Shamil Basayev; Jihad is only starting to flare up in Ichkeria

Jihad is only starting to flare up in Ichkeria
May 2003

Amir of Brigade of Shaheeds «Riyadus Salihiin» Abdallah Shamil Abu-Idris gave an exclusive interview to Shariah news and information agencies on the results of the enlarged session of the Council (Majlis al-Shura) of the Southwestern Front of CRI (Chechen Republic of Ichkeria) Armed Forces. It must be mentioned that the interview was given long before the events in Mozdok and in Argun.

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- Not too long ago an enlarged session of the Council of the Southwestern Front was held with the participation of many leading Chechen Amirs. What was the necessity for that session?

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Praise Allah, the Lord of the worlds, Who created us Muslims and Who blessed us with Jihad on His straight way. Peace and blessing be to His prophet Muhammad, to his family, to his disciples and to all of those who follow him until the very Day of Judgment.

And then: Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

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Really, not too long ago an enlarged session of the Council (Majlis al-Shura) of the Southwestern Front was held, even though it should have been called the Great Majlis, because besides the Amirs of the Southwestern Front, the Commander of the Eastern Front, Deputy Commander of the Northern Front and many other well-known Amirs took part in it as well.

The main goal of the session was to strengthen our unity and to discuss the plans on implementation of the spring/summer war campaign, scheduled this year by the Military Council headed by Commander-In-Chief of State Defense Council Majlis al-Shura, our President Aslan Maskhadov.

During these three days that we have spent together we have been discussing many vital issues, we were discussing the current situation, our tactics of warfare - to continue and to increase war operations, as well as the issues of strengthening the unity within our ranks.

On the top of that a great deal of organizational work has been done on forming and organizing the activities of new military sectors, since today the zone of Jihad is expanding and the volume of missions and jobs is expanding accordingly.

In this regard two military sectors have been created within the Southwestern Front: the Sunzha Sector and the Ingush Sector. Council of the Southwestern Front nominated two Commanders of these sectors – Amir Kuri and Amir Muslim, whose names were submitted to President of CRI A. Maskhadov for approval.The candidacy of our friend in battle Amir Khamzat Gelayev was proposed to President of CRI to be nominated as the Commander of Achkhoi-Martan Sector and Amir Abdul-Malik Mezhidov as the Commander of StaroPromyslovsky Sector of our capital Jokhar.

Organization-wise, on the top of all that we have made some corrections to the issues of guerilla warfare and to the issues of intensifying its tactics. We have also adopted decisions on some other important issues of military and strategic importance that we cannot tell at this moment.

Besides, we had yet another common goal: it’s been a while since we got together like that, we’ve been missing one another, and one of our goals was the meeting as it is, live contact, which is of great importance as well, even though today’s situation totally allows us to cooperate in all military issues even without having frequent meetings or sessions.Commander-In-Chief of State Defense Council «Majlis al-Shura» of CRI Aslan Maskhadov was supposed to participate in that session, but for a number of reasons and because of complex military situation he was unable to arrive. He gave us the go-ahead to conduct the session without him.

I believe the session was of tremendous benefit to us: during these three days that we spent together we were sharing our experience of the job done, we were communicating and as a result, we have picked up a lot of useful things from one another.

There was yet another distinguishing feature of that session: for the first time many middle-ranking Commanders were present. They did not have their pictures taken. When we were taking pictures they stepped aside, which is very good, because the enemy does not know most of them today, which in turn is necessary for the new tactics of warfare.

I am grateful to Commander of the Southwestern Front Dokku Umarov for organizing this meeting and for the cordial welcome, I am grateful to all of the brothers who helped us conduct this meeting… Jaza-kallah-Khair!About three hundred of Mujahideen from various Fronts and Directions had gathered. As I said before, one of the Deputies of Amir of the capital’s Direction of our Armed Forces attended the session as well. We all got good rest and ate some good shish kebab.

