Straw backs Russia over ChechnyaBRITAIN has given its strongest support yet to Russia’s military campaign against separatist groups in Chechnya.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday that Moscow was facing „a real terrorist threat“ from the rebels seeking to break away from Russia.
Speaking during a visit to Moscow, Mr Straw said: „We understand that Russia is grappling in Chechnya with a serious problem for its security and we condemn the real terrorist threat from there to the Russian Federation’s territorial integrity.
„There is no doubt that links exist between some extremist Chechen groups and Osama bin Laden, and it is vital to break these links.“
The Foreign Secretary’s remarks reflected the West’s present unwillingness to criticise Moscow’s campaign in Chechnya. Thousands have died or fled since Russian forces entered the region in late 1994.
Ruslan Aushev, President of Ingushetia, gave warning yesterday that thousands of Chechen refugees living in camps in his country risked death this winter. The camps, home to 140,000 refugees „are absolutely not ready for winter“, Mr Aushev told the Interfax news agency. „The people are forced to live in shameful conditions.“
Russia’s military promised to step up its campaign against the separatist groups, despite the prospect of peace talks in the next few days. General Vladimir Moltenskoi, commander of the Russian federal forces in Chechnya, said that the rebel fighters in the region would be wrong to relax their guard.
He was seeking to dismiss earlier reports that Russia had suspended all special operations to track down and kill the leaders of Chechen rebel groups. The reports, citing unnamed military sources, had suggested that there could be a pause in Russian raids and intelligence operations in the breakaway region before a meeting between Viktor Kazantsev, Russia’s presidential envoy, and Akhmed Zakayev, representing President Maskhadov of Chechenya. General Moltenskoi said that the reports were untrue.
There has been a spate of terrorist attacks around southern Russia in the past two days, some blamed on people from Muslim ethnic areas in the Caucasus region around Chechnya. On Tuesday a man thought to be a Caucasian escaped with Ł45,000 in ransom money after briefly taking hostage 18 women and children at a children’s hospital in the southern city of Vladikavkaz. On the same day in Dagestan, which borders Chechnya, the head of the regional branch of a Russian bank and the vice-chairman of the local parliament were killed in a drive-by shooting.
Moscow saw two outbreaks of fighting between Russians and Caucasians. In one, a riot at a street market, two people were killed and 28 arrested. In the other, more than 100 people attacked a hotel on the southern outskirts of the city, in an area where many Afghans live. Eleven people were injured.
Other Russian officials emphasised the growing tension between Moscow and Chechnya, which has risen since the idea of peace talks was publicly mooted last week. Anatoly Kvashnin, Chief of the Russian General Staff, said that even if special operations in Chechnya were to stop, Russia’s troops would not be withdrawn.
Last week the two sides said that they had agreed to talk within ten days, but President Putin has said that the Chechens must disarm before talks begin.
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