Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Basayev: Russia's most wanted man

Basayev tendered his resignation from all posts in Maskadov's rebel organization but continued to be involved in the reconnaissance and sabotage battalion, Wikipedia said.

Basayey is still working with Maskadov who is still working with Akhmadov who has been granted asylum by the United States.

Given this relationship and the favorable timing of the Chechen attacks Bush is seemingly behind the terrorist incidents in Russia the last of which killed many Russian schoolchildren.
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The United States, who has a history of aiding Islamic opposition groups, has granted asylum to Ilyas Akhmadov, the foreign minister of Maskhadov's opposition government, leaving him free to pursue diplomacy aimed at winning international support for Maskhadov's Republic of Ichkeria. The Putin regime has complained of an American "double standard" in the "war on terror," but has been powerless to stop the American support of the opposition.

Note: In an interview videotaped for Chechen Television, a transcript of which was distributed on the Kavkaz Center website, Maskhadov, Akhmadov’s benefactor, vowed there would be "massive operations" in Ingushetia and "an expansion of the theater of operations." Video footage has been displayed of Maskhadov standing next to Basayev, who had taken responsibility for terrorist attacks on civilians in Russia, including the 2002 seizure of the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow that ended in the deaths of dozens of hostage-takers and captives.
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-Am


Basayev: Russia's most wanted man

Wednesday, September 8, 2004 Posted: 1428 GMT (2228 HKT)



Basayev is believed to have led many of the major Chechen attacks on Russian targets in the past 10 years.


MOSCOW, Russia -- Shamil Basayev, the rebel warlord who prosecutors say masterminded the deadly school hostage siege in Beslan, is a household name in Russia after a decade of conflict in the mainly Muslim province of Chechnya.

The U.N. Security Council put Basayev on its official terrorist list last year after Washington classified him as a threat to the United States.

Russia's FSB security service has stepped up the pressure on the country's most wanted man by announcing a $10 million reward for information leading to the "neutralization" of him and separatist former Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov.

Basayev, who was born in Chechyna in 1965, came to prominence in 1995 during the first Chechen war when as a field commander he led a hostage-taking raid at Budennovsk, Russia.

In the presidential election of January 1997 Maskhadov won a landslide over the more radical Basayev, swearing "to reinforce the independence of the Chechen state."

Basayev was appointed Chechen prime minister but he resigned after serving one six-month term.

Maskhadov later signed an agreement with Russian president Boris Yeltsin promising an end to 400 years of conflict between Moscow and the region.

Russia said it wanted to rebuild relations with Chechnya but still refused to recognize Chechnya's claim of independence.

Maskhadov worked with Basayev until 1998, when Basayev established a network of military officers which soon devolved into rival warlords.

Chechen rebel forces crossed into Dagestan in 1999 and Moscow held Chechens responsible for a wave of bomb attacks across Russia.

Russia sent troops back into the republic, described Maskhadov's government as unlawful, and tried to build support for a parliament made up of Chechens in exile.

During fierce fighting, Maskhadov's government was removed from power and a pro-Moscow administration was set up.

During the rebel pullout from Grozny in January 2000 Basayev lost a foot after stepping on a landmine, according to the Wikipedia Web site, but he and other rebel fighters eluded Russian capture by hiding in forests and mountains.

He was helped by Islamic groups including the Taliban in Afghanistan and was accused by Russia of organizing suicide bombings of Russian apartment blocks in September 1999.

Basayev said on a rebel Web site that he was responsible for the Moscow theater siege of October 2002 in which 50 Chechen rebels held about 800 people hostage. Russian forces later stormed the building using gas, killing most of the rebels and more than 100 hostages. (Full story)

He defended the operation but asked Maskhadov, whose senior envoy condemned the siege, for forgiveness for not informing him of it.

Basayev tendered his resignation from all posts in Maskadov's rebel organization but continued to be involved in the reconnaissance and sabotage battalion, Wikipedia said.

In May of this year Basayev said he was behind the killing of Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader and threatened to kill more officials, including the Russian prime minister, Akhmad Kadyrov. (Full story)

That explosion killed six people and wounded nearly 60, including the top Russian military commander in Chechnya, who lost his leg.

Moderate rebels distanced themselves from the attack. But Basayev said he had ordered the killing after a ruling by an Islamic court.

He called it a "small but important victory" and said that other such operations against Russia's "collaborators" in Chechnya were in the making.

"Through the kindness of Allah, the Chechen people on May 9 celebrated a double holiday -- that of the victory over fascism and a small but very important victory over Russia," he said in a statement on rebel Web site www.kavkazcenter.com.




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http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/08/russia.basayev/