- In one of his recent addresses to the Chechen Nation President of CRI, Commander-In-Chief of State Defense Council (Majlis al-Shura) A. Maskhadov stated that this spring/summer period will be the last one for the invaders on the Chechen soil. Apparently, the Kafirs (infidels) took that statement seriously, because after this address huge military columns started moving into the territory of Ichkeria, as Shariah information agency reported. How would you evaluate the current military and political situation in CRI? Are the Chechen Mujahideen really capable of conducting a large-scale operation like the one that was carried out in August 1996?

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Insha Allah (God Willing). The mercy of Allah is great, we are hoping for his mercy and for the victory from Allah. Our unity is getting stronger: Jihad in Ichkeria is only flaring up and gaining momentum, which can be seen from the fact that today we are creating new sectors and directions.

Really, we are planning to liberate our Homeland from under the yoke of the invaders, to liberate the Chechen people from oppression, but the will of Almighty Allah is on everything. Last year, the year before last and in the year 2000 we were capable of conducting a large-scale operation similar to the one conducted back in August 1996.

Even though we are not talking about it, every year we have been planning large-scale operations, but there has always been a leak of information, and the Kafirs would always fortify their checkpoints and dispatch more units around the city of Jokhar as far as having armored vehicles and platoons of soldiers every 50 meters around the city. This is exactly what happened last year and the year before last, and this is what will probably happen this year, because even though we do have forces and capabilities for carrying out this operation, there is one problem: the absence of a permanent home front, a permanent base where we could concentrate large forces. Since we cannot have that, the information leaks out and the Kafirs thus block all the roads.

Let’s take the capital of Ichkeria for an example. We can remember how not too long ago Putin was furiously telling the world that 20 checkpoints were removed in Jokhar. But for today all of the checkpoints have remained and been fortified. Just the bars were lifted at two of them for advertising purposes.Jokhar is flooded with the power structures. Today there are more invaders than ever before and it is getting more aggravated by the fact that there is national-traitor scum along with the Kafirs. They are traitors of the Homeland, traitors of their people, traitors of their faith.Our capabilities are huge and the only thing we are missing is secrecy when conducting large-scale operations, because, like I used to say back during the previous war:

«Our secrecy – no secrecies, our secrets – no secrets!» What any Commander knows, any Mujahid soldier knows as well. This is carelessness on our behalf. Openness in many things hinders us from conducting large-scale war operations.Yes, they took the statement of our President Aslan Maskhadov more than seriously, because they know our power and our capabilities, even though they keep lying to their own people and to the entire world. It’s been quite a while since they stopped talking about «20 militants running across the mountains» and since they stopped saying: as soon as we kill Basayev or Maskhadov the war will be over. They have put up with their lot, they have put up with the fact that they have already lost and ended up in a no-go. Our mission today is to give the invaders a good kick to push them to withdraw, and Insha Allah we will do that!

The will of Almighty Allah is on everything, and we will be pressing towards delivering our long-suffered nation from the oppression of Kafirs and from the oppression of national traitors as soon as possible.

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- In one of your statements you were talking about starting Operation Boomerang. What is the mission of that operation and which goals is this operation pursuing?

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Really, we have declared the start of Operation Boomerang. The mission is to stop violence against Chechen girls and women, which cannot even be estimated and calculated today. This is our painful spot and today not only Kafirs but national traitors are involved in those grave crimes as well. National traitors forget that they have sisters, mothers, wives and daughters; they forget that sooner or later those crimes will come back to their families like a boomerang.

Today girls get kidnapped because they merely wear headscarves. Girls and women get kidnapped and raped just because they are wives, sisters or daughters of Mujahideen. We must put an end to it, and every man, every Muslim is obligated to somehow counteract these crimes.The main task and the main mission is to punish those who do it and to punish the ones who bless them to commit these filthy grave crimes.

Today we can see on TV how rapid-reaction units (SOBR) and special-purpose police units (OMON) are getting dispatched down here, and how their wives, their sisters and their mothers are wishing them a good trip. We will be conducting acts of retaliation right in those cities and villages where they came from. Today we have no time to chase every one like Budanov, but we can punish those who bless them to commit these crimes, and we will thus try to somehow stop these atrocities from happening.

