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Russia sez no to Maskadov’s Ichkeria
The leader of the Chechen extremists, Aslan Maskhadov, whose bandit groups are not in a position to offer serious resistance to the federal forces, has declared his intention to create a so-called "Independent Highland Ichkeria", ITAR-TASS was told today by telephone by the spokesman for the regional operational headquarters of the counterterrorist operation in the North Caucasus, Col Ilya Shabalkin. "This idea of Maskhadov’s is being promoted at the moment by his representatives abroad, who include the former warlord Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev. On each convenient occasion he appears at different human rights meetings with a new idea to propagate," Shabalkin said. It is with this in mind, said the head of the press service of the Combined Force in the North Caucasus, Vasiliy Panchenkov, that the rebels are organizing bases and arsenals in the foothills and mountains of Chechnya. In the last two days alone, Panchenkov said, Combined Force sub-units have located and destroyed in this area around 10 rebel caches and bases. "The largest of these were discovered near the settlements of Komsomolskoye, Mayrtup, Shatoy, Vedeno and Benoy," Panchenkov explained. As Col Shabalkin noted, the rebels are pursuing the creation of an "Independent Highland Ichkeria" through their customary methods — by robbing and plundering the local population from whom they take foodstuffs and warm clothing in order to get them through the winter in the highland districts of Chechnya. "Yesterday in the village of Tazbichi in Itum-Kalinskiy District supporters of Maskhadov carried out robberies on local people, taking food and warm clothing," Shabalkin said.
ITAR-TASS is state-run, IIRC. Who’d have thought it?
Posted by: Dan Darling 2003-11-17
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=21333