A Dagestani journalist's murder in Abdulatipov’s era

A Dagestani journalist's murder in Abdulatipov’s era


By Vestnik Kavkaza

Yesterday more than 500 residents of Dagestan marched down the streets of Makhachkala, trying to draw attention to the death of journalist Ahmednabi Ahmednabiyev who was killed in Semender, a suburb of Dagestan’s capital.

The first attempt on his life took place six month ago. On January 11th, he was shot, but law-enforcement agencies didn’t consider it an attempt on his life, even though Ahmednabiyev’s name was mentioned in “the hit list” where eight other journalists were mentioned. The investigation into the list was frozen because people who distributed it were not identified. After the attempt on the life of its editor-in-chief, Novoe Delo wrote: “There is no doubt attempts on lives of Dagestan journalists will continue. In the past decade, 16 journalists were killed in Dagestan. The sorrowful list includes the namr of our colleague Zagid Varisov who was shot dead in summer 2005. None of the crimes have been officially investigated. It is typical that the state structures consider attempts on journalists’ lives only in the context of terrorist activities, while many experts believe that independent journalists first of all are undesirable for some top officials of the republic, heads of towns, districts, and so on.”

Dagestani political scientist, observer of Svobodnaya Respublika Newspaper, Khazhan Kurbanov, told Vestnik Kavkaza that “after Abdulatipov’s coming in office, the journalist’s murder is perceived as bolt from the blue. Today many people are concentrated at absolutely different things. Today the society experiences renewal, refinement from old forces and old ideas in Dagestan. In this situation a murder of a mass media representative is shocking. A murder usually causes many scandals in the society. Some people point at corruptive bureaucrats; others at some different forces. But in the context of dismissals and arrests of heads of towns, top officials, everybody thought that semi-criminal and semi-corruptive forces would calm down and think about their security.”

According to Kurbanov, “the murder is either last echo of old Dagestan or some other force, because the journalist didn’t fight against militants intensively.” The political scientist thinks that it would be a serious attack on popularity and image of Ramazan Abdulatipov. He believes that this time the investigation will be initiated and accomplished.

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