Dokka Umarov

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1st Emir of the Caucasus Emirate
Dokka Umarov Умаран Хамади кант Докка

In office October 31, 2007 – present
Vice President	Supyan Abdullayev
5th President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
In office June 17, 2006 – October 31, 2007
Preceded by	Abdul Halim Sadulayev
Succeeded by	Parliamentary rule

Born	April 13, 1964 (1964-04-13) (age 44) Kharsenoi, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Soviet Union
Nationality	Chechen

Doku (Dokka) Khamatovich Umarov (Chechen: Умаран Хамади кант Докка; Russian: Доку Хаматович Умаров), also know as Emir Abu Usman (born April 13, 1964, in Kharsenoi, Chechnya) is the underground President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (ChRI) and the self-proclaimed Emir of the Northern Caucasus known as the Caucasus Emirate.

Umarov has fought for more than a decade against the Russian Federation and is reported to have had hundreds under his personal command^[1] and with steady influence in the southwestern part of Chechnya. For his bravery during the First Chechen War he was decorated with Ichkeria's two highest orders; Kioman Syi (Honour of the Nation) and Kyoman Turpal (Hero of the Nation).^[2] He is an adherent of Sufism and a follower of the Qadiri Sufi order (Tariqah).

1 Biography
2 Views
3 Family
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Umarov was born to Khamad Umarov in April 1964 in the village of Kharsenoi in Shatoy region in southern Chechnya. He is of the Malkoy teip, the same clan as Arbi Barayev and ex-foreign minister Ilyas Akhmadov.^[3] He graduated from the construction faculty of the Oil Institute in the Chechen capital Grozny with a higher education degree as a construction engineer.^[4]^[2]

[edit] First Chechen War and interwar period

Umarov was in Moscow when the first Russian-Chechen war broke out in December 1994, and has stated that as a patriot he considered it his duty to return to Chechnya to fight.^[4] In the course of the war Umarov was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and won two prestigious awards for valor.^[4] He initially served as an officer in the Borz (Wolf) special forces batallion under the command of Ruslan Gelayev. In 1996, due to disagreements with Gelayev, he left the unit and joined the detachment of Akhmed Zakayev, who also left Gelayev's ranks.

Following the Khasav-Yurt Accord that ended the first Chechen war in 1996 and the election of Aslan Maskhadov as president in January 1997, Umarov was named by Maskhadov to head the Chechen Security Council. In that capacity, he intervened in July 1998 to quash an armed clash between moderates and Islamic radicals in the city of Gudermes.^[4] He was forced to resign not long after when the Council was disbanded.

[edit] Second Chechen War

Umarov began the current war in September 1999 as a field commander, again working closely with Ruslan Gelayev in Grozny and in Komsomolskoye (after Gelayev's death in February 2004, many of his men joined Umarov's command).^[5]

Dokka Umarov during a session of rebel leaders in May 2003

Umarov sustained a serious wound to his face in the winter of 2000, as he was leaving a surrounded Grozny,^[3] and was hospitalized in a third country alongside Zakayev.^[4] He still bears the marks of his damaged lower jaw. Georgian intelligence reported Umarov leading 130-150 fighters in the Pankisi Gorge before his return to Chechnya in the summer of 2002.

Back in Chechnya, Umarov became the replacement of Isa Munayev on the post of the commander of Southwestern Front, the region southwest of Grozny that borders on Georgia and Ingushetia.^[6] He was seen as having been an ally of Vedeno-based Shamil Basayev, and together with him was one of the leaders of a raid into neighbouring Ingushetia in the summer of 2004.^[7]^[6] Several Ingush clans have been reported as having declared blood vengeance against Umarov.^[5]

In 2003 he led his men in the heavy fighting around Shatoy, and in August 2004 he was one of the commanders of the large-scale raid on Nazran in Ingushetia. In January 2005, Umarov was reported killed in a gun battle with Russian commandos near the Georgian border. In March 2005, Umarov was reported as having been seriously wounded by Spetznaz assassination team. In April 2005, Russian special forces destroyed a small guerrilla unit in a seven–hour battle in Grozny after receiving intelligence that Umarov was with them, but he was not found among the dead.^[5]

In May 2005, Umarov was hurt by an anti-personnel mine.^[3] He was reported to have lost a leg, but turned out to be only lightly injured, and soon participated in an attack on Roshni-Chu in August. In September 2005, the Russian Interior Ministry announced it found "Umarov's grave", and in October he was once again falsely reported dead in the Nalchik attack.^[5] In May 2006, Chechen police forces discovered Umarov's headquarters bunker in the centre of the village of Assinovskaya, but he managed to escape in time.^[8]

[edit] Presidency

As Vice-President of the separatist government and a field commander, he was automatically elevated to the position as leader following the killing of Sheikh Abdul Halim on 17 June 2006. Having now become president, Umarov will also hold such posts as the head of the State Defense Council, Emir of the Madzhlis Shura of the Caucasus, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and finally, Emir of the Mujahideen of the Caucasus.

