Q:
Has your role in the Chechen separatist movement changed since the
death of [former Chechen rebel President] Aslan Maskhadov?
A:
In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Glory
to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, who created us as Muslims and
delivered us with a Jihad on His direct path! Peace and blessings be
upon Prophet Muhammad, his family, his disciples, and all those who
follow his direct path to the Day of Judgment!
First
of all, I wish to point out to you that we are not separatists. A
separatist is one who tries to distance himself from other people or
other things. We are not isolating ourselves from anyone, because we
are not a legal part of anyone. We restored our state's
independence, which had been lost as a result of the centuries-long
Russian-Caucasian war, in 1991. Any expert on the Caucasus or anyone
interested in the history of the Caucasus knows this. Therefore, the
term separatist does not apply to us.
As
far as your question is concerned, I can say that since Maskhadov's
death, my responsibility has increased, and I cannot allow myself to
do many of the things I did before. The Mujahideen received the news
of Maskhadov's death calmly and with a certain amount of pride in
their leader. Many times I reminded him of the parable in the Bible,
"Do not cast pearls before swine", but Aslan was an
idealist.
Democracy
and human rights will not save us from genocide; we merely
grow weaker from relying on these promises. |
|
Today,
a great many people are once again convinced that a brazen and
unceremonious law of force, rather than the force of the law, is
dominant in the world. And no matter how much we try to come to
terms with the rules of this world, neither so-called international
law, nor democracy, nor human rights and other fancy things will
save us from genocide; we merely grow weaker from relying on these
terms and promises.
While
they talk to us about democracy, international law and the rest,
200,000 of our people have been killed; that is 25 percent of our
people. Imagine 2.5 million Swedes out of your 10-million population
being wiped out.
Today
the whole world is willingly or unwillingly assisting in the
genocide of our people, just by demanding that we observe certain
rules. The situation is like that in a boxing ring, where a boxer
and a kick boxer are fighting. The referee, in the form of the world
community, allows the kick boxer to kick, while the boxer is not
allowed to use his feet, even to block his opponent's kicks, because
there are no such rules in boxing.
Many
people understand that in order to survive and to triumph in this
war you have to use the same weapons and use the same methods as
your enemy. We must not try to please either the West or the East.
We must be ourselves, clench our teeth, and fight on, without
looking to the sides. As they say, "the path of evil is wide,
and many people walk down it. But the path of good is narrow, and
few walk down it." This is damaging to us in the tactical
sense, but strategically it is our only real chance of victory.
Q:
Where are you at the moment?
A:
In Chechnya. Even if I gave you the name of a specific area as a
joke, the place would immediately be cordoned off, and there would
be a full-scale "cleansing operation"—fields would be
dug up, doors, attics, walls, and foundations smashed down, property
and belongings confiscated, and part of the male population led
away, to have their tortured and mutilated bodies subsequently
bought back with bribes. So I will refrain from telling you exactly
where.
Q:
Why do you think that Aslan Maskhadov chose Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev
to succeed him?
A:
As I recall, the powers of president and emir [commander] were
bestowed on Sheikh Abdul-Khalim in accordance with our state
law and the decision of the State Defense Committee of the CRI. This
was an absolutely correct and legitimate decision. Apart from that,
Sheikh Abdul-Khalim is a fair and most acceptable leader for all the
members of the resistance forces, and enjoys everyone's trust and
respect. He was a sincere aide and advisor to Maskhadov, and always
supported him in all the good deeds he performed. In most cases he
was a counterbalance to my opposition to Maskhadov, preventing us
from overstepping the mark. At the same time, he has one very good
quality which is appreciated by the Chechen people, and which I, for
one, lack—he is able to listen to everything anyone has to say.
Q:
The Russian authorities believe that Aslan Maskhadov's death will
reduce the terrorism of the Chechen separatists because funding from
abroad will be reduced. Do you agree?
A:
I again point out to you my disagreement with the terms you are
using—"terrorism" and "separatism." We do not
accept these terms in relation to us. These terms are one of the
forms of propaganda used against us.
As
far as the crux of your question is concerned, this is not true.
