Cracking Down On North Caucasus Blood Feuds

In attempting to eradicate the tradition of blood feud in Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of the Chechen Republic, is sparing no effort to settle all the feuds among Chechen clans. During the sacred month of Ramadan, 60 of these conflicts were peacefully resolved. The press-service of republic's government informed VK that some 100 cases of blood feud were detected by the special Blood Feud Peaceful
Settlement Commission.
"60 families chose to forgive their enemies in the name of Allah and his Messenger. Some of them had been in a state of conflict for more than 40 years".
Kadyrov expressed his condolences to those families who had lost loved ones and thanked them for taking the wise decision to forgive their blood enemies and promised that the commission will continue its activities. "I am ready to ask the parties to come to a peaceful solution myself to avoid further bloodshed," said the head of the republic.
Kadyrov himself, however, has not always been opposed to the concept of blood feud: after the death of his father, Akhmad Kadyrov, he declared his intention to fulfil the rite of the blood feud, even though he was deputy prime minister of Chechnya at the time.
The problem of blood feuds is an urgent one, not only for Chechnya, but for all the Russian North Caucasus republics. After assuming office, Ingush President Yunus-bek Yevkurov committed himself to the struggle with this tradition. Some 180 families in Ingushetia are now in a state of blood feud, which has taken the lives of more than a
hundred people over past few years, the press-service of the Republic's government informed VK. In some cases the vendetta is even publicly announced: for example, after the murder of Mahomet Yevloyev, the owner of independent opposition web-site 'Ingushetia.ru', in 2008, his relatives publicly declared a vendetta against the head of the Ingush police, Colonel Musa Medov, and ex-president of the Republic, Murat Zazikov, via the mass-media.
Attempts to eradicate vendettas in the North Caucasus have been undertaken many times since 1907. Back then, the tradition was declared incompatible with the Koran's moral teachings and all quarrelling families were to make peace before July 1st 1907. The Soviet government issued a similar decree in 1928, creating Reconciliation Commissions to resolve cases of blood feud. Under the initiative of Akhmad Kadyrov a new Reconciliation Commission, which managed to settle 350 cases, was established in 2002. However, killings according to blood law are still not uncommon in the Caucasus. Some clans have been at war for decades, so they don't even remember the initial incident that provoked their feud. Despite all governmental efforts, Chechen families still face the choice stipulated by medieval traditions: to take revenge or dishonour the whole clan.
Alexander Vladimirov. Exclusively for VK