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LONDON,
Jan 6, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) A British
newspaper reported on Thursday that Russian special
services carried out the bombings of apartment blocks in
Moscow in September, which helped prompt Russia's
current campaign against Chechnya.
The
Independent newspaper said it had obtained a videotape
on which a Russian officer, captured by the Chechens,
"confesses" that Russian agents carried out
the bombings.
The
video was shot by a Turkish journalist last month before
the Chechen capital, Grozny, was cut off by Russian
forces, the paper said.
The
captured Russian identifies himself as Alexei Galtin of
the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, it
said. Papers displayed by his Chechen captors confirm he
is a "Senior Lieutenant, Armed Special Services,
General Headquarters for Special Forces of the Russian
Federation."
The
captive says in the video that he did not take part in
the bombings, the paper reported.
But
he was quoted as saying: "I have information about
it. I know who is responsible for the bombings in Moscow
(and Dagestan). It is the FSB (Russia's security
service), in cooperation with the GRU, that is
responsible for the explosions in Volgodonsk and
Moscow."
He
names other GRU officers, the paper added.
The
Russian ministry of defense dismissed the video, saying
it was an example of "dirty tricks" and
"provocation" by the Chechens.
The
video was shot by Sedat Aral, a photographer with ISF
News Pictures, in a bunker in Grozny, where he met Abu
Musayev, head of Chechen rebel intelligence, the paper
said. ((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)
---------------------------------
http://www.muslimedia.com/archives/world98/dudayev.htm
US
supplied the technology to kill Dudayev
by
Abrar Mir in Moscow
On April 21, Chechen leader Dzokhar Dudayev - a
formidable leader with mythical qualities - passed into
history as one of the most courageous Muslim leaders of
the twentieth century.
His
struggle for Chechen independence from centuries of
Russian oppression earned him the respect of every
segment of society, including his enemies. Even the
commander-in-chief of the Russian air force paid tribute
to Dudayev as a 'highly moral person'. 'When there was
an affront to the dignity of the Chechen people, he
became their protector,' he said.
Dudayev
was born on April 15, 1944, the year Josef Stalin
deported tens of thousands of Chechen and Ingush people
to Kazakhstan, accusing them, falsely, of collaborating
with the nazis. The infant Dudayev and his family were
among those deported in cattlecarts. Most of them
perished on the way. Those who survived the journey
succumbed to illnesses later. Dudayev miraculously
survived. The Chechens were allowed to return to their
homeland in 1957, four years after the death of the
Georgian peasant, Stalin.
Dudayev
was educated at the Tambov Aviation School in southern
Russia and later at the Yuri Gagarin Aviation Academy in
Moscow. His rise through military ranks was meteoric
becoming the first air force general of Chechen origins.
He was a karate champion and was always immaculately
dressed~
From
1987 to 1990, he commanded a nuclear bomber division at
the Tartu air force base in Estonia. Dudayev gained
international fame when he refused an order to attack
pro-independence demonstrators in the Baltic State.
Instead, he allowed Estonia' s flag to fly over the
base, earning the eternal gratitude of the Estonian
people.
Dudayev
was transferred with his unit to Grozny in 1990 where he
resigned his air force rank despite being offered the
position of commander of Soviet Army Aviation. The
following year, he ran for the Chechen presidency as
head of the Pan-National Congress of Chechen Peoples. He
won more than two-thirds of the popular vote against a
discredited communist leadership that had failed to
condemn the abortive communist coup against Boris
Yeltsin the Russian President, in August 1991.
Ironically,
while Dudayev stood against the coup-plotters, Yeltsin
sent in the troops two weeks after Dudayev took over as
president to crush Chechenya's bid for independence
(Yeltsin has now embraced Doku Zavgayev, the Chechen
communist hardliner who had supported the abortive 1991
coup attempt and installed him as head of a pro-Moscow
puppet government in Grozny!).
Russia'
s bid in November 1991 to crush Chechenya's independence
ended in disaster when the Chechens blockaded the
Russian army in their barracks. They were sent packing
home from Grozny minus their weapons. Dudayev renamed
his Republic the 'Chechen Republic of Ichkeriya' and
declared it 'outside the Russian Federation.'
In
an attempt to strangle the move towards independence,
Yeltsin imposed an economic blockade and Russian forces
supported an armed uprising of former communists led by
Umar Avturkhanov in Chechenya. These were repeatedly
beaten back and hundreds of Russian soldiers captured to
expose to the world the direct involvement of Moscow's
troops in the assault on Chechenya.
In
December 1994 Moscow was forced to come out into the
open and launched a massive assault on Grozny, with
defence minister Pavel Grachev boasting that it will all
be over in 'two weeks'. Sixteen months later and with
thousands of Russians killed as well as an estimated
80,000 Chechen civilians slaughtered, the fighting still
rages on in the Caucasus mountains.
The
courage of Dudayev's troops is borne out by the string
of spectacular successes they have achieved against the
massively- armed Russian troops. On April 16, five days
before his death, Dudayev's men destroyed a Russian
battalion killing 53 soldiers and prompting emergency
hearings in the Russian Duma (parliament). Yet Dudayev
led only 5,000 highly-trained men with about 30,000
volunteers against Russia's 400,000 in Chechenya today.
What
is most tragic about Dudayev's death is how he was lured
by Russian 'negotiators' into a death trap. Following
Yeltsin's March 31 announcement of a 'peace plan' and
call for direct negotiations with Dudayev, the Chechen
leader was begged to attend a Russian satellite phone
call for the sake of 'peace'.
As
soon as he began the conversation, Dudayev was
reportedly killed by a missile fired from the air,
guided by emissions from his satellite telephone. The
missile attack also obliterated much of Gekhi-Chu
village, 35 kms southeast of Grozny.
The
technology to pinpoint emissions from satellite phones
has been supplied to Russia by the US. Last month
British papers carried a small news item confirming
this. The west led by the US has not only financed
Moscow' s genocidal war by giving it US$10 billion loans
through the international monetary fund but is also
supplying state of the art technology.
Yet
the Chechen struggle for independence will outlive
Dudayev. His final words, as he lay in the arms of his
bodyguard, were, 'Do not give up the work begun, See it
through the end. Allah will grant you victory.'
Such
men never die.
[Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Dudayev's deputy, was immediately sworn in as
president.]
Muslimedia - April 1996-August 1996
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