- MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin
slammed the door on a peaceful answer to the decade-long Chechen conflict
on Thursday, vowing to "wipe out" elected Chechen President Aslan
Maskhadov, once seen as the only rebel leader Moscow could talk to.
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- In Chechnya, Russian forces stepped up "special
operations," hunting rebels who could have links to last week's 58-hour
hijack of a Moscow theater. Troops surrounded refugee camps in neighboring
Ingushetia, along Chechnya's western border.
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- "We have to wipe out the movement's figureheads:
Maskhadov, (Shamil) Basayev and (Ruslan) Gelayev," Sergei Yastrzhembsky,
the Kremlin Chechnya spokesman, told a news conference.
-
- Basayev and Gelayev are two top field commanders believed
to be coordinating the bulk of action against Russian troops.
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- The war in Chechnya, long rumbling on away from the public
eye, returned to the political center stage last week after some 50 armed
rebels seized a packed Moscow theater, demanding Russia withdraw from the
devastated region.
-
- Following the theater siege, in which at least 119 hostages
and 50 rebels died when Russian troops stormed the building, France and
other Western states urged the Kremlin to talk with Chechen separatists
and seek a peace deal similar to one that ended a 1994-96 war.
-
- But echoing President Vladimir Putin's long-standing
rejection of any talks with "terrorists," Yastrzhembsky said:
"Maskhadov can no longer be considered a legitimate representative
of this resistance... >From the Chechen underground there is no one
we are ready to talk to."
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- Maskhadov, elected head of the separatist region during
a brief interlude in Russian rule in 1997, was long the point of contact
between the Kremlin and the Chechen rebels, though the Kremlin ceased to
recognize him as president when Russian troops returned to the region in
1999.
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- ENTIRELY AWARE
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- In November 2001 his top envoy Akhmed Zakayev was promised
immunity in order to meet a Kremlin official in a Moscow airport -- the
two sides' only formal encounter in the second campaign.
-
- But since the theater siege the Kremlin has repeatedly
linked Maskhadov to "terrorist" movements.
-
- "Maskhadov was entirely aware of the operation and
the tragedy has dealt a hefty blow to his reputation," Yastrzhembsky
said after playing recordings of telephone conversations allegedly linking
Maskhadov to the Moscow siege.
-
- Maskhadov has distanced himself from the attack, offering
his condolences to the victims.
-
- In another blow to Maskhadov's capacity to hold peace
talks, Moscow pressed Denmark to arrest and extradite Zakayev, in Copenhagen
for a conference on Chechnya.
-
- He was arrested on Wednesday after the meeting Moscow
said was planned specifically to coincide with the theater siege. Yastrzhembsky
said Russia had already asked for his extradition.
-
- "Zakayev came to Moscow (in 2001) and we guaranteed
his safety to begin contacts," Yastrzhembsky said.
-
- "But these contacts yielded no constructive results."
-
- Yastrzhembsky spoke at a news conference with Moscow's
mayor and security officials, intended to defend the decision to gas and
then storm the theater. Hundreds of explosives, grenades and bombs were
displayed to illustrate fears the rebels could have blown up the theater
unless gassed to sleep before an attack.
-
- An official from the FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era
KGB, said the rebels held at least 110 kg of TNT equivalent -- enough to
kill all the hostages and bring down the building.
-
- Officials said widescale operations would be carried
out to root out those linked to the siege -- including an alleged group
of 100 suicide bombers armed with Russian passports.
-
- News agencies reported sweep operations in several Chechen
regions including the capital Grozny. Eyewitnesses told Reuters by telephone
from Chechnya's border with Ingushetia that troops were surrounding refugee
tent camps there.
-
- The authorities declined to comment on the reports.
-
- Moscow police arrested a suspected Chechen guerrilla
carrying a bottle containing eight kg (16 pounds) of mercury, a highly
toxic metal.
-
- But Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov dismissed any fears of
anti-Chechen pogroms in the Russian capital.
-
- "In Moscow we will not take any measures against
Caucasians living here," he said. "It would be unjust, unfair
and illegal."
-
- (Additional reporting by Maria Golovnina)
-
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