01.2002 - Source: UN High Commissioner for Refugees

UNHCR: Ethnic tensions and political rivalry in the republic of Karachai-Cherkessia ("UNHCR Paper on Russian Asylum Seekers from the Russian Federation in the Context of the Situation in Chechnya") [#7554],  [ID 11396]

"32. The situation in the Republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachai-Cherkessia is characterised by ethnic tensions and political rivalry between the two constituent nationalities (Kabards vs. Balkars and Karachais vs. Cherkess). These two republics are mainly concerned with maintaining the equilibrium between the respective constituencies. This equilibrium is particularly fragile in Karachai-Cherkessia, where a terrorist bombing occurred on 24 March 2001 in Agidehabl village. The Federal authorities accused Chechen fighters of responsibility for the incident."

Document(s): hcr-chya0102dt.DOC
hcr-chya-0102.doc

31.08.2001 - Source: Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Balkar and Karachai people allegedly tried to discredit by Kabards and Cherkess ("Coup Rumours Rattle North Caucasus") [ID 11397]

"In mid-August, Russia's prosecutor-general, Vladimir Ustinov, informed the press in Chechnya of the arrest of 11 Islamic conspirators who, he alleged, were planning coups in the neighbouring republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachajevo-Cherkessia. Sergei Prokopov, a special advisor in the Russian prosecutor-general's North Caucasus office, confirmed the allegations. [...]
Ustinov's allegations stirred up anger and disgust among the public in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachajevo-Cherkessia, who first learned about them from Russian news reports. "Rubbish from Moscow!" said pensioner Irina Puchkova in the Kabardino-Balkarian capital, Nalchik. "They should take care of their own affairs, and stop confusing us." [...]
"I don't think that we have a mutiny on our hands," said Saladin Khagazhaev, a judicial official. " I assume these are rumours spread by people who stand to gain from them." Local analysts believe wealthy Kabards and Cherkess living in Moscow lie behind both the coup report and the March bombing campaign.

"Kabards and Cherkess continually try to discredit Balkar and Karachai people," said the Karachajevo-Cherkessian newspaper Dialog. "They accuse them of terrorist acts and other sins through the Russian security services, FSB, and the office of the prosecutor general."

The fact that all 11 arrested terrorists appear to be Balkars and Karachais seems to support this theory. According to information given to IWPR, one of those wanted by the police in connection with the alleged plot is known by the last name Bekkaev, a former administrator of the Elbrus settlement near the Abkhazian border and brother of a well-known Balkar businessman, Omar Bekkaev, who lives in Moscow."

Document(s): Coup Rumours Rattle North Caucasus