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Subject: IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 75
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2001 13:50:56 +0100
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WELCOME TO IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 75, March 26, 2001

BUINAKSK BOMBERS JAILED  Dagestan's Supreme Court convicts two separate
Wahhabi gangs of terrorist attacks. By Seidula Abdulaev in Makhachkala

OPPOSITION EDITORS ATTACKED BY RAIDERS  Karachaevo-Cherkessia's fledgling
opposition party fears a government-sponsored terror campaign. By Yuri
Akbashev in Cherkessk

CHECHENS CLASH ON THE NET  Chechnya's rival leaders are waging a war of
words in cyberspace. By Alexander Dzadziev in Vladikavkaz

********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net
************************************

BUINAKSK BOMBERS JAILED

Dagestan's Supreme Court convicts two separate Wahhabi gangs of terrorist
attacks

By Seidula Abdulaev in Makhachkala 

Two Dagestanis were jailed for life last week for their part in the
September 1999 bomb attack on a Buinaksk army base which killed 58 people
and wounded more than 150.

Isa Zainudinov and Alisultan Salikhov - the ringleaders of a group of six
Wahhabi extremists - were reportedly promised $300,000 by Chechen warlord
Khattab for planting the bomb.

The terrorist attack, together with similar blasts in Moscow and Volgodonsk,
played a major role in triggering the Russian invasion of Chechnya on
October 1, 1999.

During the four-month trial, prosecutor Rashidhad Magomedov told Dagestan's
Supreme Court that the terrorist gang had first seen action in the August
1992 Wahhabi uprising in the Kadarskaya region.

They had subsequently forged links with Islamic rebels fighting in Chechnya
and had taken their orders from the Jordanian-born Emir Khattab.

The six men originally planned to drive their truck packed with explosives
into the centre of the Buinaksk military settlement where the blast would
have destroyed four large apartment blocks.

In the event, they parked the truck on Levanevskaya Street and the force of
the explosion caught a single building on the edge of the settlement. Of the
58 dead, more than 20 were children.

According to Magomedov, Khattab subsequently paid the terrorists only half
of the promised sum on the grounds that they had failed to plant the bomb in
the agreed location.

All six men were arrested in Azerbaijan last November and handed over to the
Russian authorities. They subsequently pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The prosecutor demanded the death penalty for Zainudinov and Salikhov,
25-year sentences for their accomplices, Abdulkadyr Kadyrov and Zainudin
Zainudinov, and 20 years for Magomed Magomedov and Makhatch Abdusametov.

However, Judge Baguzha Anzholov handed down life sentences to Zainudinov and
Salikhov and nine-year terms to Kadyrov and Zainudinov. The remaining two
conspirators were freed under the terms of an amnesty to commemorate Victory
Day.

The four-month court case coincided with the trial of five Buinaksk Wahhabis
who plotted the assassination of deputy prosecutor Kurban Bulatov in 1999.
The men were also found guilty of attempting to kidnap Colonel Georgy
Iliadze, commander of the 136th Motor Rifle Regiment.

The prosecution claimed that Bulatov was targeted because of his crackdown
on the Islamic stronghold of Karamakhi.

At the time, Bulatov was leading a police investigation into the 1996
killing of village leader Magomed Ataev. Investigators believed that Ataev's
murder was orchestrated by his cousin, Khalip Ataev, who hired Ruslan
Buniaminov, Vladimir Vyalov and Yusup Aselderov to shoot the prosecutor.

The three men also recruited Karamakhi resident Djabrail Suleimanov -
currently at large - and Gadjimagomed Magomedov, who was killed during the
fighting in the Botlikh region.

The assassins ambushed Bulatov on Khasavyurt Street on the evening of March
31, 1999. Dressed in camouflaged uniforms, they sprayed the prosecutor's
Volga with machine-gun bullets killing both Bulatov and his driver, Victor
Kobylyansky.

Three days later, the same gang was offered $5,000 to abduct Colonel Iliadze
and smuggle him into Chechnya.  

