The Hindu : International : `Maskhadov ordered siege'

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Wednesday, Sep 08, 2004

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International

`Maskhadov ordered siege'

By Vladimir Radyuhin

COLLECTIVE ANGER: Thousands of people gather for a rally against terrorism, next to St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, Moscow, on Tuesday. — AP

MOSCOW, SEPT. 7. The Chechen rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov, has been accused of ordering the bloody hostage-taking raid in south Russia that claimed 335 lives last week, as the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, ruled out any talks with rebels.

A captured member of the gang, which held nearly 1,200 persons hostage for three days at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia, said the raid had been ordered by Mr. Maskhadov and Chechnya's notorious warlord, Shamil Basayev.

Russian TV channels on Monday played what appeared to be excerpts from a testimony the militant gave to investigators. He is the only one of the 32 hostage-takers who has been captured alive; all others were killed during the commando assault on Friday.

Bid to provoke war

"The man nicknamed `Colonel' gathered us in a forest and said that we must seize a school in Beslan," the young man of apparently Caucasian origin said. "They said this task was ordered by Maskhadov and Basayev. When we asked the Colonel about the aim of the raid, he said: to provoke a war across the Caucasus."

A spokesman for Mr. Maskhadov categorically denied his involvement, quoting the rebel leader as saying: "We do not fight against children." Mr. Maskhadov has been leading an armed separatist resistance movement since 1994.

Putin rules out talks

Mr. Putin on Tuesday again rejected the West's demand to negotiate with Chechen rebels.

"Why don't you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him, so he leaves you in peace?" Mr. Putin was quoted as telling a group of Western journalists and academics on Tuesday.

"No one has a moral right to tell us to talk to child-killers," Mr. Putin said.

Rally against terror

About 100,000 people turned out for an anti-terror rally organised by trade unions near the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday. Hundreds of similar rallies took place across the country.

Meanwhile, tensions are mounting in North Ossetia as more victims of the hostage drama were buried in Beslan. About 1,000 Ossetins on Sunday attempted to stage an attack on Ingush residents in North Ossetia, but were stopped by the police. Ingush militants formed the core of the gang that seized the school in Beslan.

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