Ruslan Gelayev

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Hamzat Gelayev (Russian: Хамзат Гелаев)
1964-2004
Nickname	Black Angel
Place of birth	Komsomolskoye, Chechnya
Place of death	Near Bezhta, Dagestan
Allegiance	Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
Battles/wars	Georgian-Abkhazian conflict First Chechen War Second Chechen War

Ruslan (Hamzat) Gelayev (Russian: Руслан (Хамзат) Гелаев) (1964 – February 28, 2004) was a Chechen field commander in the Chechen separatist movement against Russia. He was known as a ruthless fighter but respected even by some of his enemies.^[1]

Often based high in the mountains of the Caucasus, he led major assaults on Russian bases and checkpoints. The Russians nicknamed him the Black Angel, a tribute to his success in the guerrilla campaign.^[2]

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 First Chechen War and interwar period 1.2 Second Chechen War 2 Death 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] First Chechen War and interwar period

In 1992-1993, Gelayev took part in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict as a volunteer on the Abkhazian side.^[3] Returning to Chechnya he was soon a commander in Dzhokhar Dudayev's Spetsnaz (special forces) unit Borz (Wolf), with the future President of Ichkeria Dokka Umarov serving under his command.

Gelayev fought in the 1994-1996 First Chechen War against the Russians, including the defence of capital Grozny. Gelayev was one of the first Chechen fighters awarded the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria's highest medal Kioman Syi (Honor of the Nation). In early 1995, Gelayev became the commander of the South-Western Front of the rebel forces.

In 1995 Gelayev's units defended the village of Shatoy. Gelaev was wounded several times and had to stop fighting and Mumadi Saidayev took over the command in the Southwest of Chechnya.^[4] On May 27, 1995, he announced that if the bombing of the Shatoy village in the Shatoysky District continued, five Russian prisoners of war would be killed a day, and according to Memorial eight prisoners were executed while carrying this threat.^[5] On March 6, 1996, Gelayev led a surprise raid on Grozny, regaining large parts of the city^[6] for two days, inflicting serious losses on federal forces and leaving with more than 100 hostages,^[7] in what was seen as a test before the recapture of the city in August in the operation by Shamil Basayev which ended the war.

After the war, Gelayev became deputy Prime Minister under the new Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov in April 1997. The following year, in 1998, he was appointed Defence Minister of Chechnya. Gelayev went on a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and took on the name Hamzat.

[edit] Second Chechen War

At the start of the Second Chechen War, Gelayev commanded a large force of Chechen rebels in defense of Grozny, but withdrew from the city in January 2000, which left it open to attack.^[8] Following the inexplicable withdrawal from Grozny, Gelayev was demoted from Brigadier General to Private and stripped of all military decorations.

In February-March of 2000, Gelayev's forces were taking heavy losses as they withdrew from Grozny to the forests in southern Chechnya, when a warlord Arbi Barayev contacted Gelayev promising him aid and transportation to a safe area. When Gelayev's forces arrived at the specified meeting place, they were instead ambushed by a large number of Russian troops and retreated to the Gelayev's native village of Komsomolskoye. There, more than a thousand rebels were besieged and pounded for weeks by the Russian army in one of the largest battles of the war, ending with some 800 rebels and more than 50 soldiers dead according to the Russian figures. Gelayev himself escaped the encirclement with several hundred of his men.

Some time after the disaster at Komsomolskoye, Russian governmen had attempted to negotiate with him since he was believed to be at odds with some of the Islamist commanders, especially Barayev, with whom Hamzat fought a brief personal war following Barayev's betrayal at Komsomolskoye, and an Arab fighter known as Abu Walid. In November 2000, a Kremlin envoy confirmed that Russian federal authorities were involved in talks with Gelayev, but it was refuted later.^[9]

Gelayev decided to rebuild his forces in the Pankisi Gorge across the Georgian border. There, Gelayev had built up a significant armed force of 800 Chechens, together with about 80 international mujahideen (mostly Turks and Arabs). Georgian authorities were accused of negotiating a deal to supply and arm Gelayev's force in return for the October 2001 Gelayev's raid on behalf of Georgia into Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. Gelayev earned admiration from senior Georgian politicians, despite the failure of the attempt which killed 40 people including five United Nations observers; President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze described him as "noble man" and "an educated person".^[10] From there, Gelayev led a hit-and-run attacks against Russian military targets in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. Russians responded in a series of secret airstrikes on a Georgian territory, during which a Georgian civilian was killed.

In August 2001, Gelayev played a crucial role in releasing Russian human rights activist Svetlana Kuzmina who was held in Chechen captivity where she spent more than two years. Gelayev acted upon the request of Louisa Islamova, the wife of his fellow rebel commander Lechi Islamov, who was being held in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison pending trial. Louisa Islamova had tracked down Vyacheslav Izmailov, a journalist for Novaya Gazeta, and offered to try and persuade the rebels to free hostages if Izamailov would help her try and secure her husband’s release in court. Gelayev wrote a note warning Kuzmina’s captors that if they did not free the woman, they would become his deadly enemies.^[11] Lechi Islamov was later reportedly murdered in captivity.^[12]

In September 2002, Gelayev's forces managed a large raid into Ingushetia, capturing the villages of Tarskoye and then Galashki, but Gelayev's fighters became surrounded, took large losses and were dispersed. Among these killed in the battle was Roddy Scott, a British freelance reporter who travelled with the rebels;^[13] seven to 40 Chechen fighters were killed and five were captured.^[14] 17 Russian soldiers were also reported killed.^[15] In December 2003, Gelayev was incorrectly reported dead after a firefight that left nine Russian soldiers dead.^[16]

[edit] Death

In the winter of 2004, Gelayev was attempting to lead a 40-strong unit of his forces from a raid in Dagestan into the safe haven of Georgia, but was faced with heavy resistance; 30 Chechen fighters (possibly including Khozh-Ahmed Noukhayev) and 14 Russian soldiers were reported to die in the fighting and landslide accidents, while several rebels were captured. On February 28, 2004, Gelayev was killed in the result of a skirmish with a two-men Russian border guard patrol he encountered while attempting to cross the border into Georgia alone. Gelayev shot and killed both guards, but soon after he died from bleeding as a result of an arm gunshot wound he suffered. According to the Kavkaz Center version, Gelayev fought with a larger group of border guards, and was killed after his arm was shot-off by an attack helicopter's large-calibre machinegun.

Gelayev's body was positively identified^[17], but not released to his relatives because he was classified as a terrorist by the Russian authorities.^[18] His family has since been campaigning to release his remains or disclose what happened to the body.^[19]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Interview with Commander Khamzat Gelayev, Kavkaz Center, 27 October 2003
• Obituary: Ruslan Gelayev, The Independent, March 4, 2004