Let’s just for an example take the recent case of kidnapping a 30-year-old woman and a 14-year-old girl in the village of Ulus-Kert. They lucked out, they are being charged with a major offense: recruiting Shaheeds who conducted the operation in Moscow, and there is hope that they will still be found alive. (This interview was recorded before the information about their murder came in, - K.C.)

Even if you just use plain logic: who in the world a 14-year-old girl would be recruiting, especially if last year she was 13? These ones are supposed to be a lot more severe than the alleged «female snipers with white stockings on»! The public came out in their defense and there is hope that they will return home alive, but who will need them after that? Who will ever marry them? According to Chechen customs, if a girl spent even one night out of the control of her parents, she is already considered unclean. Even if they will be found alive, their lives have already been ruined, what kind of lot awaits them? Who will be responsible for that? Whose whim lets ruin the lives of innocent people just like that?

Let’s take a look at another example: in Vedeno District one girl called the invaders pigs for the robberies and looting that they were committing. They dragged her away and said she was Khattab’s mistress.These atrocities must be stopped. During the enlarged session of the leadership of Brigade of Shaheeds «Riyadus Salihiin» a decision was made: since Russian invaders and their henchmen are using the principle of collective responsibility in regards to all Chechens, while prosecuting not only the family of a Shaheed, but also his relatives, his loved ones and his acquaintances, then we are also free to make all relatives and loved ones of the invaders responsible, - relatives and loved ones of those who are committing atrocities in our land, and this is why we have decided to launch Operation Boomerang in the homeland of those who on behalf of the Russian people are committing atrocities in the Chechen land. May Almighty Allah help us in it! Allah Akbar!

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- In the history of any nation the names of those who joined the ranks of the invaders were disgraced from generation to generation. What are the national traitors who took service with the invaders are hoping for?

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The thing is that even though this kind of treason in the history of other nations is disgraced, it is not the case with the history of the Chechen people, which was formed by Kafirs and their henchmen. We have always been forgiving and forgetting what national traitors were doing, and these facts from the history have reached us.

How many Naeebs of Imam Shamil were surrendering to Russians and were going in the service with them? We were forgiving all of them, and we were even majestically raising them and making them heroes. Take Haji-Murad as an example. L. Tolstoy wrote a story about him. And Haji-Murad was a very real traitor. He ran to the Russians three times, and the fourth time Russians caught him and cut his head off. The head has never been buried and is still stored in the «Cabinet of Curiosities» Museum in St. Petersburg.

He was a real traitor, but today they are writing songs about him in Dagestan as if he was a brave and courageous man. He was a brave traitor, but not courageous because during tough times he would dump the Muslims and run to Kafirs, and the Kafirs gave him a proper reward for it.Another example is Taimi Beibulat, whom they present as one of the Chechen leaders and national heroes in the history of the Chechen nation. But if you take a close look, that «national hero» went over to Russians two or three times, he was given officers’ ranks, medals and monetary allowance. That man was raised by the Russian invaders. They staked on him and they wanted to appropriate the rest of the Chechen people by making Taimi Beibulat a prince in charge of the «principality».Or let’s take Shamil’s servant Duba, who finally surrendered too. Russians gave him a rank, an estate, and today we even have the village of Duba-Yurt named after him. Up until this day many are proud that he was the servant of Shamil, but for some reason no one ever recalls that at first he was fighting bravely and by the end of his life he became a traitor.Or here is an example of the Chermoyev family. Ortsa Chermoyev was a Russian general. His sons, - Tapa, etc. – were Russian citizens, they were officers and they were given a lot of riches. Today the people are keeping them in their memory as prominent representatives of the Chechen Nation.

There are many similar examples. Take just the heirs of our Sheikhs as an example: Deni Arsanov, who died as a Shaheed in a battle with Russians in the fortress of «Grozny», and his descendants are serving Kafirs these days, they get all kinds of sops and all kinds of ranks. And on the top of all that the people are showing respect to them.

There are a lot of examples like that. We have never punished national traitors. Take the year of 1944 for an example. All of us know full well that when our people were getting deported, the entire Communist Party/KGB staff consisting of Chechens took a separate train with compartment cars, took their belongings and moved to Siberia. These people knew in advance that our people would be deported. They sold their houses and their personal property upfront and even made some profit on it, and in Siberia they had much more benefits than our ordinary people did. Was any one of them ever prosecuted? No. Why? Because someone else is writing our history, because today we do not have any impartial historians who would be capable of writing the truth about the past of the Chechen Nation.

