DOHA (Reuters) February 26, 2004- Qatar said Thursday it had arrested two Russians and charged them with involvement in the assassination of a former rebel Chechen president in what Moscow termed a hostile act against agents of its special services.

Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, added at Russia's request last year to a U.N. list of people with suspected links to the militant Islamist al-Qaeda group, was killed by a car bomb in Qatar on February 13. He had been living in Qatar for three years. Advertisement

Russia accused Qatar of conniving with global terrorism in giving refuge to Yandarbiyev, who it says was responsible for the death of hundreds of Russians in a decade-long separatist war. It said Qatari officials used force in the arrests, which took place a week ago but came to light only Thursday.

Qatar, a key U.S. ally in the Gulf, strongly rejected the Russian accusation that it had supported terrorism.

``The charge is absurd,'' a Qatari Foreign Ministry official, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

``Qatar is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism and we never had any case of terrorism before this,'' he said.

A Qatari Interior Ministry official said authorities were still investigating the records and possible motives of the two Russians and declined to identify them as secret service agents. ``The law is taking its own course,'' the official said.

He said a third man was freed after a Russian envoy met Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani Tuesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the three were innocent.

``The insinuation of the Qatar authorities cannot be seen as anything but a hostile move,'' he said. ``The arrest was conducted with the use of arms and rough physical force.

``These Russian citizens, one of whom has a diplomatic passport, are members of the Russian special services...linked to the battle against international terrorism,'' Ivanov told the Qatari ambassador in comments posted on the ministry Web site.

Russian secret agents held in Qatar

TEXT: Gazeta.Ru 

Two Europeans, detained a week ago by the Qatari authorities on suspicion of having murdered Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Doha, have turned out to be Russian security officers. On Wednesday evening official charges were brought against the two. The Russian Foreign Ministry broke its prolonged silence and demanded the release of the agents, who were carrying out ''tasks linked to the struggle against terrorism''.

The Russian security agents, detained in Qatar on 18 February, have been officially charged with complicity in murdering Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Yandarbiyev was killed on 13 February when a bomb destroyed his jeep after he and his 13-year-old son left a Doha mosque, where they had attended Friday prayers. Yandarbiyev died immediately; his son was hospitalized with wounds.

Initially, the Qatari authorities detained three Russian nationals, but one of them was later released.

The Russian Foreign Ministry only responded to the arrest of the agents a week later. In the early hours of Thursday Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov demanded that the Qatari authorities immediately release ''Russian citizens held illegally and ensure their unhindered return to Russia''.

Remarkably, the ministry waited for as long as a week before it issued the statement, obviously hoping to settle the situation through unofficial channels. Officials at the Russian embassy in Qatar confirmed to Gazeta.Ru they had been informed of the detentions immediately after it occurred, though not by the local authorities, but their own sources.

The Russian ministry pointed out that ''the Qatari authorities have not only seized Russian citizens by force, but in breach of elementary norms of international relations they did not inform the Russian embassy of their actions''.

On Wednesday the Qatari ambassador to Russia was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, where Ivanov made the following statement: ''On the night of 18-19 February in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the local special forces arrested three Russian citizens visiting the Russian embassy on business. The arrest was carried out using firearms and extreme physical force.''

Ivanov described the arrest as ''a provocation''. ''Our country has nothing to do with the incident. Attempts by the Qatari authorities to shift the blame for the attack on Yandarbiyev to the arrested Russian citizens have no grounds - they have nothing to do with this incident. The insinuations of the Qatari authorities cannot be assessed as anything other than a provocation,'' Ivanov told the ambassador.

Interestingly, certain points in Ivanov's statement suggest that the Qatari authorities did, in fact, have grounds to suspect the Russian pair of murdering Yandarbieyv.

Firstly, Ivanov admitted that the Russian citizens detained in Qatar were agents of the Russian special services. ''In their status of being attached to the embassy they were in Qatar on legitimate grounds and were there without any breaches of local legislation carrying out tasks of an informational and analytical nature linked to the struggle against international terrorism,'' Ivanov said.

