HERO OF CHECHNYA SPEAKS
amigocabal
translation
Polish journalist Miroslaw Kuleba talks with amir Khattab - the
commander of islamist fighters, who are fighting in Chechnya against
the Russian military.
WE WILL LIBERATE THE WHOLE RUSSIA
Miroslaw Kuleba: Khattab, do you believe to live to see the fall of
the Russian empire?
Amir Khattab: Insha Allah! I believe in it! And I'm working on it.
Russians politics is very dirty. Russians don't know how to live in
peace. They don't even know how to conduct a war in the civilized
manner. The whole word, the United States, does conduct negotiations
when fighting, take care of the civilian population. Russia -
absolutely not. The whole world is afraid of Russia, but the Caucasus
as the first one is going to take revenge on her and it will defeat
her. This will be done by the Chechens. That's the only nation that
is ready to fight to the end.
Q: You've gave a few years of your life, fighting together with the
Chechens. But, after the war, there was an opinion circulating in
Chechnya, that amir Khattab and his islamist fighters should leave
the republic. Did president's Aslan Maskhadov's decree about
self-dissolving for all military units from the time of war with
Russia also applie to your unit and training bases in Serzhen-Yurt
and other localities in Chechnya?
A: If I would get this kind of order from the chief of military
forces, meaning from president Maskhadov, I would fulfil it. I'm an
officer of military forces of the Chechen Republic- Ichkeria.
Certainly, some voices speaked up, that there's no place in Chechnya
for me anymore. But now, a place for me I think has been found -
these are trenches on the first line of the front. In my bases, I've
had trained seven thousands people. Today, I don't even know where
they are.... Besides, Russia is a huge country. I will find a place
for myself in it, if I'll become not needed in Chechnya.
Q: Were you looking for this place for yourself in Dagestan? Your
wife is an Avar from the village of Karamakhi, and that name has
became well-known lately. What was a goal of your action in Dagestan,
taken together with Shamil Basayev?
A: All people knew that a war with Russia will take place. Still yet,
before the events in Botlikh in Dagestan, Russian planes were
bombarding without a break some targets in Chechnya, especially
in the Naursky and Shelkovsky region. The Russians destroyed a
Chechen customs checkpoint and border stations there. In plain words;
they were checking us out. The word thinks it was us, who came with
war to Dagestan, but in reality we used up earlier the all peace
methods to avoid the conflict. Dagestan had his own internal problems
and it should solved them by itself, without any help of the
Russian army. The Council of Ulema (Muslim scholars trained in Islam
and Islamic law) of Chechnya and Dagestan was asking, issueing many
declarations and warnings - to no effect. Then we had came and
encircled the Russian forces. We've destroyed a lot of armored
vehicles, many helicopters, some Russian generals had perished there.
Q: What was the course of battles in Dagestan?
A: Early morning on the 6th of August we entered Ansalta in the
Botlikh region. Our goal was to support the Dagestani uprising that
exploded in the Tsumadinsky region and it was being cruelly pacified
by the Russians. So, we rushed with help. Some people while fleeing
were leaving their houses unlocked and were saying: "Guys, here is
food, take it". But, also there were some who were indignant with
us. In Ansalta we took the positions, and all its inhabitants had
left. We entrenched ourselves around a few villages. On the third
day, 8th of August, the Russians begun to bombard us. During that
time they were only bringing reinforcements and people could take
their possesions, but the Russians didn't allow for that.
The Russian military was supported by some Dagestani volunteers,
but they weren't fighting in battles. During the whole action we had
lost 36 our people. We destroyed seven helicopters.
Q: We've heard about mining of mosques by the mujaheedin...
A: We didn't mine any mosque. No Muslim will do that. But, it was
known that the Russian soldiers were relieving themselves on purpose
in the mosques...
Q: As the result of your raid on Dagestan, the Russian attack came on
Chechnya.
A: After what's happened in Dagestan, Russia was terrified. And then,
a few events followed which are not totally clear to me. I do not
know who's commited all those bomb attacks. I should think that
Russia provoked some acts or attacks. She had many reasons for that.
She plans to conquer Chechnya again and wants the whole word to
support her. Those bomb attacks have absolutely nothing to do with
us. We never fight like that. We don't fight with women and children.
Q: During the previous war with Russia your attack on the Russian
column near the locality of Yarishmardy was widely known. Do you
want to conduct the war in the same manner today?