Whatever labels our enemies like to pin on us, we are waging a
struggle for national liberation from Russian imperialism, and such
a struggle does not depend on "foreign funds." We have
taken this baton from our forefathers, and this struggle has
continued for centuries. Just to give you some idea of our
mentality, I will give you an example dating back 126 years.
Today
the whole world is willingly or unwillingly assisting in the
genocide of our people. |
|
The
Russists [derogatory term for Russians] used trickery in calling for
talks, and took prisoner 74-year-old Uma Duyev, one of the leaders
of the Chechen resistance at that time. He was immediately sentenced
to death by hanging. As he stood under the scaffold with the noose
around his neck, waiting for the stool to be kicked away from under
him, one of the local traitors went up to him and asked him,
"Why did you resist? Surely the Russians are much stronger than
you. You should have done what I did. Now you will die without
getting what you wanted, whereas I will live." Uma replied:
"I shall die happy to have lived as a free man, devoting my
life to God and my people, having killed quite a few enemies of my
fatherland, and relying on the mercy of the Almighty. You will live.
But what will you do with your worthless, slavish life? You will
have one big basket of maize and fill up one lavatory pit. And
that's all!"
That
sums up everything! We are not restricted today by timetables, and
we are guided by expedience. If it is to our advantage, we will
become more active, and if it is to our advantage, we will keep our
attacks to a minimum. We are never in a hurry, and life in a jihad
is better than Russian enslavement. And we are striving to end this
war only to end the genocide of the Chechen people.
Q:
Other people, on the other hand, think that there will now be more
terrorist acts, because there are no longer any Chechen leaders who
want to solve the conflict by peaceful means. What do you say to
that?
A:
That is also untrue. We are not fighting for the sake of war. A
Chechen proverb says, "A man is not one who knows how to fight,
but one who knows where his enemy is." We are fighting to
defend our freedom and independence from Russian imperialism, and to
protect ourselves from the next genocide of our people. On the
contrary, it is Rusnya [derogatory term for Russia] where there are
no leaders who wish to resolve this military conflict by peaceful
means, and the insidious murder of Maskhadov by the Russists in
response to his peace proposal is a clear testimony to this. But
never mind; we will carry on until their imperial revanchist ardor,
combined with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's inferiority
complex, is ended.
The
days of the imperialists are numbered, and the Russists will have to
come to terms with this sooner or later. Remember, I never said that
I am fighting against the Russian people, but against the Russists.
Because, in the definition of our first President Dzhokhar Dudayev,
"Russism is an imperialist ideology which, in its misanthropy,
is worse than fascism or racism."
Q:
When Aslan Maskhadov was alive, you were carrying out terrorist acts
even though he condemned them. Will you now obey his successor?
A:
I'm very fond of the Newton's third law, which states that "for
every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." I have
always said, and I say again: If Putin observes international law,
we will observe it with pleasure. Laws are there to be observed by
all the participants in a conflict. But I swear to God that I am
prepared to give up further subversive actions (but not terrorist
acts) against unarmed Russists if your news agency can just show me
the difference in favor of the Russists between the murder of 267
women, children, and old people in a Grozny market place by
surface-to-surface missiles (illegal, incidentally, under
international law), and the blowing up of two of our martyrs at the
Tushino market in Moscow, which killed 16 Russists.
Q:
If Abdul-Khalim Saydullayev wants to enter into talks with the
Russians, are you prepared to obey him?
The
victims of Nord Ost and Beslan are fully on Putin's
conscience. |
|
A:
Talks are the logical conclusion to any war. And our President
Sheikh Abdul- Khalim has said that he is open to dialogue and
prepared to discuss any peace initiatives, but he will never himself
ask for peace. I support this approach, and will do all I can to
help him establish a just peace and stability, if this does not run
counter to the laws of the Almighty. I would also like to point out
that I was the first to swear allegiance to him. But neither he nor
anyone else can forbid me, while there is a war going on—I stress,
while there is a war going on—from doing that which God permits me
to do. And God says in the Qur'an: "Fight in the way of Allah
against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo!