The minister also dwelt on Yandarbiyev's ties with terrorist networks and accused Qatar's leadership of harbouring the rebel whose name had been added to the UN list of the most dangerous terrorists.

''As for Yandarbiyev himself and his presence in Qatar, the following must be noted: he was added to the UN sanction list as one of the most dangerous international terrorists, for his crimes on Russian territory, and for direct links with Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations,'' Ivanov said. ''In accordance with UN anti-terrorist resolutions, all states are obliged to prosecute terrorists or hand them over to the country where they carried out the crime.''

Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former president of the self-styled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1996-1997, had lived in Qatar since 2000. He became one of the most prominent proponents of radical Islam among the Chechen rebels. During the hard-line Islamic rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Yandarbiyev opened a Chechen Embassy in Kabul, and a consulate in the southern city of Kandahar.

Yandarbiyev's murder occurred only a week after a bombing in the Moscow metro killed 41 people. Vladimir Putin blamed Chechen rebels for the attack. 26 Feb 2004 13:55

QATAR TIGHTENS SECURITY

Russia has been battling separatist insurgents in predominantly Muslim Chechnya for nearly a decade with the loss of tens of thousands of lives. Russia sent troops back into the restive region in 1999 to end a period of virtual independence.

It has established a pro-Moscow government there but guerrilla resistance continues.

Ivanov said Yandarbiyev's residence in Qatar showed Doha was not a full partner in the battle against global terrorism.

``Such connivance with international terrorism raises legal concern at the United Nations. And also cannot but disturb Arab, and all Muslim, states because it voluntarily or involuntarily is grist to the mill of those who try to link terrorism with Islam.''

Western diplomats say the attack embarrassed generally peaceful Qatar, which hosted a key U.S. headquarters during last year's Iraq war. Qatar had let Yandarbiyev, who was briefly president in a breakaway Chechnya, and his family stay for the past three years while barring him from political activity.

Qatar tightened security since the attack and passed an anti-terrorism law which stipulates death for ``terrorist'' acts.

Pro-Moscow Chechens suggested Yandarbiyev's death was linked to internal disputes, while some Chechen rebels blamed Russia.

Doha sheltered four leaders of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas for two years before asking them to leave in 2002.

Abbasi Madani, leader of Algeria's Islamic Salvation Front, lives in Qatar, which has furthered its maverick image in the region through its contacts with Israel and its taboo-breaking Al Jazeera satellite television station.

32/34 Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl., 119200, Moscow G-200; tel.: (095) 244 4119, fax: 244 4112 e-mail: dip@mid.ru, web-address: www.mid.ru

DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

26.02.2004

STATEMENT BY MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION IGOR IVANOV

391-26-02-2004

The Ambassador of the State of Qatar, Saad al-Kubaisi, was called into the Russian MFA on February 25, 2004. Igor Ivanov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, made him the following statement.

"On the night of February 18-19, this year, in Doha, capital of the State of Qatar, local special services arrested three Russian citizens staying on a mission at Russia's embassy. The arrest was made with the use of arms and brute physical force.

"The Russian citizens, one of whom has a diplomatic passport, are workers of Russian special services. Within the framework of their status as being attached to the embassy they were staying in Qatar on legal grounds and performing, without any violations of local legislation, tasks of an information analysis character related to countering international terrorism. These actions completely fit in with the efforts by member states of the antiterrorist coalition to identify sources and channels of financing, organizational mechanisms and other means of support for terrorist organizations.

"The authorities of Qatar not only forcibly seized the Russian citizens, but also contrary to elementary rules of interstate relations did not inform the Russian embassy of their actions at once. Moreover, in violation of international law, for seven days the Russian citizens were denied a meeting with Russian embassy officials.

"The Russian state has been taking the most energetic measures to protect its citizens. As part of these measures, a special representative of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs was sent to Doha for talks with local authorities. As a result one Russian citizen was released and is now at the embassy of Russia. Persistent efforts are continuing to get the release of the other two of our citizens, for whose life and health the Qatari authorities bear full responsibility.

