Abdul Khalim Saidullayev
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Abdul-Halim Abusalamovich Sadulayev ( ; Chechen: Сайд-Iелийн Абусаламин кІант Iабдул-Хьалим, ''Sadulin Abusalamin-Kant Abdulhalim''; Russian: Абдул-Халим Αбусаламович Сайдулаев, ''Abdul-Khalim Abusalamovich Saydulayev''; 2 June 1966 – 17 June 2006) was the fourth President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Sadulayev served little more than a full year as President before being killed in a gun battle with FSB and pro-Russian Chechen forces. Sadulayev was the first Chechen leader effectively attempting to unify the Islamic rebel forces outside Chechnya, as he had won pledges of loyalty not only from Chechen separatists, but also from Islamist groups seeking the overthrow of the
Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...
's authority across the
North Caucasus The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
; this formation became known as the Caucasian Front. He was also credited with persuading radical
warlord A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...
Shamil Basayev not to carry out any major terrorist attacks since Beslan.


Name

There is considerable variation in writing his name in both English and Russian sources. His surname is variously written Sadulaev, Sadulayev, Saidulaev, Saidulayev, Saidullaev, Saidullayev or Saydullayev; the first two of these seem to be favored by
insurgent An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric na ...
sources, while the others are favored by
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
n sources and Western media. His first name is also written Abdul-Khalim, and is sometimes written with or without a hyphen. In Russian his name with surname is written Абдул-Халим Сайдуллаев or Абдул-Халим Сайдулаев or Абдул-Халим Садулаев, with or without the hyphen. His full name given by the separatist
website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...
Kavkaz Center The Kavkaz Center (KC; russian: Кавказ-центр, Kavkaz-centr, lit=Caucasus Center) is a privately run website/portal which aims to be "a Chechen internet agency which is independent, international and Islamic". The stated mission of the s ...
appears to be Abdul-Halim Abu-Salamovich Sadulayev (Абдул-Халим Абу-Саламович Садулаев).


Biography


Early life

Sadulayev was born into the Biltoy branch of the Ustradoi
teip Teips (also taip, teyp; Nakh тайпа ''taypa'' : ''family, kin, clan, tribe''Нохчийн-Оьрсийн словарь (Chechen-Russian Dictionary, A.G. Matsiyev, Moscow, 1961), ''also available online:'Чеченско-Русский сл ...
, an influential clan in the town of Argun on the plains of central Chechnya to the east of
Grozny Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a pop ...
. After growing up in Argun, he entered Grozny's
university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
to study Chechen and Russian
philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
, but had to break off his studies as the
First Chechen War The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign,, rmed conflict in the Chechen Republic and on bordering territories of the Russian FederationФедеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 1995 (в реда ...
with the
Russian Federation Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
broke out in 1994. He joined an Argun
militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...
to fight against the Russians as a volunteer fighter. Sadulayev also studied Islam under local Islamic
theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
s, and from 1996 began appearing regularly on Chechen television speaking about Islam. He lectured across Chechnya, and eventually ended up leading Argun's Muslim community as the town's
Imam Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
. Sadulayev made the
Hajj The Hajj (; ar, حَجّ '; sometimes also spelled Hadj, Hadji or Haj in English) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried ...
pilgrimage to
Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
, the only time he is known to have left his homeland. Sadulayev became the leader of the only Argun '' jamaat'' in his city, which was known to carry out
missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
activities, as well as policing the neighborhoods. Apart from their religious & civil functions, most of the jamaats in Chechnya also represented military detachments formed to guard villages and towns against the Russian Military and bandits alike. During a standoff between a group of foreign radicals and Chechen authorities in 1998, Sadulayev sided against Khabib Abdurrakhman, a Jordanian leader of a small Foreign/Chechen jamaat who was amassing a militia & advocating extreme violence against Russian and Non-Islamic Chechen peoples alike. After these events, Abdurrakhman was stripped of his Chechen citizenship and declared
persona non grata In diplomacy, a ' (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: ') is a status applied by a host country to foreign diplomats to remove their protection of diplomatic immunity from arrest and other types of prosecution. Diplomacy Under Article 9 of the ...
in Chechnya; he died in 2001 while fighting in one of the jamaats as a regular soldier. In 1999,
Aslan Maskhadov Aslan (Khalid) Aliyevich Maskhadov (russian: Асла́н (Хали́д) Али́евич Масха́дов; ce, Масхадан Али-воӀ Аслан (Халид), Masxadan Ali-voj Aslan (Xalid); 21 September 1951 – 8 March 2005) was ...
appointed Sadulayev to a commission for constitutional
Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...
reform, a commission then headed by Akhmad Kadyrov, who would later reject the rebels and embrace
Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. Maskhadov offered Sadulaev the position of the head of the Supreme Sharia Court of Chechnya, but Sadulaev turned down the offer, explaining that he did not have sufficient clerical knowledge to judge other people. When the
Second Chechen War The Second Chechen War (russian: Втора́я чече́нская война́, ) took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russia, Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from Augus ...
started Sadulayev again returned to fighting, commanding the popular militia from Argun. Since 1999, Sadulaev had been one of Maskhadov's most loyal field commanders. In 2005, he was designated by Maskhadov to be his successor as president of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.