Allah loveth not aggressors." I have always tried not to go too
far, but the victims of Nord Ost [the Moscow theater siege of
October 2002] and Beslan [town in North Ossetia, site of the school
siege of September 2004] are fully on Putin's conscience. All we
were doing was holding people, demanding an end to the war and the
genocide in Chechnya, and it was the Russists who killed their own
people. It was not we who poisoned them with binary gas (banned from
use by international law) at Nord Ost, nor was it us who set fire to
them with flame throwers (also banned from use by international law)
in Beslan.
Q:
Have you had any contacts with Osama Bin Laden or other members of
Al Qaeda recently?
A:
Before asking questions, such a solid news agency as yours ought to
look at my previous interviews, where I have always said that I am
not acquainted with Bin Laden and have had no contact with him,
although I would very much like to meet him. Anyway, Putin has
already "appointed" him as my commander. One thing I know
for certain is that he cannot fundamentally be a villain, because
his face gives out a strong light in all the photographs which I
have been lucky enough to see.
From
my own experience, I know that America and Rusnya love to decide who
the guilty parties are without even allowing them to say a word to
justify themselves. An example of this is the story of the weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq and Saddam, whose overthrow I always
supported, not for the benefit of America, but because I saw in this
an advantage for Muslims. But they also pinned the bombing of houses
in Moscow and Volgodonsk on us without any proof and started the
war, but if I had blown up those houses, I would never deny it.
Q:
What is your attitude to this organization [Al Qaeda]?
A:
My attitude is a normal one, with an element of caution, as one has
with any unknown quantity. Because all my life I have only seen two
"members" of Al Qaeda. And not only were Khattab and Abu
Walid not members of Al Qaeda, but they did not even know Bin Laden.
They had only seen him a few times in Afghanistan, and then from a
distance, in the company of people like them, who were ordinary
mujahideen during wartime. But now in Chechnya, a situation has
developed where, as soon as any more or less well-known mujahid is
killed, he immediately "becomes" the organizer of all the
worst subversive operations, and must have been a member of Al
Qaeda. It is a very interesting situation; so long as a mujahid is
alive, he is my subordinate, but as soon as he dies, he becomes a
member of Al Qaeda and the "main source of funds."
Q:
In an interview for British television you said you were planning
new attacks like Beslan. In what part of the world and when can we
expect new terrorist acts?
The
days of the imperialists are numbered, and the Russists will
have to come to terms with this sooner or later. |
|
A:
Again, before asking this question, you should read my previous
statements. We are fighting only against Rusnya, and so far, only on
its territory. You can expect subversive operations, but not
terrorist acts, only in Rusnya and in Qatar, and only against
citizens of Rusnya. But the fact that there were no major subversive
activities this autumn and winter is down to Maskhadov, and not the
Russian special services. In November, we spent 12 days together,
and he got a commitment from me that I would not interfere if he
wished to conduct talks to end the war, which the Russian leadership
are surreptitiously proposing through mediators, and that I would
altogether desist from all subversive acts during that time. I have
kept my word, although I have suffered losses as a result of my
inaction.
Maskhadov
is dead as a result of the insidiousness of the Russists and because
of his excessive desire for peace, and now I am free from my
commitment.
Q:
How and when do you think the war in Chechnya might end?
A:
Putin is a sick and ignorant person, otherwise he would have heeded
the ancient Persian proverb which says, "When a Shah goes mad
he goes to fight in the Caucasus." Rusnya started this war, and
all the "keys" to peace are in the Kremlin. The war, in
sha’ Allah [Allah willing], will end soon in Moscow, with the
recognition of the full and unconditional independence of the CRI in
exchange for Rusnya's security. And we will do anything to achieve
this. Allah is Greatest!
In
conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the
people of Sweden for the support and assistance you have given to
our peaceful refugees. This is sufficient for us, and we will never
forget this. In my mind, Sweden has always been associated with
three words: "Abba," "Volvo," and
"Saab," and before the war we even seriously studied the
Swedish economic model of state administration, with the intention
of introducing it in Chechnya. And now we can add to all this the
fact that Sweden is among those few truly free countries who are not
afraid to draw Rusnya's displeasure. Remain free!
Respectfully
yours,
Abdallah
Shamil Abu-Idris (Shamil Basayev)