"Contacts with the representatives of the leadership of Qatar have revealed that they are trying to incriminate the Russian citizens with responsibility for the recent attempt against the notorious Zemlikhan Yandarbiyev.

"The spokesmen for Russia have already declared that our country has no relationship whatsoever to that incident. So the attempts by Qatari authorities to shift the responsibility for the attempt against Yandarbiyev on to the Russian citizens arrested by them are devoid of any grounds - they were not involved in this incident in any way. The insinuations of the Qatari authorities can only be regarded as a provocation.

"As to the person of Yandarbiyev and his stay in Qatar, the following has to be noted. For his crimes on within the territory of Russia and direct links with Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations he was included in the UN sanctions list as one of the most dangerous international terrorists. In accordance with the UN antiterrorist decisions all states must bring to trial, or extradite terrorists to the countries where they committed their crimes.

"Russia had on many occasions, including at the highest level, addressed to Qatar insistent requests to extradite Yandarbiyev, who is personally guilty of the deaths of hundreds of Russian citizens, including those killed at Moscow's Dubrovka theatrical center as a result of the terrorist act which he stage-managed directly from Qatar.

"The Qatari leadership not only did not fulfill its international obligations in the struggle against terrorism, but actually took care of Yandarbiyev, granting him the complete freedom of movement, communication with various terrorist and extremist religious organizations and fund-raising for the commission of new terrorist acts in different countries.

"Such a line of connivance at international terrorism is causing a legitimate concern in the UN. Neither can it but worry the Arab, and indeed all the Muslim states, because voluntarily or involuntarily it brings grist to the mill of those who try to link terrorism with Islam.

"Russia has favored and continues to favor the development of smooth relations with Qatar, which meets the interests of our states and peoples. This can be achieved on the basis of strict respect of the Charter of the United Nations and other rules of international law."

The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs demanded that the Qatari authorities immediately release the unlawfully detained Russian citizens and provide them with a possibility to return home without hindrance.

http://www.chechenpress.com/news/2004/02/24/10.shtml [BBC Monitoring]

24 February: Statement of the government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria:

The former president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria [CRI], Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, was killed in a villainous way in the capital of Qatar on 13 February this year. Nobody doubts that Russian special services committed this act of terror on the direct orders of the Kremlin. Given this tragic example, the international community could be convinced once again that the Putin regime has been using terrorist and criminal methods to eliminate its political rivals.

It is known that on 26 June 2003, a special commission of the UN Security Council included at Russia's behest Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former CRI president and founder of the Vaynakh (Chechen-Ingush) Democratic Party, in a list of those suspected of links with Al- Qai'dah. The only "explanation" presented to the public was an incomprehensible report by the head of the expert committee on Al- Qai'dah, Michael Chandler, that experts of the committee had allegedly "noticed similarities between the actions of Chechen separatists and the actions of Al-Qai'dah".

We already said in a government statement in the summer of 2003 that the logic guiding the committee's experts was so absurd, and it seemed incredible for the commission of such a serious institution like the UN Security Council to take this unfounded and irresponsible decision. Chandler did not explain what actions of Yandarbiyev, who emigrated in autumn 1999, could be described as similar to those of Al-Qai'dah. That was why we were forced to turn to conjecture over the issue.

It is quite obvious that Yandarbiyev's visit to Afghanistan at the end of 1999 could be the only "serious basis" for accusing him of "links with Al-Qai'dah". What was the nature of this visit and what purposes did Yandarbiyev pursue in visiting this country?

At the end of 1999, when the Afghan (Taleban) government announced its readiness to recognize the independence of the Chechen state, Yandarbiyev paid a short visit to Kabul to officially draw up an act of recognition. Recognizing the CRI's state independence, the Afghan government only expressed quite understandable solidarity with the Chechen people in their fight against the same colonial aggressor which attacked Afghanistan in 1979 and had annihilated its people for nine years (according to various estimations, the Soviet aggressors killed between 1-3m Afghans).

In this connection, the aforesaid statement raised a question: why did such vigilant experts of the committee fail to notice similarities in the aggressive and inhumane actions of the Soviet Union and now Russia against the Afghan and Chechen peoples, which were also obvious to non-experts?