When our people were being deported, all of those archives about our past that we had in storage were destroyed and this is why today we are using the information provided by Russia or by Western sources. This is our trouble. Even those historians and writers that we have are concerned with something else instead of this.

Let’s take our historian Dalhan Hozhayev as an example, who Insha Allah became a Shaheed in this war. However well he was writing and however well he knew history, still he was inclined towards one problem – studying the role of the Beno Clan in the national liberation movement of the Chechen people. I am partly glad that he did not live till these days, because the role of the Beno Clan has turned 180 degrees around.This is the absence of true history of the Chechen Nation (written by our historians familiar with our country, our traditions, our mentality, etc.) and this is the fact that we are easily and comfortably using the unreliable alien information what makes many traitors and renegades our national heroes.

These are the circumstances that let the national traitors have a reason to hope that they can get away with anything and their descendants will go unpunished. Our people have a very short memory concerning the offences and pain. We forget our pain very quickly and this is why many national-traitor scumbags have multiplied today. They are the descendants of those who were selling out their people before.But Insha Allah, the new stage in the history of the Chechen Nation has come today, when national traitors will be charged and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Not by the laws of our personal revenge, but by the laws of the Shariah of Almighty Allah.

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.- Russian mass media made it a rule to talk about your implacable hatred to all Russians and to anything Russian… Is that really so?

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This kind of opinion forming among the public is no more than a part of false propaganda and disinformation, as well as a part of the fight against the Chechen people. I believe that it is of no particular need to answer this question because any person familiar with the religion of Islam knows that a man gets evaluated before Almighty Allah according to how god-fearing he/she is, and not by his/her nationality.

Being a Muslim, not a single person can hate any nation, because each nation has scumbags, or the great ones, or pure people.Speaking about the Russian people, I would like to ask: what part of Russian has remained in those people? Strong degradation has happened and is still happening, and nothing Russian is remaining in those people.

Everything is being destroyed, erased and drunk away… A normal Mulsim cannot observe all of this without pity or compassion, because every Muslim must see the best qualities in people, and we know that Almighty Allah reserved for each man until his death a chance to change and get on the way of the Truth.

We can’t be treating an individual contemptuously only because of his ethnic background or color because we do not know what lot has Almighty Allah prepared for him tomorrow. We can only ask Almighty Allah to show the Way of the Truth to the lost.Speaking about Russian people separately, very many bad things certainly prevail among them. But they have a lot of good things as well. There are many thousands of people whom I consider to be better than my own self, the ones who adopted Islam and who are now sincerely following the way of goodness.

Even from the example of this war I made sure once again: some Russians who adopted Islam were more sincere in their faith before Allah than Chechens who grew up in Muslim families were. I saw that many of them were more sincere before Allah than I am. And today I have many Russian brothers who are Mujahideen and who are waging Jihad shoulder to shoulder with us. Two Russian Mujahideen died when they were guarding me.

No to mention Russian Muslims, there are many people who came from Russian midst, whom I have great respect for, - for their honesty, for their civic position and for their courage. For instance, Rybakov, Deputy of the State Duma, who was born in a prison camp and did 6 years for his convictions in the camps of the Soviet system. In Budennovsk he offered himself in exchange for the hostages. He is a steadfast and uncompromising man, who never sells out his principles or his honor.

Or Sergei Kovalev, a courageous man worthy of respect. Elena Masyuk, who during the previous war was in trenches while trying to deliver the truth about that war. She was crawling in the trenches and the FSB took revenge using our hands.I have respect for Svetlana Sorokina even for the words that she once said: «the conscience of Russian generals cannot be washed off by anything».

This was a deed of heroism today too.I had respect for Solzhenitsyn until he arrived in Russia on a train, like Lenin once did on an armored truck, and until he assumed the role of the «Father of the Nation», which turned out he could not handle. In his books he precisely pointed at the attitude of Chechen people towards Russians or towards other nations; he said that Chechens disdain all slaves, all of those who have put up with their slavish condition, but they help and have respect for those who fight for freedom.