However, their plan was thwarted by Abidin Karchigaev, deputy head of the
Buinaksk police department, who single-handedly arrested the would-be
kidnappers as they lay in ambush.

Judge Mavletgerey Ataev - also a relative of the murdered Karamakhi leader
Magomed Ataev - found all the defendants guilty as charged and handed down
jail terms ranging from 25 to four years.

Seidula Abdulaev is an independent political commentator based in Dagestan


OPPOSITION EDITORS ATTACKED BY RAIDERS

Karachaevo-Cherkessia's fledgling opposition party fears a
government-sponsored terror campaign

By Yuri Akbashev in Cherkessk 

The editors of a Cherkessk opposition newspaper who were terrorised and
beaten by masked gunmen have accused the authorities of orchestrating the
attack.

Vladimir Panov, the editor of Vozrozhdenie (Rebirth), and his deputy, Rashid
Khatuev, believe the raid was prompted by a series of articles criticising
President Vladimir Semenov's regime.

However, the local government has dismissed the allegations, blaming the
incident on mysterious "destabilising" forces within the political elite.

Vozrozhdenie was first published in January this year on the initiative of
Murat Karaketov, the former Stavropol Communist boss, who was once Semenov's
staunchest ally.

Karaketov played a leading role in bringing Semenov - a fellow Karachai --
to power in September 1999 when the former army general beat the favourite
-- Cherkessk mayor Stanislav Derev -- in a controversial second round of
elections.

During the election campaign, Panov was given charge of the general's press
office whilst Khatuev was named minister for nationalities.

However, frustrated by Semenov's refusal to offer them top government
positions, the three men have announced plans to launch a rival Karachai
movement, Vozrozhdenie Respubliki (The Rebirth of the Republic), using
Vozrozhdenie as their official mouthpiece.

In the first edition, Karaketov wrote that "Semenov had failed to live up to
the expectations of his supporters" and the new publication would "present
an objective analysis of his activities".

Over the past two months, the newspaper has launched a series of stinging
attacks on the Cherkessk regime, accusing the general of dooming the
republic to penury whilst a small cabal of monopolists bleeds the economy
dry.

Last week, Khatuev and Panov were working late at the Vozrozhdenie offices
when two men dressed in black balaclavas and grey Spetsnaz uniforms barged
into the newsroom.

Armed with TT pistols, the intruders fired gunshots at the ceiling before
attacking the editors with rubber truncheons.

Panov said, "They just started laying into us. At first, I turned away and
covered my head with my hands but they knocked me off my feet with an expert
blow.

"They didn't say a word - we couldn't even tell what nationality they were
because we never heard their accents. They grabbed Khatuev and literally
trampled on him. They hit him round the head and the torso. At one time I
thought they were going to kill him. Finally, when we were all lying on the
ground, too terrified to stand up, the thugs smashed the monitors of two
computers and left."

An interior ministry spokesman said Khatuev was recovering in hospital from
concussion and a broken rib. Panov, however, refused hospital treatment and
promptly accused the president of organising the attack.

He said, "Vozrozhdenie never criticised anyone apart from the leadership of
Karachaevo-Cherkessia. For example, in the first edition, we accused the
government of laundering millions of roubles through a charity foundation."

The Cherkessk authorities have been quick to deny the accusations. Boris
Batchaev, secretary to the Karachaevo-Cherkessian Security Council, blamed
the attack on "political groups attempting to destabilise the republic".

He said it was no coincidence that the attack had taken place at the same
time as a meeting between Semenov, Karaketov and another opposition leader,
Keram Semenov. After a two-hour discussion, the men had agreed to meet again
on the following day but the appointment was cancelled in the wake of the
raid.

"This was provocation," said Batchaev. "I believe that someone is determined
to sabotage any attempt at dialogue between the authorities and the
opposition."

Three days later, President Semenov announced that he would take personal
control of the investigation and promised speedy results.

