On 26 December, Chechen refugee Selima Khadisova was granted asylum in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which means that the issue of her extradition to Russia has been lifted. This was announced by the leader of the Chechen national liberation movement “United Force” Dzhambulat Suleymanov.
“We are no longer afraid that Selim Khadisova will be handed over to the Putin-Kadyrov regime,” wrote Dzhambulat Suleymanov on his Facebook account. “I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of myself and the Chechen National Liberation Movement “United Force” to everyone who took part in the actions to save Selima Khadisova, which took place in Vienna, Brussels, Paris and Kyiv. Special thanks to the activists who organized these actions and friends who supported the Chechen diaspora and provided legal and informational assistance.
These are Chechen activists from Belgium, Roza Dunaeva from Vienna, members of the “Niiso” movement in Europe, activists from “Vaifond”, Oleg Medunitsa, Oleg Vitvitskyi and our other Ukrainian friends from the Anti-Imperial Bloc of Nations in Ukraine, Albanian activist Fati Dervishai, volunteer of the Paris branch of “Memorial” Anna, activists from the Paris “Russie Libertés” and many others whom I have not mentioned.
These are those who do the work that the so-called “official” CRI officials were supposed to do out of a sense of duty. They distanced themselves from this nervous and painstaking work, calling it toxic. Moreover, these “official” persona have become an obstacle to all Chechen activists, suppressing the altruism of enthusiasts. Instead of encouraging and helping them, they try to crush and control them, appropriating their work. This also happened after the liberation of Selima Khadisova.
Our movement “United Force” was not created for human rights activities, we are not engaged in it. However, since we are known in the Chechen diaspora due to the previous public activities of “Bart-Marchot” and the “Assembly of Chechens in Europe”, we are still approached in difficult situations, as was the case with Amina Gerikhanova. We cannot refuse, although this distracts us from our main work since the safety of our compatriots is our priority.
This time, our movement “United Force” joined later, at the request of Selima Hadisova’s relatives. When we organized the rally in Paris, the actions in Vienna and Brussels had already taken place.
But we had one opportunity and hope — a personal acquaintance with the ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to France, who helped draw the attention of the country’s leadership to our appeal several years ago. We presented the rally resolution.
At the final stage, we took a whole set of measures. In particular, with the help of Ukrainian partners, an appeal from the “United Force” regarding the situation of Selima Khadisova and other similar cases involving Chechens, Ingush, and other representatives of the North Caucasus, was delivered to many Western governments of the EU and the US.
Regarding Selima Hadisova, the information was conveyed to the immediate leaders of several of the most influential international organizations, who immediately joined the process of protecting Selima. Our friends, influential public figures in the Balkans, conveyed the necessary request to the government officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In Kyiv, on the eve of Selima’s release, our allies from the Anti-Imperial Bloc of Nations held a picket near the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina and submitted a demand not to hand over Selima at the request of the Russian Federation. Representatives of influential international media outlets came to this picket at our invitation, and spread information about this blatant case worldwide.
We organized a whole series of events with the help of our friends from different countries on the eve of the court hearing on the issue of Selima, as well as all the joint preliminary events of all Chechen activists and organizations throughout Europe, which yielded a positive result, Selima Hadisova was released and is now protected by the status granted by Bosnia and Herzegovina.
But this is only one small victory. Last week, Austria extradited one of our compatriots and an Ingush, which indicates our efforts are insufficient. The problem is that they are not systemic, but situational. We do not model the protection of our refugees, formulating the issue at the proper level, but only react episodically to the situations that have arisen.
The national liberation movement “United Force” seeks to raise the discussion of this systemic problem, related to the image loss of the Chechen diaspora during the Second Russian-Chechen War, to the level of international organizations and governments of leading countries of the world. We must explain that Chechens are victims of Russian aggression. Chechens face prejudice due to clichés imposed by Russian propaganda and rooted in European media. Chechen society needs the support of the world community and rehabilitation.
The appeal of the Chechen national liberation movement “United Force”, with a call to pay attention to the problem of Chechen diasporas in Europe, was delivered to the US Congress at the end of November this year. Throughout the past year, our movement has also been actively working in PACE on this issue. With the help of our Ukrainian friends, comprehensive work has been started in the direction of other important international institutions.
However, our compatriots need to take a more active part in resolving this issue. First of all, this is civic awareness and preventing unacceptable incidents on the part of our youth. This requires more successful social and educational work. Civic courage involves providing information, openness about acts of offenses against our compatriots in Europe, and resistance to the pressure of the Putin-Kadyrov regime on relatives in Chechnya. Silence only fuels injustice to our people and increases their suffering. Support and mass protest actions are all within your power. Let’s work together and unitedly to protect our rights,” concluded Dzhambulat Suleymanov.
