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Local Elder of Islam to succeed Maskhadov
The son of slain Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov said Wednesday a little known warlord, who once headed the Supreme Court in the breakaway Caucasus republic, likely would succeed his father.Anzor Maskhadov, who lives in the Azerbaijan capital, said the slaying of his father by Russian forces on Tuesday would only make the decade-long Chechen insurgency stonger. "The spirit of the people is invincible. There is no empire that could conquer our spirit," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. While the senior Maskhadov was respected by some European mediators as a possible negotiator, his death left the insurgency largely in the hands of Shamil Basayev, the most brutal of the Chechen warlords. Basayev has claimed responsibility for a string of terror attacks, including the terrifying school hostage-taking in southern Russian in September in which more than 330 were killed, about half of them children. Maskhadov's son, however, said that according to a 2002 agreement between Maskhadov and other Chechen leaders, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, former head of Chechnya's Supreme Court, would be the next leader. Sadulayev headed the court — known in Chechnya as the Islamic Court — when the region enjoyed two years of de facto independence from 1996-1998 and a respite between its two wars of independence against Moscow. Sadulayev's appointment will be formally announced Thursday by Umar Khambiyev, Maskhadov's spokesman who is believed to live abroad, according to Anzor Maskhadov. He said that Sadulayev had remained in Chechnya to continue the fight against Russia, thus bolstering his credentials. "Our leader must remain on the territory of the Chechen republic," the son said. Maskhadov's son insisted that Sadulayev would remain patient and continue the Chechen struggle for independence. "A year ago, my father said that if he were killed, a new president would be a person resembling him," the son said. "It will be a moderate and patient person, and he will continue our course." Maskhadov was regarded by some observers as comparatively moderate, in contrast to Basayev, an adherent of the strict Wahhabi sect of Islam which has its roots in Saudi Arabia and is the doctrine that inspires al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Anzor Maskhadov said his father was a "noble, honest, and brave man" who sought to negotiate peace with the Russians. He blamed the Russian authorities for stonewalling his father's attempts to help find a peaceful way out of September's school hostage-taking and ignoring Maskhadov's latest ceasefire proposal last month. As Chechnya's military commander, Aslan Maskhadov organized a ragged group into a powerful force that fought the Russian army to a standstill — a stinging setback for Russia's vaunted military. But as Chechnya's president, his control over fighters shrank and the insurgents provoked a new war with Russia that drove him from power. A temporary cease-fire called by Maskhadov expired late last month on the 61st anniversary of the Stalin-era mass deportation of Chechens to the barren steppes of then-Soviet Central Asia in 1944 because the Soviet dictator feared they supported Nazi Germany. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-03-10 |
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