisions may well be applied to Magomed Khambiyev, the source said.
Magomed Khambiyev has proved one of the most consistent separatists. Ever since he was appointed defense minister in the Chechen separatist government and a brigade general in 1997, Khambiyev commanded the so-called eastern front, defending the important rebel strongholds of Kurchaloi, Nozhai-Yurt and Dargo. Throughout the years Khambiyev remained loyal to Aslan Maskhadov and, unlike Shamil Basayev, implicitly obeyed all the president’s orders. Khambiyev fell out with Basayev at the beginning of the second Chechen war, and the two clashed openly several times, exchanging insults and, according to some reports, even gunfire.
| Oooh! The cockles of my heart are so warm! |
In February 2002 Khambiyev’s house in Gudermes was destroyed in a blast, the organizers of which still remain unknown.
| Duhhhh... Lemme guess who it mighta been... Nope. Nope. Don't tell me, now! |
Although nothing has been heard of Khambiyev for the past 18 months, his surrender is the first important achievement of Akhmad Kadyrov’s presidency. In the run-up to Chechnya’s presidential elections last October he stated several times that he would convince all separatists to surrender. Kadyrov had, from time to time, also mentioned talks with rebel warlord Ruslan Gelayev, until he was shot dead by two Russian border guards earlier this year.
| Put a stop to those negotiations, didn't it? |
Khambiyev’s alleged complicity in serious crimes has yet to be established, the prosecutor of Chechnya, Alexander Nikitin, told the press. An investigation has already been launched and he is currently being held at a remand centre in Tsentoroi. The prosecutor did note, however, that neither Khambiyev nor his aide Kharon Bikbulatov, who surrendered with him, is suspected of any crimes currently being investigated in the republic.
| Commanding the Eastern Front apparently isn't a crime, no matter how many people get bumped off at Nozhai Yurt... |
The final decision on Khambiyev’s release will be passed either by the prosecutor’s office of the republic or by the Federal Security Service directorate for Chechnya with the prosecutor’s office’s consent. However, judging by earlier statements on Khambiyev made by the Russian military and the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities, there is enough evidence to instigate criminal proceedings against him under several articles. For instance, the military said earlier they suspected Khambiyev of masterminding an assassination attempt on Akhmad Kadyrov when he still held the most senior clerical post in Chechnya. Also, the Russian authorities openly accused Khambiyev of organizing an attempt on the first pro-Moscow mayor of Grozny, Supian Mokhchayev, and Sergei Zverev, the then-deputy to Vladimir Putin’s plenipotentiary to the North Caucasus, in 2000. Both men survived the attacks. ’’From the very beginning and to this day Khambiyev has always been a staunch opponent of Wahabbism. He was never involved in abductions, murders of civilians and the clergy,’’ Kadyrov told Interfax.
| Then what was he doing hanging around with Shamil? |
Ilya Shabalkin, chief spokesman for anti-terrorist operations in the northern Caucasus, cautiously noted that ’’so far it is a bit too early to talk of amnesty for the so-called Defense Minister of Ichkeria Magomed Khambiyev.’’ According to official reports Khambiyev surrendered following talks with the elders of the village of Benoi, where he was hiding, and with Ramzan Kadyrov. However, those talks were preceded by a special joint operation carried out by Akhmad Kadyrov’s security forces under the command of his son Ramzan and special-purpose OMON police forces, Kommersant Daily reported on Tuesday. The rebel’s house was initially surrounded, but he somehow managed to escape through the window and leave undetected.
| "You men! Surround the house! And don't let me catch you wasting time looking at the windows!" |
Kadyrov’s men then detained all the male occupants of Khambiyev’s house. A rebel web site confirmed that report in a statement released by the so-called Foreign Ministry of Ichkeria, which said that the Russian military had taken 16 members of the Khambiyev family hostage and demanded the voluntary surrender of Magomed Khambiyev and his brother Umar, a foreign emissary of the separatists, in exchange for the lives of their relatives.
| What would have happened if Mogomed had surrendered and Umar hadn't? They'd have shot half the hostages? What if they'd had an odd number? |
Shabalkin also indirectly confirmed that report, saying that on 5 March 21 members of Khambiyev’s unit surrendered their weapons. ’’Apparently, that is what prompted Khabiyev to surrender to the republican authorities,’’ the official said. Almost all of them were released shortly afterwards so that his relatives could persuade the general to surrender. On the following day one of the relatives disclosed Khambiyev’s whereabouts to Kadyrov’s men. |