In his first published comments since assuming the role of president, Umarov vowed to expand the conflict to "many regions of Russia", and praised his predecessor Sadulayev. He also indicated that a special unit was being formed to fight Chechnya's "most odious traitors," a remark believed to refer to the present federal Chechen administration. He stressed that the Chechen rebels would attack only military and police targets within Russia.^[9]

On June 27, 2006, Umarov appointed Shamil Basayev to the position of vice-president of the separatist government, simultaneously releasing him from his position as first deputy prime minister.^[4] Ichkeria's foreign minister, Usman Firzauli, said that the appointment was meant to force Russia into political negotiations, for if they killed Umarov, then Basayev would have become the full-fledged leader of the rebel movement.^[10] However, Basayev was killed soon afterward, in July 2006.

On August 18, 2006, Umarov was erroneously announced to have surrendered at the Gudermes residence of Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Russian Chechen leader, under a Russian amnesty provision enacted after Basayev's death; however, Russian authorities later reversed it to being his "younger brother" and former head of bodyguards, whom had surrendered – though Umarov himself says he has no younger brother, and later reports identify him as his older brother Akhmad instead. For their part, the Chechen separatists said that the older Umarov disappeared two years ago and had been considered missing, and claimed that the presentation of the Chechen leader's brother was "a PR stunt".^[7] Umarov himself has previously called the amnesty as "a hopeless attempt by the Kremlin regime to shroud the real situation... in lies."^[11]

On November 23, 2006, large numbers of Russian Defense Ministry and the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) troops, without the participation of Chechen police,^[12] were reported to have surrounded Umarov and his forces in a forest near the village of Yandi-Katar in the Achkhoy-Martanovsky District, on the internal border between Ingushetia and Chechnya. Helicopters were patrolling the area and artillery forces were reported to be shelling the forest for several days.^[13] According to Kommersant sources, Umarov was wounded but has managed to get out from the encirclement. Umarov then spent the winter months travelling across the mountains to the nearby republic of Kabardino-Balkaria to meet with local jamaats fighting Russian authorities in the region and consolidate the Caucasian Front set up by the late President Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev.

On March 19, 2007, Kavkaz Center reported that Umarov has appointed Supyan Abdullayev as vice-president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.^[14] On August 4, 2007, it was reported that Umarov had travelled to the Chechen capital Grozny and met with the commander of rebel forces in the district and also with local people from several areas of Grozny. His visit has come at a time when speculation and rumour of a possible rebel assault on the city were running high, and many of the local pro-Russian elite have reportedely sent their families to Moscow out of harm's way.

In October 2007, Umarov made a controversial move when he posthumously restored notorious rebel field commander Arbi Barayev to the rank of Brigadier General.^[15] Barayev has been accused of several crimes, including the 1998 abduction of foreign engineers in Chechnya. In the same year Barayev refused to be subordinated to the Chechen military command, resulting in a shootout between his men and the Chechen National Guard, headed by Umarov himself, in the Chechen city of Gudermes. He was subsequently stripped of his rank of Brigadier General by Aslan Maskhadov, the late president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.

[edit] Leader of the Caucasus Emirate

On October 31, 2007, the separatist news agency Chechenpress reported that Umarov had proclaimed the Caucasus Emirate and declared himself its Emir, thereby converting the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria into a vilayat (province). In the same statement in which Umarov proclaimed the Caucasus Emirate, he also described the United States, the UK and Israel as common enemies of Muslims worldwide.^[16]

This move was quickly condemned by Akhmed Zakayev, Umarov's own minister of foreign affairs. Zakayev, who lives in exile in London, called upon all separatist fighters and politicians to pledge allegiance directly to the Chechen parliament in an attempt to isolate Umarov from power.^[17] Zakayev expressed regret that Umarov had caved in to pressure from "provocateurs" and committed a "crime" that undermines the legitimacy of the ChRI.^[18] In a one-day period two senior field commanders, Isa Munayev and Sultan Arsayev, have already issued statements publicly siding with Zakayev and distancing themselves from Umarov,^[19] joined in the following days by several mid-level Chechen commanders.^[20]

