Chechen refugees feel defenseless in Austria

18 December 2010

A Vienna Demo newspaper Die Presse published an article entitled "Kadyrov's Chechen critics feel defenseless in Austria".

The article says:

"Nearly two years after the murder of Umar Israilov in Vienna, the members of the Chechen community criticize Austrian authorities that they had left them stitch.

In the early days of the war in Chechnya in December 1994, Huseyn Ishanow was often sitting in the basement of the presidential palace in Grozny. As a personal aide to the Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, he participated in the defense of the Chechen capital.

Today he sits in his living room in Vienna. There two laptops in one corner, the phone rings constantly. Ishanow, a 55-year-old with clear vision and a gray beard, answers phone calls sometimes in Chechen, sometimes in Russian, rare in German.

Ishanow in lobbying in the EU Parliament to establish a UN tribunal to investigate Russian crimes in Chechnya. He took part in the Chechen world congress in the Polish city of Pultusk (it's about the failed controversial attempt by Zakayev to present his show as a "world congress" - KC).

"I do this for my descendants", Ishanow replies when asked why he, the father of 6 children, is so active in exile, while he calls himself an "old man". He was granted a refugee status, and he says he's today on a "diplomatic mission" to Europe for independent Chechnya, "Ichkeria", as it is called by the followers of the nationalist Akhmed Zakayev, who call himself Maskhadov's successor.

After the assassination of Umar Israilov, his persecutors - Kadyrov's followers - got special attention in the spotlight. The Austrian Green party MP Peter Pilz estimated the number of Kadyrov's thugs in Vienna as 30 persons, the total number of his sympathizers in Austria are 5,000 elements.

However, not only Kadyrov's men and representatives of Zakayev - the inner circle of whom is "about 100 men", as claimed by Ishanow - are active in Austria, but also the supporters of the Islamist rebel leader Dokku Umarov. A suspected follower of Umarov was arrested on December 1 at Vienna's Schwechat airport. He is accused of planning an attack against NATO. Umarov in 2007 embarked on a radical Islamist course.

Despite the fact that his followers in Austria are represented in minority (in fact, they are reüresented in majority - KC), many young people find attractive his radical rhetoric. "First Sharia, then Republic", is their motto, says Ishanow. His motto is the other way around.

For demonstrations - such as against a Putin's visit to Vienna - a few hundred Chechens are mobilized.

Bert Scharner from the European-Chechen Society does not believe that Chechens have close relationship with the front at home. "The contestants are living somewhere in the woods, making contact with them not so easy".

Anti-Kadyrov's activists in Austria are like "supporters of a football club": "They want their players win". They disseminate information, collect money. From the thesis of "imported conflicts" Scharner holds little: "The largest group is the one that goes nowhere. People are afraid".

Fear is also felt by Aslan B., so that he does not want his real name to be published in the newspaper. "I am not protected by the police". The young man draws a threat scenario: "Kadyrov's men amongst Chechens in Austria collect information and forward it to Grozny. Those who are critical are subjected to pressure and even worse.

"Our members receive threatening phone calls in Chechnya". Kadyrov makes no bones about the fact that he wants to pursue critics outside Chechnya. Recently in his TV address, he threatened all his enemies, even abroad. Since the incident with Israilov, Austrian Chechens are skeptical of the police. Austria does not want to quarrel with Russia - this is a widespread opinion.

Cases like that of Kosum Yeshurkayev, a state security informer and older brother of the suspect Turpan-Ali Yeshurkayev at the Israilov's process increase the distrust.

As an example, a Russian embassy employee Said Selim Peshkhoyev, the alleged representative of the FSB, who specifically "takes care" of Chechen refugees and is allegedly in close contact with the Aiustrian ministry of interior.

For Kadyrov's critics, all this is incomprehensible. "Why has the Austrian police an adviser from the Russian secret service or Kadyrov?" asks Aslan B. "The police must protect us" (let us recall that Ausria just signed an new agreement with Russia that along with Austrian police spies like a Kadyrov's man Yeshurkayev and a terrorist killer from the KGB-FSB Peshkhoyev, additional Russian terrorists from the the Russian gang "Ministry of Internal Affairs" will be "protecting" from now on in Vienna Chechen refugees", the Vienna Islamophobic Demo newspaper Die Presse writes.

Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center

Source: Kavkaz Center.
Link: http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/content/2010/12/18/13156.shtml.