These are the words that can define my attitude towards anything Russian as well. Solzhenitsyn must understand that over these 60 years that have passed ever since, the Chechen people cannot change radically. It was Solzhenitsyn who has changed. This is the whole logic of the situation. Everybody thought he was a lone wolf, but he turned out to be a usual mongrel: he was promised a bigger kennel and an opportunity to bark to his heart's content, and that’s why he betrayed his principles…From the history we know that over 700 Russians were fighting in the troops of Imam Shamil. They were a part of cavalry, infantry, artillery, etc. Many of them adopted Islam, but there were also those who held on to their own belief.

It must be mentioned that in that same city of Vedeno Imam Shamil ones allowed Russian Old Rite Church to open up its temple, where people were praying in accordance with the canons of the Christian religion. It speaks about the tolerance among the Muslims and the Chechens. It also shows our today’s attitude towards the Russians and towards people of other religions, because we have been brought up in the traditions of our ancestors and we are striving for the best qualities that they were possessing.

As our Prophet (peace be upon him) used to say: «Judge the people by their deeds, and not by their words». If we stick to this principle, everything will fall into place.Russian people are degrading and need to be rescued much more than the Chechens do. By the mercy of Allah we are on the way of Jihad, on His straight path. We all must finally die. Almighty Allah says in His Holy Koran:«Say: the death that you flee will meet you».

We have no problems. The only problem that we have is our national traitors from among our people. But by the mercy of Allah Russian people have objectively helped us expose these undercover hypocrites, and we must be grateful for that.Sooner or later we all must die. How we will be dying is important. We have no hatred towards Russians, even to those Russian slaves who are trampling our land today; we have only pity and disdain for them, and no more than that.

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- America has invaded Iraq and has already marked new victims while going to keep waging the war. What do you think the world will be facing in the nearest future?

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By the mouth of Bush the entire world of Kufr (unbelief) has stated that it is going to establish democracy all around the world by force: the democracy the way they see it. Actually, it is conspiracy against the entire world. Against the entire mankind. I called him Adolf Bush because he is not much different from Hitler who was trying to establish the new world order too, but in his own way with the supremacy of the Aryan Race. Bush decided to establish the «American democracy».

There is no difference between them except for the terms that they used. The principles are all the same: belligerent ignorance and fascism. Sure, Bush’s plans are posing a threat to many dictatorships. Today they are panicking and changing their diapers, but I think ordinary Muslims will only benefit from it because the Muslims, who are now gripped in the vice of dictatorship of their regimes and who cannot breathe freely, will be able to lift up their heads and take a long breath during all of this turmoil. I think it will be to the advantage of Islam and will help all of the Muslims to get up from their knees and unite.

The actions of the only remaining superpower today are reminding of the fall of the Roman Empire, when they had virtually no enemies in the world whatsoever, no large powers that would be able to oppose them, but after some time however hordes of Barbarians defeated the Roman Empire. Today the situation is the same: luxuries, depravity, seeming material wealth during total spiritual and moral bankruptcy and corruptness have reached unheard-of heights just like during the Roman Empire… Degradation of the nation is obvious, - it is a natural process, even though the country’s leadership is trying to stop it, it won’t make it because Satan is leading the West to the precipice.

Multiple claims that America launched a crusade do not reflect the reality either. There is nothing crusading in America’s actions, this is a satanic campaign against the entire world, against anything sacred in this world, against Islam, against Christianity, against Judaism, - it is the attack of the belligerent Kufr (world of unbelievers), the attack of godlessness and Satanism against the Faith on all fronts and all levels under the guise of all sorts of slogans.

This campaign is threatening the entire world with huge chaos, major upheavals and wars, but sooner or later the Truth will triumph, the Goodness and Justice will win, and the New World Order based on the laws of the Great Creator, the Lord of the Worlds, will be established on Earth. And we are convinced of that, and Insha Allah (God Willing), we will put all of our efforts to it. And may Great Allah help us in it!