Famous journalist Andrei Babitsky reported in November 2007 that Umarov had again travelled to the Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria to rest and recuperate for the winter months. Babitsky said that Umarov was in a poor state of health after taking a shrapnel wound in the jaw (it is possible Umarov received the wound when he broke out of a Russian encirclement this time last year on the Chechen/Ingush border) and after his leg was injured in a mine explosion. Pro-Moscow Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov offered him medical care if Umarov were to "beg for forgiveness".^[21]

In March 2008, Chechnya's prosecutor, Valery Kuznetsov, has launched a criminal case against Umarov for "inciting inter-ethnic hatred and calling for the overthrow of the Russian government on the Internet". If he is captured, prosecuted and found guilty of these charges, Umarov could face a fine of up to 500,000 rubles and a ban on holding management positions. According to Kommersant, Umarov was earlier on Russia's wanted list but the charges against him were suspended in 2005. Kadyrov said he was surprised to find that there were not any criminal cases against Umarov. The papper also noted that ChRI is investigating Umarov for attempting to "liquidate the independent Chechen state" by declaring the creation of a Caucasus Emirate.^[22]

[edit] Views

Umarov maintains that he practices traditional Chechen Sufi Islam of the Qadiri Order, as opposed to religious radicalism of the "Wahhabis".^[23] Responding to Russian claims that he was an Islamic extremist, he said: "Before the start of the first war in 1994, when the occupation began and I understood that war was inevitable, I came here as a patriot. I'm not even sure I knew how to pray properly then. It's ridiculous to say I'm a Wahhabist or a radical Muslim."^[24]

Umarov also previously denied that the Chechen separatism is linked to the worldwide jihad, saying that the rebels' first priority is independence.^[4] Umarov maintains a stated stance against the use of terrorist tactics, saying in an interview: "If we resort to such methods, I do not think any of us will be able to retain his human face."^[4] He emphasized the military nature of his vision of the war: "Our targets are the Russian occupation forces, their military bases, command headquarters, and also their local collaborationist armed servicemen, who pursue and who kill peaceful Muslims. We will attack, where we think it's necessary. Civil objects and innocent civilians are not our targets."^[5]

During the Beslan crisis Umarov was repeatedly identified by security services as the leader of the hostage-takers,^[6] a claim that has never been substantiated in any fashion. Furthermore, in a June 2005 interview with Andrei Babitsky of Radio Liberty, Umarov denied involvement in terrorism and criticized Basayev for ordering the Beslan raid. Umarov firmly refuted the value of terrorist attacks, saying that in the eyes of the resistance "such operations have no legitimacy", and that they themselves were "horrified" by what they did at Beslan.^[23]

According to Israeli political activist Avraham Shmulevich Umarov said in 2004 that "Jewish lobby tries to libel our Jihad and destroy Muslims"^[25].

[edit] Family

Umarov with two of his children

Dokka Umarov is married, with six children, the youngest who was born in 2006.^[2]</ref> Two of Umarov's brothers died in combat.^[24]

Shortly after the Beslan hostage-taking raid in 2004, Prosecutor General of Russia Vladimir Ustinov suggested the practice of taking rebel leaders' relatives hostage. Memorial blamed pro-Moscow Chechen forces ("Kadyrovtsy"^[26]) for a policy of abductions of the rebel relatives.^[27]

In May 2005, "unidentified men" reportedly kidnapped Umarov's wife and his one-year-old son. On May 5, 2005, his father Khamad was abducted too; according to some sources, Umarov's father was kidnapped by the employees of the Oil Regiment (Neftepolk) headed by Chechnya's first deputy prime minister Adam Demilkhanov. Several months previous, Umarov's brother Ruslan had also been kidnapped by a masked men in uniform.^[28] According to separatists, all the kidnapped persons were put into Ramzan Kadyrov's personal prison in Tsentoroi. His wife and son were later freed, but his father and the younger brother disappeared. In April 2007, Umarov declared his 74-years old father has been murdered in captivity.^[29]^[30]

Umarov's sister Natalia Khumaidova was also abducted in Urus-Martan in August 2005 by "unidentified armed men".^[27] She was released days later after local residents blocked a federal highway protesting for her return. In the past Umarov's cousin Zaurbek and nephew Roman Atayev were also kidnapped, and nothing has been heard of these people since.