Yuri Akbashev is a regular IWPR contributor


CHECHENS CLASH ON THE NET

Chechnya's rival leaders are waging a war of words in cyberspace

By Alexander Dzadziev in Vladikavkaz 

Rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has urged the international press to ignore any
information released by "foreign Internet sites claiming to represent the
official Chechen government".

The move came after various rebel websites reported on schisms in the
Chechen leadership and accused top commanders of spying for the West.

And the adverse publicity has provided an unexpected windfall for the
Russian propaganda machine at a time when the new administration in
Washington is showing increasing sympathy for the rebel cause.

The first rumblings of discontent came in January when Chechen propaganda
minister Movladi Udugov claimed that the elected rebel president was "torn
between peace talks with the Russians and pressure from foreign mercenaries
headed by Khattab and [Shamil] Basaev".

The comments were published on Udugov's two websites -- Kavkaz Centre and
Nokhchichyo - which are reportedly operated from secret locations in
Georgia.

The sites also published an interview with field commander Khamzat Gelaev
who ruled out any possibility of peace talks and proposed that all the rebel
leaders (himself included) should be tried by a people's court.

Meanwhile, Udugov has been conducting a smear campaign against Malik
Saidullaev, a Chechen businessman based in Moscow. According to Kavkaz
Centre, Saidullaev is a British agent codenamed "Pete" who has been
sponsored by London to win the Chechen presidency.

Udugov said that the British government was eager to have "a puppet" in
Grozny in order to further its own geopolitical goals. He went on to dismiss
claims that Maskhadov's presidential mandate had expired in January, stating
that, according to the Chechen constitution, he could remain in power for
another year.

The Russian security services have been swift to fan the flames of dissent.
Alexei Kruglov, a colonel in the Federal Security Service, said his agents
were "checking" claims that Saidullaev was recruited in the 1990s by a
British spy in Moscow.

But he added, "We suspect that Maskhadov is using Movladi Udugov's Internet
propaganda machine to spread these accusations."

At the same time, pro-Chechen organisations based in London have added
insult to injury by reporting that international Islamic groups are set to
cut off financial support to the Chechen separatists in order to increase
funding for Palestinian groups in the Middle East.

According to some commentators, this looming crisis has sparked growing
suspicion amongst the Chechen leaders - particularly between traditional
Islamists and extremist groups. 

In late February, Gelaev accused the Wahhabi warlord Arbi Baraev of working
for the FSB. He said, "His wedding celebrations in the village of
Yermolovskaya were guarded by federal troops."

And other rebel sites have published calls by extremist Chechens for
Maskhadov to be ousted - by force if necessary. Khattab described the
president as a "vile jackal spreading lies" while Chechen Press carried
rumours that Turpal Movsaev, head of the Chechen special forces, was
planning to assassinate the rebel leader. The notorious Akhmadov brothers
had allegedly been entrusted with the task.

Tensions reached boiling point in the run-up to the anniversary of the
Chechen deportations in 1944. Aslan Maskhadov's calls for the "annihilation
of the FSB and GRU execution units" were ignored by almost all Chechen
information agencies.

The separatist leader responded to this indifference by accusing Khattab of
waging war against the Israelis and Basaev of being an agent of the GRU.

He then stripped Gelaev of his military rank and called on the world press
to ignore "propaganda" sites such as Kavkaz Centre. On March 16, the site
was targeted by hackers who managed to interrupt public access but failed to
shut it down completely.

Alexander Dzadziev is an independent journalist based in Vladikavkaz

********** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE: www.iwpr.net **************

IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service provides the regional and international
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Editor-in-chief: Anthony Borden. Managing Editor: Yigal Chazan; Assistant
Editor: Alan Davis. Commissioning Editors: Giorgi Topouria in Tbilisi,
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Mukhametrakhimova in London. Editorial Assistance: Felix Corley, Heather
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Programme Director: Alan Davis alan@iwpr.net

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) is a London-based independent
non-profit organisation supporting regional media and democratic change.

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The opinions expressed in IWPR's Caucasus Reporting Service are those of the
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Copyright (c) IWPR 2000

IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, NO. 75


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