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CHECHEN LEADER URGES YOUTH NOT TO FIGHT IN SYRIAN CONFLICT
Chechen Leader Ramzan Kadyrov Urges Youth Not to Fight in Syrian Conflict
RIA Novosti. Said Tsarnaev
13:11 18/06/2013
http://en.rian.ru/politics/20130618/181728820/Chechen-Leader-Urges-Youth-Not-to-Fight-in-Syrian-Conflict.html
MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader has
launched an education campaign to persuade local youth not to take
part in the Syrian conflict, he said in an interview published in
Russian media on Saturday.
Ramzan Kadyrov, a one-time separatist-turned Kremlin loyalist, told
Russian media he has ordered Chechen officials, clerics and public
figures to "constantly educate the youth about the real nature of
Syrian events, to prevent possible recruitment of young people for
participation in the war."
He said his government is also "educating" young Chechens about the
role of "external forces" in Syria's civil war, which has already
claimed more than 93,000 lives according to the latest UN figures.
Kadyrov said "five or six" Chechens have already been killed in the
conflict, but did not elaborate.
He admitted several more Chechens remain among the predominantly
Sunni insurgents fighting Assad's regime, which mostly consist of
Alawites, a Shia sect which has dominated the religiously diverse
Middle Eastern nation.
Kadyrov insisted that the Syrian war is not about jihad.
"There is no holy war in Syria," he said, according to a transcript
of his interview published on his government's website. "There is
a campaign - well-planned by external forces - to topple (Assad's)
regime, destroy the country, eliminate its military."
His comments echo Russian President Vladimir Putin's stance on the
conflict. Moscow remains Assad's biggest political ally and continues
to supply weapons to his military. Putin has repeatedly criticized
the West for supporting the enemies of what he describes as Syria's
"legitimate" government.
The pugnacious, bearded Kadyrov has plenty of experience in opposing
Islamist militants in his own republic.
A teenage boxing enthusiast, he joined anti-Kremlin Chechen separatists
in the mid-1990s along with his father Akhmad, a prominent cleric
with one of the powerful Sufi brotherhoods that have traditionally
held sway in Chechnya.
But after their clan fell out with other insurgents inspired by
the radical Wahhabist ideology, the elder Kadyrov headed Chechnya's
pro-Kremlin government in the early 2000s and was instrumental in
largely putting down the rebel movement there. He was later killed
in a bomb attack.
Human rights groups and critics have long accused Ramzan Kadyrov and
his local forces of abductions, extrajudicial killings, torture and
other grave human rights abuses. But the Kremlin has credited him
with restoring peace in the war-ravaged province and returning tens
of thousands of refugees to Chechnya.
Chechen Leader Ramzan Kadyrov Urges Youth Not to Fight in Syrian Conflict
RIA Novosti. Said Tsarnaev
13:11 18/06/2013
http://en.rian.ru/politics/20130618/181728820/Chechen-Leader-Urges-Youth-Not-to-Fight-in-Syrian-Conflict.html
MOSCOW, June 18 (RIA Novosti) - Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader has
launched an education campaign to persuade local youth not to take
part in the Syrian conflict, he said in an interview published in
Russian media on Saturday.
Ramzan Kadyrov, a one-time separatist-turned Kremlin loyalist, told
Russian media he has ordered Chechen officials, clerics and public
figures to "constantly educate the youth about the real nature of
Syrian events, to prevent possible recruitment of young people for
participation in the war."
He said his government is also "educating" young Chechens about the
role of "external forces" in Syria's civil war, which has already
claimed more than 93,000 lives according to the latest UN figures.
Kadyrov said "five or six" Chechens have already been killed in the
conflict, but did not elaborate.
He admitted several more Chechens remain among the predominantly
Sunni insurgents fighting Assad's regime, which mostly consist of
Alawites, a Shia sect which has dominated the religiously diverse
Middle Eastern nation.
Kadyrov insisted that the Syrian war is not about jihad.
"There is no holy war in Syria," he said, according to a transcript
of his interview published on his government's website. "There is
a campaign - well-planned by external forces - to topple (Assad's)
regime, destroy the country, eliminate its military."
His comments echo Russian President Vladimir Putin's stance on the
conflict. Moscow remains Assad's biggest political ally and continues
to supply weapons to his military. Putin has repeatedly criticized
the West for supporting the enemies of what he describes as Syria's
"legitimate" government.
The pugnacious, bearded Kadyrov has plenty of experience in opposing
Islamist militants in his own republic.
A teenage boxing enthusiast, he joined anti-Kremlin Chechen separatists
in the mid-1990s along with his father Akhmad, a prominent cleric
with one of the powerful Sufi brotherhoods that have traditionally
held sway in Chechnya.
But after their clan fell out with other insurgents inspired by
the radical Wahhabist ideology, the elder Kadyrov headed Chechnya's
pro-Kremlin government in the early 2000s and was instrumental in
largely putting down the rebel movement there. He was later killed
in a bomb attack.
Human rights groups and critics have long accused Ramzan Kadyrov and
his local forces of abductions, extrajudicial killings, torture and
other grave human rights abuses. But the Kremlin has credited him
with restoring peace in the war-ravaged province and returning tens
of thousands of refugees to Chechnya.