From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Doku Umarov

Order:	5th President (separatist)
Took Office:	2006
Predecessor:	Sheikh Abdul Halim
Date of Birth:	13 April 1964
Place of Birth:	Kharsenoi, Chechnya

Shaykh Doku Khamatovich Umarov (Dokka Umarov, Doka Umarov, Доку Хаматович Умаров, Докка Умаров, Дока Умаров) (b. 13 April 1964) is the underground President of the rebel Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Umarov has fought for more than a decade and is reported to have hundreds under his personal command,^[1] and with steady influence in the southwestern part of Chechnya, but previously little known in other parts of the republic. He is an adherent of Sufism and a follower of the Qadiri Sufi Order.

The election of Doku Umarov as the new Chechen leader is said to have brought much confusion into the ranks of the resistance movement, especially among the regional cells of the Caucasus Front. While trying to follow in the footsteps of Aslan Maskhadov, Umarov does not possess the same sort of legitimacy and at the same time is unable to match the spiritual authority of Abdul Halim Sadulayev or the charisma of Shamil Basayev, both killed in 2006.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 1994-99 1.2 Second Chechen War 1.3 Presidency 2 Views on the war and terrorism 3 References

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.^[2] He graduated from the construction faculty of the Oil Institute in Grozny.^[3]

Umarov was in Moscow when the first Russian-Chechen war broke out in 1994, and has stated that as a patriot he considered it his duty to return to Chechnya to fight.^[3] In the course of the war Umarov was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General and won two prestigious awards for valor.^[3] He initially served as an officer in the Borz (Wolf) special forces unit 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 within Maskhadov's entourage.^[3] However, he was forced to resign not long after when the Council was disbanded.

The Russian law-enforcement organs and special services have pinned responsibility on Umarov for the March 1999 kidnapping of the Russian Interior Ministry's special representative in Chechnya, General Gennady Shpigun. Shpigun's kidnappers, reported at various times to be different Chechen rebel warlords, demanded a ransom of US$15 million for his release; his body was later found in southern Chechnya.

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).^[4]

Umarov sustained a serious wound to his face in the winter of 2000, as he was leaving a surrounded Grozny^[2] and was hospitalized in a third country alongside Zakayev.^[3] 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.^[5]

In 2003 he led his men in the heavy fighting around Shatoy, and in 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, Umarov was reported as having been seriously wounded by a Spetznaz assassination team. In April, 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.^[4] In May, Umarov hit an anti-personnel mine;^[2] he was reported to have lost a leg, but turned out to be only injured, and soon participated in an attack on Roshni-Chu in August. In September the Russian Interior Ministry announced it found "Umarov's grave". In October he was once again falsely reported dead in the Nalchik attack.^[4]

He was seen as having been an ally of Shamil Basayev, and together with him took part in or perhaps led a raid into neighbouring Ingushetia in the summer of 2004, shortly before the Beslan school hostage crisis.^[6][5] As a result of deaths suffered in the Nazran attacks, several Ingush clans have been reported as having declared blood vengeance against Umarov.^[4]

In a new tactic designed to put pressure on rebel leaders, the FSB reportedly arrested Umarov's father, wife, and one-year-old son in 2005. Several months previous, his brothers and their families had also been kidnapped by masked men in uniform.^[7] His wife and son were freed, but his father and brothers disappeared. His sister was also arrested in Urus-Martan in late 2005; she was released days later after local residents protested for her return.

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, Amir 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.^[8]

On 27 June 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.^[3] Ichkerian 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.^[9] However, Basayev was killed soon afterward, in July 2006.

On August 18, 2006 Umarov was erroneously announced to have surrendered at Ramzan Kadyrov's residence in Gudermes 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 from the field two years ago and had been considered missing, and claimed that the presentation of the Chechen leader's brother was a PR stunt.^[6] Umarov himself has previously called the amnesty as "a hopeless attempt by the Kremlin regime to shroud the real situation... in lies."^[10]

On November 23, 2006 large numbers of Russian Defense Ministry and FSB troops, without the participation of Chechen police,^[11] 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.^[12] According to Kommersant sources, Umarov was wounded but has managed to get out from the encirclement.

On March 19, 2007, KavkazCenter reported that Umarov has appointed Supyan Abdullayev Vice-President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.^[13]

Umarov maintains that he practices traditional Chechen Sufi Islam of the Qadiri Sufi Order , as opposed to radicalism of the "Wahhabis".^[14] He also denied that the Chechen separatism is linked to the worldwide Jihad, saying that the rebels' first priority is independence.^[3] 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."^[3] He emphasized the military nature of his vision of the war:

"Our targets are the Russian occupation forces, their military bases, command HQ's, 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."^[4]

During the Beslan crisis Umarov was repeatedly identified by security services as the leader of the hostage-takers,^[5] 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.^[14] 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 happened at Beslan. (RFE/RL, July 28, 2005) However, a video clip from early April 2006 of Umarov and Basayev together gave no indication of any tensions between the two.^[3]

Preceded by Sheikh Abdul Halim

President of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria 2006–present

Succeeded by Incumbent