Deputies of the People's Assembly of Chechnya and representatives of the republic's executive branch are in favor of drafting and adopting a bill on the principles of resolving land disputes on the territory of the Chechen Republic. In their opinion, unless the new law lays down mechanisms for nontraditional land conflict resolution, the republic will soon face a multitude of problems. It is impossible to solve them under the existing legislation because it does not take the region's specificity into account.
A House for every Brother
Federal Law No. 131 on the General Principles of Organizing Local Self-government cannot be enforced in Chechnya because its land disputes are too complicated, says Salman Gazamagametov, head of the administration of the Sunzhensky District of Chechnya: "How can we locate the administrative borders between the municipal entities under this federal law when even the general outlines of the administrative border with neighboring Ingushetia are not marked?"
When the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (CIASSR) was divided into two republics, the Sunzhensky District found itself between them. Ingushetia received around 60 percent of the autonomous republic's territory, four major population centers, over 40,000 hectares of the most fertile lands and the entire socio-economic infrastructure. Chechnya was left with only two population centers - the rural settlement of Sernovodsk and Assinovskaya - both lacking the resources to generate livelihoods without the common infrastructure of the Sunzhensky District.
To make matters worse, not all the legal formalities for the split between the two republics have been completed. The administrative boundaries between districts of the same name in Chechnya and Ingushetia have yet to be demarcated. Chechen Parliamentary Deputies Mompasha Machuyev and Musa Ibragimov, along with other Chechen parliamentarians, are convinced that Federal Law No. 131 must be fully enforced in Chechnya. They also believe that the primary task is to demarcate the administrative borders with Ingushetia, and that Chechnya must create a legislative base that would make it possible to effectively resolve disputes and conflicts regarding land tenure. Until these mechanisms have been worked out and put before the public, any attempt to regulate or improve the disputes over land tenure are doomed to fail.
The issue of administrative boundaries has long been an obstacle in relations between the two republics. Options for resolving this issue were proposed immediately after the division of the Autonomous Republic of Chechnya and Ingushetia. The Chechen side proposed formalizing the division of the republic within the boundaries that existed when the Chechen Autonomous Region and the Ingush Autonomous Region were united in 1934. This approach did not satisfy the Ingush because it would have prevented them from claiming any land in the Sunzhensky District. The Ingush emphasized the demographic situation in the district, which did indeed change in their favor in the late 1980s with the help of the authorities. On a territory not inhabited by a single Ingush in the 1950s and 1960s, the Ingush formed the majority of the population by the time the USSR fell apart. The Chechens still call that process the "creeping annexation by the neighbors."
At the same time, a myth is being actively played up which says that the Karabulaks, to which these lands have historically belonged, are the ancestors of the present-day Ingush. Therefore, it is alleged that the Ingush are the owners of the territory in question. The Karabulaks, who were one of the largest Chechen tribes toward the start of the 19th century, put up the fiercest resistance against tsarist troops during the Caucasian War of 1817-1864; the majority of the Karabulaks died in that war. Some of those who survived went to Turkey and the Middle East; others settled on the territory of present-day Chechnya and Ingushetia; some registered themselves as Chechens, others as Ingush. This is a fact that no one disputes.
It's another matter that as early as 1810 the Ingush signed a treaty with Russia, agreeing that their territory would form part of Russia and that they would support the tsarist authorities in their fight against the Karabulaks, that is, the Chechens.
Another argument of the leaders of the so-called Ingush movement (men like Issa Kostoyev) goes like this: "Every brother has the right to live in his own house." This is axiomatic, but the Chechen opponents add: "Let the brother live on the farm that he owns, and let him not take other people's property." This viewpoint was repeatedly voiced by, for example, Lecha Umkhayev, deputy of the People's Assembly of the Chechen Republic, formerly a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Thus, when it comes to where to demarcate the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia, it's a case of diamond cuts diamond. The federal center is unlikely to be able to sort out this situation painlessly. It should not keep postponing a resolution of the issue either, for if Moscow fails to address the problem, it will have to face widespread discontent with its inaction.
Every Bush Must Have an Owner
The challenges concerning land tenure in Chechnya itself are no less complicated, and the number of disputes and conflicts has lately been on the rise. The roots of almost all the land-related law suits go back tens, if not hundreds of years. In Soviet times, the authorities tried to put an end to disputes and conflicts over land tenure by strong-arm methods, but failed to settle any of them.
In the course of Chechnya's history, there emerged only two categories of land. One category included publicly owned lands. Every population center had its own plot of arable land, large or small. The boundaries between these allotments were clearly marked, their inviolability having been maintained for centuries. Simple folk are still aware of these boundaries. In principle, Federal Law No. 131, which provides for such inviolability of administrative boundaries between municipalities, fully corresponds to the traditional way of life of the Chechens. Problems arose because in Soviet times the boundaries were demarcated according to a different principle, and today many population centers find it disadvantageous to retain the Soviet boundaries because they would lose a sizable portion of their territory. A return to the boundaries that existed in tsarist times are blocked by those who would become landless through such a restoration of justice.
Neither option is favoured by those who own the second category: privately owned land. They believe that all the lands owned by their ancestors 100 or 200 years ago should be returned to them. This position is backed by the rules laid out in the Shariat and the Adat. Under these rules, the forcible seizure of private property by the state or some other entity does not deprive the owner of his proprietary rights.
Conflicts are constantly arising over these inconsistencies. For instance, in the late 1980s the inhabitants of Stariye Atagi village protested against the removal from their village's public lands a plot for the construction of a new population center for dwellers of two highland settlements (Bolshiye and Maliye Varandy) that had been hit by landslides. Stariye Atagi villager Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev happened to be drawn into the conflict; he would later become President of Ichkeria. The Regional Party Committee and the republic's government at the time had to work hard to convince the villagers of Stariye Atagi that it was necessary to build a new settlement (to be called Noviye Varandy). Although this new population center finally appeared on the map of present-day Chechnya, there are many reasons why the long-standing conflict has not been settled.
Prior to the banishment of 1944, Checheno-Ingushetia had more than 2,230 population centers. Now only 400 are left. The reason is that after the restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1957, the Chechens who returned from exile were not permitted to settle in the mountainous areas of the republic. As a result, hundreds of mountain villages, farmsteads and settlements, big and small, were left without their indigenous dwellers. Consequently, these population centers ceased to exist over time, but their lands remained.
By Abdul Itslayev
