History
In 2008 Magomed Yevloyev, owner of the highly critical opposition website Ingushetia.ru, was killed while in police custody. The aftermath of the killing was marked by an upsurge in separatist activity and animosity towards Russia and Russians among the Ingush population. At the center of this controversy was the deeply unpopular President Murat Zyazikov, a former KGB general who was criticized both by human rights groups and by some in the Russian government. The Ingush Interior Minister Musa Medov was targeted by a suicide bomber in October 2008. Eventually, Zyazikov was asked to resign. On 30 October 2008 Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree to remove Zyazikov from office and replace him with Lieutenant Colonel Yunus-bek Yevkurov. This was hailed by the Ingush opposition as a victory.
However, the violence did not end. According to police sources, nearly 50 people (including 27 rebels, 18 policemen and two civilians) died in the almost daily clashes in this small republic (less than 500,000 inhabitants) in the first three months of 2009. Assassinations and attempted assassinations of high-profile figures continued. On 10 June 2009 Aza Gazgireeva, the Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ingushetia, was gunned down, and on 13 June former Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev was shot dead outside his home. Ingush President Yevkurov was seriously wounded in a suicide bomb attack on 22 June, and Construction Minister Ruslan Amerkhanov was shot dead in his office in August. In October 2010, the Islamist group Ingush Jamaat announced a moratorium on killing police officers; according to President Yevkurov, 400 police officers had been killed in Ingushetia in the five years to 2 October 2010.
Read more about this topic: Civil War In The Republic Of Ingushetia
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No one can understand Paris and its history who does not understand that its fierceness is the balance and justification of its frivolity. It is called a city of pleasure; but it may also very specially be called a city of pain. The crown of roses is also a crown of thorns. Its people are too prone to hurt others, but quite ready also to hurt themselves. They are martyrs for religion, they are martyrs for irreligion; they are even martyrs for immorality.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)
“Man watches his history on the screen with apathy and an occasional passing flicker of horror or indignation.”
—Conor Cruise O’Brien (b. 1917)