A: My group destroyed even bigger column near Serzhen-Yurt, but the
Russians didn't tell about it.We've destroyed there 47 vehicles from
almost a hundred. The column was stretching for five kilometers.
Seventy our people were there. We prepared the ambush with help of
the village's inhabitants. Without their help this wouldn't be
possible, because the whole road was under Russian control, and close
by, near Tsa-Vedeno was stationing 506th Russian regiment, composed
of a few thousands people. For the whole week, by nights, we've had
been fording the river and transporting on our backs tank's and
artillery shells from the mountains. We've had been burying them
along the road, avoiding ambushes of the Russians who had hidden
sentries there. We've had been placing detonators and cables. At the
same time we were shelling 506th regiment from mortars. One day, a
mortar shell hit a helicopter that was just taking off with a Russian
general who was inspecting the regiment. The machine was already a
few meters in the air, when a mortar grenade hit it in its tail.
The helicopter exploded in the air together with the general.
Just before the action, in the Russian press there were some
informations that as a result of the fighters' shelling, corpses of
506th regiment's soldiers can't be recovered and they are decomposing
in the heat. From Benoi, a column of tanks from the Ossetian regiment
was rushed.
Q: I've heard that after the battle, amir Khattab was personally
killing Ossetian prisoners with his knife.
A: There was no soldiers and no prisoners there. Only mercenaries
were there, who are not taken prisoners... In Yarishmardy I had 43
people. We had destroyed 32 vehicles, including 3 tanks, 11 APC's.
The ambush went exactly as we planned. Just when we finished mining
in the morning, take some rest and started our noon prayer, from the
direction of Grozny, a column showed up. We manned both sides of the
road, that's running on the narrow shelf in the river's gorge. The
area was mined and each electric cable was connected to two mines.
Anyone who was detonating his load always saw the whole road. We've
destroyed the Russians within ten minutes. This all can be seen on a
video-cassette, which was taken by us then. It's available on every
bazaar in Chechnya. We weren't taking any war booty and prisoners,
because the Rusian fire was too strong. When we had retreated, their
helicopters arrived, but it was too late. My group had lost three
people.
Q: Shamil Basayev said lately, that you've destroyed a Russian tank
again. Supposedly, it was causing you lot of trouble on the front.
A: I shoot very well. Specially from anti-tank and anti-aircraft
weapons. I used to be an artillery commander in Afghanistan. I'm able
to use artillery, to find for it the best positions. Shamil is the
commander of the front today, and I'm his field commander. I'm
preparing plans and programs on how to fight on the front, where to
put centers of fire, how to conduct operations.
Q: You had fought against the Russian army in Afghanistan and
Tadjikistan, now you are fighting in Chechnya. Why have you taken
the destruction of Russia as your goal?
A: Today, Muslims should liberate above all their own territory.
It's still needed to learn a lot. Today, there's no difference for
us where to fight - in Afghanistan or Chechnya or Africa or Saudi
Arabia. It doesn't have to be even Jerusalem, though there are holly
places for us and every Muslim wants to fight for them. We're
defending our faith and soil, our women, our Fatherland. Until kafir
occupies our Muslim land, we have to fight to liberate this territory
to the end, until Allah allows it. The world tells us about
democracy. It's been said about us, that we hate democracy. That's
not true - there's no democracy, that's only a fantasy. Where is this
democracy, show me, where? In Russia or in America?. Who did allow to
kill a half million people in Bosnia, 200 thousands in Tadjikistan,
two million in Afghanistan? Now, murdering of people in Chechnya is
going on and the democratic world is silent again...
I want to say something to your nation. Today Russia has a very
big problems with authorities and army, also economic problems.
All the nations wanting to liberate themselves from Russia should
collaborate: Muslims or Christians. From this despot, who's sitting
at the Kremlin, it's necessary to set us free. I'm warning: let the
Russians know - we won't stop anymore. We're going to fight until we
will liberate the whole Russia.
Miroslaw Kuleba talked in Grozny.
frank
> A: If I would get this kind of order from the chief of military
> forces, meaning from president Maskhadov, I would fulfil it.
I thought the Mad Dog has already been killed. What a surprise! And so
boring. - f
amigocabal
Hero of Chechnya lives forever. Just blew down two Russian fighters
yesterday, Chechens are celebrating today!