Interview with Commander Khamzat Gelayev

Interview with Commander Khamzat Gelayev
27 October 2003

Chechen Press (CP): Khamzat, it's been a few years already since Moscow's appointee Kadyrov has been saying that he's been conducting negotiations on laying own arms. What kind of protracted negotiations are they? How are they going?

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Commander Gelayev (CG): Only from Kadyrov’s statements I personally know about some negotiations that Kadyrov is allegedly conducting with me. He is a shameless man because he is not shunning blatant lies. There has never been and there can never be any contact whatsoever between me and despicable traitor Kadyrov. The only possible contact with Kadyrov will take place only in the Shariah Court, where I will appear, if Allah allows me, to testify before the Judges and before the Chechen people about the treason and the crimes that this man has committed.

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CP: What is your attitude towards the recent «presidential elections» in Chechnya?

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CG: I’ve read in one book about how Russian generals invited the highlander elders and informed them that the Turkish Sultan ceded the Caucasus to the Russian Czar. Then one of the elders pointed at a bird flying in the sky and said: «General, I let you have that bird, catch it!» And I would like to say: let Russians comfort themselves with all kinds of elections and referendums, while trying to prove their right to own our land. Let them lie to their own selves and to others. As long as we live, they will never be masters on our lands.

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CP: What do you think, will we win in this war?
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CG: Allah sees that we are defending what is ours, He sees that the truth and the justice is on the side of the Mujahideen (fighters), and He is always helping those who fight for justice on His straight way. Praise be to Him! We will surely win as long as we banish arrogance from our hearts and strife from our ranks. The Mujahideen understand it and therefore today we are like fingers clenched in a fist.

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CP: Lately some Chechens from Kadyrov's collaborator formations started taking active part on the side of the Russians in the battles against Mujahideen. What can you say in this regard?

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CG: In the whole world there is no nation that would have no traitors coming out of its midst. Chechens are no exception unfortunately. Many of these traitors just have no place to go; experts from the FSB (Russian Federal Security Bureau, former KGB) and GRU (Main Intelligence Directorate) have tied them up with the blood of their fellow countrymen, they are facing a death threat from Russians if they stop faithfully serving them; and they are facing a death threat from Chechens if they lose the protection from their masters, - from the secret services. These are the ones that our Saints made a prediction about in the old days: that they will be eliminated from both sides – from both Chechen and Russian sides, as soon as Russians start fleeing from Chechnya.

However, I would like to be more specific: the absolute majority of «Chechen policemen» has not been stained with the blood of their fellow countrymen yet, even though Russians and Kadyrov are making every effort to make them do that. These policemen can still come back, we are not touching them if they lay down arms. And this is the way it happens most of the time.

Everybody can remember that Zavgayev had either 15 or 18 thousand «Chechen policemen», but as soon as we entered Grozny in August 1996, they all scattered and went home, then they went over to the Mujahideen, except for a few dozens of those who were guilty of shedding Chechen blood. There is nothing new in the present situation either.

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CP: What is the attitude of Chechen population towards the Mujahideen? Has anything changed after the first war?

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CG: Of course, something has changed. Many people believed that the atrocities that Russian invaders were committing against Chechen population during the first war were impossible to repeat or surpass. By we were wrong and we underestimated Russia. By closing Chechnya from the outside world, including from Russia, Russian raiders are doing horrifying things here. These things are hard to describe, they are causing so much of abhorrence.It is hard to understand where the people are coming from who are capable of digging in a live human body for hours when conducting tortures. We are discovering bodies with insides torn out, with eyes plucked out, with heads scalped, with tongues cut off – and often all of these are traces of tortures are left on one dead body. I will never forget a tin bucket found where Russians were staying. There was a boiled human head in it. A lot of things I just can’t say.What I’m talking about is that Russian butchers are trying to bind Chechens with fear. And it is no secret that many of the Chechens, who are intimidated, want to stand aloof from what’s going on and who fear for their lives and for the lives of their families. But there are also many of those who help us with food, money - and the main thing - with information on movement of the invaders, with reports on snitches, etc. We are also getting the information on the butchers who commit atrocities against Chechens, figuring that after going back to Russia they would be safe. Allah is the witness that these hopes are vain. We will do all that the human power allows to bring retaliation to the home of each murderer of the Chechen people.

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CP: The Western press launched unprecedented criticism against Putin and his policies in Chechnya. Are you expecting any positive changes in the West's position concerning Chechnya?

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CG: Waves rise and fall, but hardly anything changes from that. It is up to our political leaders to be watching for the position of the West or the East. Maybe by the will of Allah help will come from somewhere, but I still think that our destiny is in our own hands, because the Almighty says: «Indeed, for ye is what ye shall judge».Someone said that in the world we are living in a man is more concerned about a pimple on his nose rather than starvation in China, where millions of people are dying. The Koran condemns such indifference as the gravest sin, but it seems like our fellow coreligionists are more afraid of Russia or America than they fear Allah. Even though it will not be Bush or Putin judging them in the afterlife, but it will be the Almighty Lord of the Worlds. Praise be to Him, His help and His protection is enough for us!

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CP: And the last question that I ask all Chechen leaders and military Commanders whenever possible: when by the will of Allah the invaders and their stooges get out of our land, will the mistakes made in the period between the two wars and which seem to many ordinary Chechens as the biggest disgrace throughout the entire history, be repeated again? I mean the crime, kidnapping to get ransom, and religious demagoguery on the top of lawlessness?

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CG: I’m not one of those who blame these disgraceful acts only on the subversive activities of Russian secret services. Although, everybody can see an indicative pattern: the main kidnappers, such as Kadyrov or Yamadayev, turned out to be servants of Russian invaders, and others just disappeared somewhere. Ask the Ingushetians, for an example, they will tell you a lot of things about the «exploits» Kadyrov or Yamadayev in abducting people. But still, all of these facts are not exonerating those who were the leaders of Chechens, including myself. We learned our lessons and Allah is the witness that we will no longer be standing aside and watching how crime and banditry start raging. Now everybody understood what kind of damage these criminals have done to our independence. And they will all be given a short shrift.-Thank you for your interview!

The interview was conducted by T. Abubakarov