MOSCOW,
March 8, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Aslan
Maskhadov, leader of the Chechen resistance fighters, was reportedly
killed in Chechnya Tuesday, March 8.
“I
confirm that Maskhadov was killed in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt,”
General Ilya Shabalkin, the spokesman for the headquarters of Russian
troops deployed in the region, was quoted as saying by Agence France
Presse (AFP).
Maskhadov
was killed in the village of Tolstoi during a fighting that flared up in
the area where he was hiding in a bunker in the village, the Russian
general added.
“The
Federal Security forces, while conducting a special operation ...
killed international terrorist and rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov,”
Shabalkin told Reuters by telephone.
The
body of the Chechen leader had been identified, he stressed but he
declined to give further details on the circumstances of Maskhadov's
death.
Russian
television has shown pictures of what it said was Maskhadov's body.
There
is no word yet from Chechen fighters.
The
pro-Russia Chechen Vice-Premier earlier told Al-Jazeera channel that
Maskhadov was killed during a joint military operation between the
Russian special forces and the Chechen internal security forces in the
area.
A
Resistance Leader
 |
|
Maskhadov
and Shamil Basayev (L) used to coordinate resistance attacks until
they sharply differed on targeting civilians following the grisly
Beslan massacre.
|
Aslan
Alivitch Maskhadov was born on September 21, 1951 to Chechens in exile
in Kazakhstan; his family returned to Chechnya in 1957.
He
was a Chechen general and chief of staff during the 1994–1996 war
against Russia. He has won many credit with the Chechen victory in the
mid-1990s.
In
January 1997, Maskhadov was elected President of Chechnya on a
platform including demands for independence from Moscow.
He
dismissed as a “farce” the latest presidential election in the
country, which brought pro-Moscow candidate Ahmad Kadyrov, who was
assassinated last May in a Grozny bombing.
Maskhadov
had reiterated that the Chechen crisis could be resolved by putting
into effect a draft resolution for the independence of the country
prepared by his onetime administration, stressing that “it all
depends on the will of the United Nations and the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).”
He
has been also calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “take a
courageous step” by ending the bloody war in Chechnya and defuse the
crisis and stop explosions rocking Russian and Chechen cities.
The
small mountainous republic of 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 that rape, torture and extrajudicial
executions by Russian troops have become everyday occurrences in
Chechnya.
