The Council of Chechen Refugees in Azerbaijan published a strong statement and evaluated to so-called negotiations of Zakayev.

Statement of the Council of Chechen Refugees in Azerbaijan on the so-called “negotiation” process of the national traitors:

The Council of Chechen Refugees in Azerbaijan cannot fail to respond to the criminal deal between Akhmed Zakayev and the occupation authorities in Chechnya that is aimed at moving the Russian-Chechen war onto the plane of civil confrontation.

Our position on this issue is clear – we condemn Zakayev’s actions, and we consider them traitorous and harmful to the national interests of the Chechen people.

Furthermore, the Council of Chechen Refugees in Azerbaijan expresses a categorical protest against the criminal actions of the so-called ChRI “Parliament” led by Saralyapov and created by the Zakayev “government” . The Council has no confidence at all in these actions, nor in those of Zakayev’s followers who appear on the list of names in the “reconciliation” commission.

Hiding behind pious goals and attempting to save war criminals from the punishment they deserve, both in Chechnya and in expansionist Russia, these people want to write off a war that has lasted fifteen years as a quarrel between Chechens.

The proposal for “consolidation” is a call to halt the just war for the independence of Chechnya. This position is one that is openly hostile to our liberators.

The negotiation process begun by Zakayev and his followers sets us back four hundred years and cancels out the entire heroic history of our people.

Dear brothers and sisters, today it is not rich mansions and unrighteous wealth that we must bequeath to our children, but freedom. If we do not have freedom, we will have no future.

Today, not tomorrow, we must decide the fate of the Chechen people, and give up everything we can along this sacred path, our lives and our fortunes, in order permanently to resolve the Chechen question – not unload it onto the shoulders of our children and grandchildren in cowardly fashion.

With Russia we are presently at war, and those on the other side are our enemies. But tomorrow we will be able to negotiate with them as state with state. For national traitors, however, there is no room, neither around us nor on earth nor in heaven, and not in negotiations either.

We are not opposed to negotiations with Russia, but they must take place on the basis of the plan that has been drawn up by the fighting mujahedin, solely with their participation and in the presence of international mediators.

When one side is victorious, the enemy extends his hand.

And to this end we call other states to join us in our efforts. Today, not tomorrow, we shall be victorious, by the will of Allah.

We do not need mythical “saviours” who appear in the blood of others. These people have forgotten themselves a bit, they have transgressed the limits of the permissible. We will not allow anyone to write off the blood of 300,000 dead, 10,000 people missing without trace, 20,000 tortured and imprisoned, and also the tears and humiliation of 6,000 Chechen women who languish behind the bars of Russian concentration camps.

We would like to ask Zakayev where his so-called ministerial “cabinet” actually is, the one in whose name he informs the people of their salvation?

Azerbaijan is a simple example. What does he think about all the people who have been murdered or handed to Russia, the brutality that has been practiced against Chechens, the people who have lived and still live in poverty here, or have been forced to leave?

Might not he and the present members of his “cabinet” at least respond in word and deed to the tragedy of their compatriots? Where were those whom he has appointed to his negotiating committee? Where was the “Parliament” ? Where was their conscience? From where have they turned up and surfaced now?

Not in one place have they defended us, and yet today in our name they make statements, they arrange negotiations behind closed doors.

While we wandered in foreign lands, trying to preserve our the honour and dignity, Zakayev and his followers spent ten years in affluence and luxury.

These people did not care about those who fought, suffered hunger and poverty, became the victims of persecution and humiliation. They were not with us even when the people of other countries were on our side and supported us morally. When even representatives of the country with which we are at war – human rights defenders like Politkovskaya, Markelov, Litvinenko and others – sacrificed their lives for the truth about Chechnya.

For ten years Zakayev has lived in England, sipping coffee at breakfast while our brothers and sisters, daughters and mothers choked on blood, and yet today, without even asking those who are at war, he begins negotiations behind our backs and presents himself as the nation’s saviour.

We forbid him to act in our name, and resolutely declare that we do not need such “bearers of the flag of truce”.

Dear brothers and sisters, do not permit this disgrace before the world community.

We must each express our view of this matter and give a worthy rebuff to the adventure that Zakayev has undertaken.

The Council of Chechen Refugees in Azerbaijan
August 20, 2009.

*Translated from Russian into English by DM