“Unfortunately, in conditions of war it is practically impossible to bring people guilty for such terrorist acts to justice,” said Maskhadov

MOSCOW, September 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov said Friday, September 24, that Shamil Basayev would be put on trial for masterminding the hostage siege in Beslan, which killed more than 330 people, once fighting between Chechen fighters and the Russian army comes to an end.

“Unfortunately, in conditions of war it is practically impossible to bring people guilty for such terrorist acts to justice,” the former Chechen president said in a statement carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“However, I responsibly announce that after the end of the war, individuals guilty of illegal acts will be handed over to a court, including Shamil Basayev,” he added.

Basayev has claimed responsibility for the three-day hostage taking earlier this month at a school in Beslan, southern Russia, in which at least 339 people died, more than half of them children.

He placed the ultimate blame for the carnage on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he said ordered the school to be stormed. 

“The Kremlin bloodsucker destroyed and injured 1,000 children and adults, having given the order to storm the school for imperialist ambitions,” he said.

International Tribunal

Maskhadov, however, called for the creation of an international tribunal to try war crimes on both sides.

“But I have to point out that such acts (as Beslan) are a consequence and response to the genocidal war waged by the Russian leadership against the Chechen people, in which the Russian army has killed 250,000 people, including 42,000 children,” he said.

Maskhadov, who was elected president in Chechnya's only free presidential poll, had admitted in an October interview that he disagreed with Basayev in targeting civilians as a means to combat the Russian occupation.

“I myself condemn targeting innocent civilians and have always been telling Basayev that he must fight an organized war against Russia, employing diplomacy and accompanied by strategic and military tactics,” he told French daily Le Monde.

The small mountainous republic pf Chechnya has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, with just three years of relative peace after the first Russian invasion of the region ended in August 1996 and the second began in October 1999. 

At least 100,000 Chechen civilians and 10,000 Russian troops are estimated to have been killed in both invasions, but human rights groups have said the real numbers could be much higher. 

Human rights groups have accused Russian soldiers of committing aggressions and abuses in Chechnya in the two invasions. 

International human rights watchdogs said in a joint statement released in April that rape, torture and extrajudicial executions by Russian troops have become everyday occurrences in Chechnya.