We reminded the committee that at the time of Yandarbiyev's visit to Kabul, the influential Liberal-Democratic faction of the Russian State Duma led by Russian Deputy Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovskiy demanded that the Russian state leadership recognize the Taleban government, and that the governments of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, which are the USA's close allies, openly and publicly had official diplomatic relations with the Taleban government for a considerable time.

That was why, Yandarbiyev, together with the entire Chechen government which sent him to the Afghan capital on a diplomatic mission, believed that the USA supported the decision [of the Afghan government] on the recognition of Chechnya's independence and this was like a preliminary step to the recognition of the CRI's independence by the USA itself. These expectations increased, as the support of UN member states for a nation fighting for freedom is an imperative of international law. If a nation, after freeing itself from colonial dependence, establishes an independent state, the UN member countries have to recognize its independence in accordance with their commitments stipulated by international law.

Nevertheless, if the diplomatic contacts with the Taleban government in 1999 are the basis for accusations of "terrorism" raised after four years in 2003, why are these accusations not being applied to others, the politicians, diplomats, and members of the governments of Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait etc.? Why was only Yandarbiyev selected among those who regularly visited Kabul and officially received members of the Taleban government in their capitals? What type of legal and logical considerations is this selectivity based on?

This and a number of other questions, to which we have not received answers, give to us sufficient grounds to assume that, when making its decision with regard to Yandarbiyev, the special commission of the UN Security Council was guided not by justice and objectivity, but was carrying out the Kremlin's political order. The latter has an interest in discrediting the Chechen state, its political leaders and armed forces in the eye of the international community. We believe that being under the Kremlin's thumb, it was precisely the special commission of the UN Security Council which endorsed Yandarbiyev's death sentence.

In our statement, we suggested to Yandarbiyev that he lodge a lawsuit with the European Court for Human Rights against the special commission of the UN Security Council because it was quite clear that this illegal and obviously political decision linking him with "international terrorism" was, in fact, an attempt to discredit the national liberation struggle of the Chechen people and, in so doing, to soften the guilt of leaders of the Russian state for the genocide against the Chechen people. For whatever reason, Yandarbiyev failed to do this.

Today, 10 days after the act of terror against Yandarbiyev, we see that neither the UN and the OSCE nor other international organizations established to protect the rights and freedoms of peoples and individuals reacted to this ignoble and defiant murder of one of the leading figures of the national liberation movement of the Chechen people. We also realize that the CRI government has no legal right to initiate a court examination of the aforesaid decision of the special commission of the UN Security Council because the CRI's state independence has not gained international recognition. But we will do our best to ensure that Yandarbiyev's family obtains a court examination on a private basis. We regard as necessary that the special commission of the UN Security Council officially admit the biased nature of its decision and return the good name to the man who will forever remain in the memory of the Chechen people as an inflexible fighter for its freedom and independence.

[Signed] On behalf and on the instructions of the CRI government, Akhmed Zakayev, deputy prime minister of the CRI government and special representative of the CRI president.

Chechenpress, 24.02.04

By Galina Stolyarova STAFF WRITER

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Young nationalists disrupted a solemn St. Petersburg commemoration on Monday of the 60th anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people.

Formerly the Soviet Army Day, Feb. 23 is now called The Day of Defenders of the Fatherland. On the same date in 1944 Stalin deported the North Caucasian ethnic groups, allegedly for collaborating with the German invaders during World War II.

"It is a tragic day for our country," said Sergei Khakhayev, chairman of the local human rights group Memorial. "We are often told not to spoil the holiday, but how many people know that Army Day was used against the Chechens back in 1944: it was an excuse to gather them together so that they could be put in railway wagons and sent away. Every third person died on the way to exile."

Not everyone in Khakhayev's modest audience agreed.

"Those nations [Chechens and Ingush] shouldn't exist at all," a young man suddenly shouted during Khakhayev's speech. He struggled with several companions who prevented him getting closer to the speaker.

Some of the youngsters started distributing a nationalist newspaper. The meeting organizers tried to remove the nationalists, but the youngsters resisted, shouting out more insults against Chechens.

