23 January 2008, 12:34
Contract soldiers from Dagestan protest against nationality-motivated dismissals
On January 22, over two hundred Dagestanians-contract soldiers from the military units deployed in Khankala held a picket in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, in protest against their nationality-motivated dismissals.
According to the protesters, only within several recent months, the command of the 42nd Division has dismissed over 500 contract soldiers who originated from Dagestan.
The participants of the rally informed the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that natives of Dagestan are exclusively dismissed by the command.
According to the information obtained by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent from Lachin Lachinov, Chairman of the Autonomous Noncommercial Organization "Our Caucasus", they give no chance to serve in the army to those young men who were recruited from Dagestan, although their commanders have no grounds for dismissal, since the soldiers have no violations of the military discipline or service manuals.
The contract soldiers think that General-Major of the 42nd Motorized Rifle Division (MRD-42) Sergey Minenkov and commander of the 71st Motorized Rifle Regiment (MRR-71) Colonel Sleptsov are the initiators of persecuting Dagestan contract soldiers.
The Dagestan contract soldiers have repeatedly filed applications to the court. According to Mr Lachinov, "court sessions at the Grozny Garrison Military Court located in Khankala are constantly delayed."
All the participants of the rally were invited to meet Magomed Tinamagomedov, Military Commissioner of Dagestan. It was decided at the meeting to form a special commission of deputies of the Dagestan Parliament and representatives of broad public. The members of the commission will go to Khankala to study the situation in situ and draw conclusions.
Author: Timur Isayev, CK correspondent
