Malika Umazheva
Encyclopedia
Malika Umazheva a former school teacher
, was the former head of the pro-Moscow
administration of the Chechen
village Alkhan-Kala. Umazheva was an outspoken and courageous critic of unlawful zachistka
("cleansing") raids that Russian forces conducted in her village and had had several confrontations with a high-ranking Russian federal officers during the months prior to her death. She also worked closely with the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
.
According to Memorial
investigators, Umazheva was killed by a group of Russian special forces
soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with VSS Vintorez
silenced sniper rifles, who arrived at the village in an armoured vehicle and a military truck on the night of November 29-30, 2002. The soldiers broke into her home, where she lived with her son and two adopted daughters, and took her outside. Umazheva's body was discovered by the villagers soon after.
On December 4, 2002, a correspondent for Radio Liberty reported:
In a tribute to the slain Umazheva, her friend Anna Politkovskaya
wrote in Novaya Gazeta
on the next day:
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, was the former head of the pro-Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
administration of the Chechen
Chechnya
The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...
village Alkhan-Kala. Umazheva was an outspoken and courageous critic of unlawful zachistka
Zachistka
*Zachistka in Borozdinovskaya*Zachistka in Tsotsin-Yurt*Zachistka in Alkhan-Kala...
("cleansing") raids that Russian forces conducted in her village and had had several confrontations with a high-ranking Russian federal officers during the months prior to her death. She also worked closely with the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
Russian-Chechen Friendship Society
The Russian-Chechen Friendship Society was a Russian non-governmental organization monitoring the human rights situation in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus. The society produced daily press releases on serious human rights violations...
.
According to Memorial
Memorial (society)
Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....
investigators, Umazheva was killed by a group of Russian special forces
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...
soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms and armed with VSS Vintorez
VSS Vintorez
The VSS , also called the Vintorez , is a silent sniper rifle developed in the late 1980s by TsNIITochMash and manufactured by the Tula Arsenal...
silenced sniper rifles, who arrived at the village in an armoured vehicle and a military truck on the night of November 29-30, 2002. The soldiers broke into her home, where she lived with her son and two adopted daughters, and took her outside. Umazheva's body was discovered by the villagers soon after.
On December 4, 2002, a correspondent for Radio Liberty reported:
"More than 4,000 residents of the Chechen Republic gathered today for the funeral of Malika Umazheva in the settlement of Alkhan-Kala, and almost all of them signed an appeal to the [pro-Moscow] leadership and procuracy of the republic asking that they locate and punish those guilty of murdering a courageous Chechen woman who, despite all the threats from the Russian special services, the MVD, and the soldiers of the Combined Group of Forces in Chechnya, always stood in defense of the rights of the populace of Alkhan-Kala, documenting all illegal actions committed by the soldiers during their many special operations and raids on that population point."
In a tribute to the slain Umazheva, her friend Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Politkovskaya
Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a Russian journalist, author, and human rights activist known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin...
wrote in Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta
Novaya Gazeta is a Russian newspaper well known in the country for its critical and investigative coverage of Russian political and social affairs....
on the next day:
"Malika was a true heroine, a unique and marvelous one. She became the head of administration of one of the most complex Chechen villages—Alkhan-Kala (a 'BaraevArbi BarayevArbi Alautdinovich Barayev , nicknamed "The Terminator", was a renegade Chechen warlord often accused of clandestine links with the Russian special services...
' village, the subject of endless 'cleansing operations,' executions and disfigured corpses) after the former head had been murdered. Reason would have told her: 'Sit quietly. Be careful.' But she did the exact opposite—she became the boldest and most committed village head in that murderous zone of militaryMilitaryA military is an organization authorized by its greater society to use lethal force, usually including use of weapons, in defending its country by combating actual or perceived threats. The military may have additional functions of use to its greater society, such as advancing a political agenda e.g...
anarchyAnarchyAnarchy , has more than one colloquial definition. In the United States, the term "anarchy" typically is meant to refer to a society which lacks publicly recognized government or violently enforced political authority...
which today is Chechnya. By herself, unarmed, she went out to meet the [Russian] tanks that were crawling into the village. Alone, she shouted to the generals who had deceived her and, on the sly, were murdering the residents of the village: 'You scoundrels!' She relentlessly fought for a better fate for Alkhan-Kala. No one else permitted himself to do that in present-day Chechnya. Not a single male. She, a humble village head who had been elected by a popular assembly earned the wild hatred of the chief of our General StaffChief of the General Staff (Russia)The Chief of the General Staff is the chief of staff of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. He is appointed by the President of Russia, who is the commander-in-chief. The position dates to the period of the Russian Empire...
, the much-decorated General KvashninAnatoly KvashninGeneral of the Army Anatoly Vasiliyevich Kvashnin was the Chief of the Russian General Staff from 1997 to 2004, when he was dismissed by President Vladimir Putin. Kvashnin graduated from the Kurgan Machine-building Institute in 1969 and served in the armed forces from this time...
. He hated her so much that he invented the vilest stories about her, using his access to the television cameras to spread them. And she? She continued along her chosen path and, in response to Kvashnin's lies, she sued him in court, knowing perfectly well that almost everyone is afraid of him.... But Kvashnin does not forgive those who do not fear him."
Further reading
- Khassan BaievKhassan BaievDr. Khassan Baiev is a Chechen-American trauma surgeon who upheld the Hippocratic oath to treat thousands of civilians and combatants on both sides of the First and Second Chechen Wars, including Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters....
. The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire. Walker & Company. 2004. ISBN 0-802-71404-8. - Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Dirty War: A Russian reporter in Chechnya
- Politkovskaya, Anna (2003) A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya
External links
- "Mopping-up" in the village Alkhan-Kala 11-15 April 2002 (MemorialMemorial (society)Memorial is an international historical and civil rights society that operates in a number of post-Soviet states. It focuses on recording and publicising the Soviet Union's totalitarian past, but also monitors human rights in post-Soviet states....
) - Grozny Village district. Assassination of former head of Alkhan-Kala administration Malika Umazheva (Russian-Chechen Friendship SocietyRussian-Chechen Friendship SocietyThe Russian-Chechen Friendship Society was a Russian non-governmental organization monitoring the human rights situation in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus. The society produced daily press releases on serious human rights violations...
) - A brazen war crime by Russian forces in Chechnya (The Jamestown FoundationThe Jamestown FoundationThe Jamestown Foundation is a Washington, D.C.-based institute for research and analysis, founded in 1984 as a platform to support Soviet dissidents. Today its stated mission is to "inform and educate" policy makers about events and trends, which it regards as being of current "strategic"...
) - The Risk of Speaking Out: Attacks on Human Rights Defenders in the context of the armed conflict in Chechnya (Amnesty InternationalAmnesty InternationalAmnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
)