The organizers asked the police, who were monitoring the meeting, for help. Several people were detained.

The gathering was otherwise quiet with a little over 100 representatives of local human rights groups gathered near the Solovetsky Stone on Troitskaya Ploshchad. The stone was brought from the Solovetsky labor camp and is the city's main memorial to victims of totalitarian regime.

The human rights groups remembered Feb. 23, 1944, for bringing pain and sorrow to the families of 400,000 Chechens and 200,000 Ingush, who were deported to the gulags of Siberia and exile settlements in Central Asia. Some people trace the unrest in Chechnya today to the divisions and hatred that arose from the deportation.

The exile of the Chechens launched a greater campaign that eventually resulted in the deportation of 3.33 million people, including 1,247,000 Volga Germans, 228,000 Bulgarians, Armenians, Greeks and Crimean Tatars, 94,000 Turks and Kurds, 91,000 Kalmyks, 50,000 Lithuanians and 41,000 Poles.

In Moscow, authorities banned a rally on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad, where another Solovetsky Stone stands in the center in front of the headquarters of the Federal Security Service.

However, people still went to the stone to lay flowers and light candles and eventually a political meeting took place that was quickly broken up by the police.

Lev Ponomaryov, chairman of the all-Russia movement For Human Rights, was arrested and is due to appear in court on Tuesday, radio station Ekho Moskvy reported.

St. Petersburg has witnessed several apparently racially based actions in the last fortnight, including the murder of nine-year-old Tajik girl Khursheda Sultanova, the desecration of a Jewish cemetery and the painting huge black swastikas over the Eternal Flame monument on the Field of Mars.

Many speakers at Monday's meeting expressed serious concern over a recent trend to blame the entire Chechen nation for the actions of a few individual terrorists. They said this trend is growing across Russia and can be seen in St. Petersburg. A bloody vendetta against a particular Caucasian is seen by local nationalists as a successful support of Russian soldiers in Chechnya, they said.

Human rights advocates said they were frustrated both by the appearance of nationalists and the low turnout of people.

"Thousands of Russians marched against the war in Iraq last year and look at our tiny, wretched gathering - it is shameful," said Peter Rausch, a member of the Committee For Peace in Chechnya and a representative of the League of Anarchists. "Everyone prefers to turn a blind eye to this problem and just hope to miraculously escape from the next terrorist attack."

Yuly Rybakov, a democratic politician and former State Duma deputy, said the Day of Defenders of the Fatherland should not merely be a remembrance day for Red Army soldiers who fought against fascists during the World War II, but also as a memorial day for all soldiers who fought for the independence of their native land.

Sixty years ago hundreds of thousands of Chechens, Ingush and Crimean Tatars were deported because the Soviet authorities decided that these nations could have contributed much more to the victory against Hitler, he said.

"All of them were made accountable: little children, young women, old people," Rybakov said. "Everyone knows that there were plenty of war heroes among Chechens, Ingush and Tatars."

Human rights advocates are warned against a repeat genocide. Rausch went so far as to say that those who disagree with the Russia's policy in Chechnya should go as far as to boycott the presidential elections on March 14.

"The war has been going on for seven years now, having taken the lives of more than 200,000 civilians and 15,000 Russian soldiers," Rybakov said. "The government is now trying to turn everything upside down so that the Russians - living in poverty and uncertainty - will direct their anger against the Chechens, Jews, anyone else but not against the authorities who are really to blame."

Khakhayev said aggression and intolerance against Caucasians has become widespread.

"Didn't you all hear that young man shouting that all Chechens must die," he said. "There are dozens of nationalist groups in town that hold the same views. But imperial ambitions in any country anywhere in the world only result in mass killings, on both sides."

At least one voice at the meeting was strictly self-critical. "When we hear about another blast in Moscow or elsewhere and begin to feel hatred against Chechens growing inside our heart, we should suppress it - and if everyone wins this little battle with themselves, then there will be more peace in the country," said Pavel Viktorov, who edits a pacifist newspaper in St. Petersburg.