"Dosh": residents of Dagestan believe that locals join militants because of power agents' lawless behaviour

Many residents of Dagestan believe that their countrymen "go to the forest" and join the militants because of the power agents' arbitrariness. This is evidenced by the results of the questioning conducted by the magazine "Dosh" in September-October 2011. Local experts agree with the questioning data and note that "reprisals" of power agents encourage belief in correctness of the violent resistance method in minds of supporters of "the forest".

Most questioned Dagestanis believe that people join militants aiming to save their lives

2117 people, aged 18-80 years, participated in a public questioning, which was conducted in the cities of Makhachkala, Kizlyar, Khasavyurt, Kizilyurt, and in the villages of Tukhchar and Khutrakh by the journalists of the magazine "Dosh" together with the Interregional Public Organization "Centre of Caucasian Initiative", organizations "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights" and "Human Rights Protection of Dagestan".

Almost half of respondents - 49.4 percent - chose the answer: "because of the power agents' arbitrariness to save their own lives or avenge for their relatives' murder." According to 28.3 percent of respondents, the main reasons that encourage Dagestani residents to "leave for the forest" are religious beliefs and a desire to establish the Shariat law in Dagestan. 20.8 percent of respondents believe the main reasons for this decision are unemployment and impossibility to legally earn a living.

The questioning involved public sector workers - medical professionals, teachers, social workers (19.3 percent of respondents), students (28 percent), pensioners (12 percent), entrepreneurs (5.9 percent), people who work for private entrepreneurs (6.1 percent), and unemployed (18.7 percent). The organizers of the questioning indicate no significant difference in responses of the respondents of different social status - it was only 2 percent.

"People go to forest in protest against authorities' arbitrariness"

"We conducted the questioning at the request of the magazine "Dosh". We worked mainly with the followers of Salafi trend, a group of citizens who appealed to our organization with complaints of power agents' arbitrariness more often than other citizens," told Gyulnara Rustamova, the head of the Dagestani regional organization "Human Rights Protection", the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to Gyulnara Rustamova, that category of citizens unanimously indicated among the reasons for "leaving for the forest" "fear of prosecution, kidnapping and other misconduct of law enforcement officials who persecute people for their religious beliefs: people "go to the forest" to protest against power arbitrariness."According to relatives of victims, during last week only, power agents kidnapped four people - the people who stayed at their houses, worked, who were not involved in anything illegal," says Gyulnara Rustamova.

She reported on the detention of the note written by a participant of illegal armed formations (IAFs), which was secretly thrown into her office. "A young man, an IAF member, writes about the situation in Kizlyar District," says the human rights activist. "He writes: "Here, you call people out of the forest. At the same time, the authorities provide no guarantees of their release from criminal liability: in the Kizlyar District, more than 50 people sentenced under fabricated charges."

According to Gyulnara Rustamova, the note states that people "go to the forest" for fear of violence. "Not only men, but also women have moved to the forests to escape the power agents' arbitrariness: the author of the note wrote in it that his wife had spent two months with him in the woods for fear of violence," continues Gyulnara Rustamova. "However, when she left the forest - since the forest was not a proper place for a woman, the note stated, - she was immediately arrested and, according to her husband, tortured, beaten, and a criminal case was initiated against her."

Gyulnara Rustamova intends to appeal to the Commission on adaptation of ex-militants under the President of the Republic of Dagestan to request that the woman should be released from criminal liability, since this fact, according to the human rights activist, would be a good example for the "forest" people, who decided to return to civilian life.

"Some 'forest' people express their social protest in this way"

Zubairu Zubairuev, Acting Head of the Information Policy Department and the Press Service of the President of Dagestan, believes that people join underground for various reasons, and the main reason is very difficult to be determined. "Many "forest" people failed to fit well into the life, many of them received no education, have no job and do not know how to work and how to feed their families. Such people understand war better than peace the world - someone had been cheated, someone takes revenge," told Zubairu Zubairuev the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the official, another reason for "leaving for the forest" is "a desire to relinquish an addiction to vodka or marijuana - since it is easier to do in the forest."

According to Zubairu Zubairuev, many "forest" people are neophytes who came to the religion a year ago. "They are young people who were for the first time given a coherent structure of the universe, a simple explanation of a complex world. For this concept and eternal life, they are ready to fight with firearms in their hands," the official emphasizes.

He also assumes that some "forest" people express their social protest in that way: "Many of them grew up in distressed families, who would be engaged in racketeering in previous times, and now they call it a struggle for the Shariat law."

"Young people, who grew up in absence of state ideology, "leave for the forest"

Svetlana Isaeva, Chair of the organization "Mothers of Dagestan for Human Rights", is engaged in human rights activities for four years; and, according to her, every day she communicates "with a mass of people, including relatives of those who went to the forest." Svetlana Isaeva agrees with the statement that the residents of Dagestan often join militants because of power agents' arbitrariness.

"I have no doubt that people leave for "the forest" because of power agents' arbitrariness - every day I come across such examples. The sooner the law enforcement agencies start working under the Law, the Constitution, the less number of such "leaving for the forest" and protests occur," told Svetlana Isaeva the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

All questioned experts agree that there are three reasons for the outflow of Muslims to the forest: religious beliefs, civil rights violations committed by power agents and unemployment with social disorder. According to Nadira Isaeva, the Dagestani independent journalist, the ex-editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Chernovik" (Draft), the second option dominates in the responses not occasionally.

"Social class of people - and it is time for Russia to recognize power agents as a distinct social class - who announce that they save Russia from anarchic terrorism, Wahhabism and other extremist trends, represents a generator of antagonistic trends, first in people's minds, and then in their actions. Practicing lawyers can confirm the correctness of this thesis; they witness how punitive mechanism of power agencies break fates of young Muslims and drain purses of their relatives," states Nadirs Isaeva.

According to her, numerous human rights violations committed by power agents and social disorder have no such a power of suggestion, persuasion and ideological foundation, which the faith can offer to a person.

In Dagestan, mainly young people, born in 1980-90s, who grew up in the absence of the state ideology, "leave for the forest". "These people chose for themselves Islam and search for justice with firearms in their hands," states Nadira Isaeva.

"The more severe the power agents commit their arbitrariness and the more corrupted the authorities of the republic are, the stronger the impact of religious beliefs encourages the outflow of people to the forest," believes the Dagestani journalist. "By violence, the power agents supply the supporters of the forest with human resources, and ideologically reinforce in their minds the confidence in the correctness of their chosen method of resistance."

You can find the results of the public questioning and comments of political and public figures at the magazine "Dosh", No. 3 (33)/2011, which is to be issued in early November.