Presidency

Shortly following Maskhadov's death on 8 March 2005, the Chechen rebel council announced that Sadulayev had assumed Maskhadov's position, a move that was quickly endorsed by Shamil Basayev, the Chechens' highest-profile guerrilla commander. After assuming power, Sadulayev called for expanding the Chechnya conflict into a " decolonization" of Muslim-dominated adjoining regions and adoption of a
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...
based on Islamic law, or Sharia. He also strongly condemned
hostage taking A hostage is a person seized by an abductor in order to compel another party, one which places a high value on the liberty, well-being and safety of the person seized, such as a relative, employer, law enforcement or government to act, or refra ...
s and said that after the end of the war the new president should be
democratically Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
elected.Russia: New Chechen Resistance Leader Vows No More Hostage Takings
RFE/RL
Sadulayev had not only an ideological commitment to maintaining the conflict, but perhaps a personal one as well. Chechen insurgent sources claim that his wife was kidnapped in 2003 by Russian
spetsnaz Spetsnaz are special forces in numerous post-Soviet states. (The term is borrowed from rus, спецназ, p=spʲɪtsˈnas; abbreviation for or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; or .) Historically, the term ''spetsnaz'' referred to the So ...
forces and killed by the FSB when attempts to buy her back failed. He had worked to eliminate terrorist violence and urged Basayev and other warlords to direct attacks on "legitimate targets" (including law enforcement officials,
federal Federal or foederal (archaic) may refer to: Politics General *Federal monarchy, a federation of monarchies *Federation, or ''Federal state'' (federal system), a type of government characterized by both a central (federal) government and states or ...
troops and local
civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
and their offices), and stressed that attacks on such targets should avoid injuring
civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...
s. He appeared to have convinced Basayev, who was enlisted in the formation of the Caucasian Front, that giving up on civilian targets would help spread the insurgency across the North Caucasus. In February 2006, Sadulayev announced a
cabinet reshuffle A cabinet reshuffle or shuffle occurs when a head of government rotates or changes the composition of ministers in their cabinet, or when the Head of State changes the head of government and a number of ministers. They are more common in parlia ...
targeting several top rebel representatives living abroad, including Akhmed Zakayev, who was dismissed as deputy prime minister. Sadulayev also signed a decree ordering all his ministers to be based in Chechnya.


Death

On 17 June 2006, Sadulayev was killed in a gun battle with the FSB and pro-Moscow militiamen in Argun. According to the FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev, two members of the federal forces were killed and five were wounded in a firefight in which Sadulayev and his
bodyguard A bodyguard (or close protection officer/operative) is a type of security guard, government law enforcement officer, or servicemember who protects a person or a group of people — usually witnesses, high-ranking public officials or officers, w ...
were killed, and two other rebels escaped. In August 2006, rebel commander
Isa Muskiev Isa or ISA may refer to: Places * Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia * Isa, Kagoshima, Japan * Isa, Nigeria * Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan * Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain * Mount Isa, Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia ...
said the federals and the '' kadyrovtsy'' lost five men killed in the shootout, one of them shot by Sadulayev personally, and three fighters escaped. The body was later moved to Ramzan Kadyrov's hometown of Tsentoroi. Kadyrov said an informant had tipped off police for drug money. Kadyrov said that his
paramilitary A paramilitary is an organization whose structure, tactics, training, subculture, and (often) function are similar to those of a professional military, but is not part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. Paramilitary units carr ...
police had wanted to capture Sadulayev but were forced to kill him when he resisted arrest, and also stated Sadulayev was in Argun organizing "a big terrorist attack" to coincide with the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg to take place in July. The killing of Sheikh Abdul Halim was mentioned by leaders of the Moscow-backed official government of the province, claiming that the separatist forces there had been dealt a "
decapitating Decapitation or beheading is the total separation of the head from the body. Such an injury is invariably fatal to humans and most other animals, since it deprives the brain of oxygenated blood, while all other organs are deprived of the i ...
" blow "from which they will never recover." The next day, 18 June, Sadulayev was succeeded as head of the Chechen
resistance Resistance may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Either of two similarly named but otherwise unrelated comic book series, both published by Wildstorm: ** ''Resistance'' (comics), based on the video game of the same title ** ''T ...
by the rebel vice-president and an active guerrilla commander
Dokka Umarov Doku Khamatovich Umarov ( ce, Ӏумар Хьамади кӀант Докка, translit='Umar Ẋamadi khant Dokka, ; russian: Доку Хаматович Умаров, Doku Khamatovich Umarov; 13 April 1964 – 7 September 2013), also known as ...
. On 20 June 2006, the Russian
human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...
organization
Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...
posted the findings of its investigation on the ''Kavkazky Uzel'' website. According to Memorial's version, Sadulayev's death was accidental; security officials did not know that he was in the house. Memorial reports that on 17 June, about 10:00 a.m., a group of 12 FSB officers and local policemen approached a possible rebel safe house. They immediately came under gunfire as they entered the yard. Two of the servicemen were killed, and the group retreated after throwing a
hand grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade genera ...
into a window of the house. The grenade blast killed Abdul-Halim. This version is contradicted by the official account.SADULAEV DEATH RESULT OF GOOD LUCK, NOT GOOD PLANNING
Jamestown Foundation


References


External links


Profile: Chechen rebel Saydullayev
BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
, 17 June 2006
Obituaries: Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, Chechen separatist leader
''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', 19 June 2006 {{DEFAULTSORT:Sadulayev, Abdul-Halim 1966 births 2006 deaths Assassinated Chechen politicians Chechen field commanders Chechen independence activists Chechen nationalists Chechen warlords Deaths by firearm in Russia Hanafis Heads of government who were later imprisoned Heads of state of former countries Heads of the Chechen Republic Islamic terrorism in Russia People from Argun, Chechen Republic People murdered in Russia People of the Chechen wars Politicians of Ichkeria Russian people of Chechen descent Russian rebels Russian Sunni Muslims Vice presidents of Chechnya