Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov says another militant chief, Shamil Basayev, should go on trial for the school siege in the southern Russian city of Beslan that killed nearly 340 people, according to a statement released Friday. Russian officials, meanwhile, said a top Saudi-born rebel commander in Chechnya had been killed by federal forces, confirming reports by his relatives.
In a statement posted on a rebel Web site, Maskhadov, who has denied any involvement in the Sept. 1-3 siege, pledged to bring his former deputy to justice once the war in Chechnya ends. "I categorically declare that after the end of the war, persons who are guilty of carrying out provocative acts will be taken to court, including Shamil Basayev," said Maskhadov, who was elected Chechnya's president in 1997 after it won de facto independence in the first war in 1994-96.
| Oh. After you win the war, is it? Wossa motta? You out of drumheads? Got a cigarette and blindfold shortage? |
There was no way to confirm the authenticity of Maskhadov statement, but the same rebel Web site has carried his other statements in the past. Russia's Federal Security Service has offered a reward of $10.3 million for information that could help "neutralize" both Basayev and Maskhadov, who are believed to be in Chechnya or nearby regions. Akhmed Zakayev, Maskhadov's envoy who has been granted asylum in Britain, has repeatedly denied his involvement in the school seizure. "I categorically declare that the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria under my command have nothing to do with this terrorist act," said the statement, which referred to Chechnya by its rebel name. At the same time, it said that the school seizure and other attacks were the consequence of Russia's "genocidal war" in Chechnya and called for a political solution to the conflict under international guarantees.
On Friday, Maj.-Gen. Ilya Shabalkin a spokesman for the federal headquarters in Chechnya, said that Abu Walid, a Saudi-born rebel chief, was killed by federal forces in mid-April, the Interfax news agency reported. Abu Walid's death was reported by Arab TV stations in April, but Russian officials hadn't confirmed his death until now. Shabalkin said that Abu Walid was killed in a Russian "special operation," but wouldn't give further details. Another Arab, Abu Khavs, has succeeded Abu Walid as a top al-Qaida emissary in Chechnya, he added. Between 100 and 150 Arab and other foreign militants are in Chechnya, Shabalkin said. He said that "the Arabs are calling the shots" in Chechnya by distributing money smuggled in from abroad. He said that Abu Walid and several other Arabs became acquainted with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan during the early 1990s. In 1993, bin Laden sent them to the neighboring ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan where Islamic opposition militants were fighting a Moscow-backed secular government, and in 1995 they moved to Chechnya, Shabalkin said. |