Maskhadov's family said denying them the right to bury him is “blasphemous and completely inexplicable in a modern civilized world.”

MOSCOW, March 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Less than three days after the assassination of Aslan Maskhadov, post-Soviet Chechnya’s only legitimately elected president, Chechen resistance fighters have named a successor.

Abdul-Khalim Saidullayev, a little-known scholar, will be the official leader of Chechnya’s fighters, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“He was one of the closest people to Aslan Maskhadov on the territory of Chechnya,” Akhmed Zakayev, a longtime ally and spokesman for the slain leader, told AFP by phone from Britain, where he has received political asylum.

Umar Khambiyev, another close Maskhadov associate who is living in France, also confirmed the appointment.

“The president told me two years ago that if anything happened to him, this person would take over,” he said.

Late Tuesday, March 8, Chechen fighters’ commander Shamil Basayev named Saidullayev as Maskhadov's successor in a statement posted on the fighters’ Web site kavkazcenter.com.

Maskhadov was killed in Chechnya Tuesday in the village of <Doikur-Aul during a special operation by Russian forces.

He was a Chechen general and chief of staff during the 1994–1996 war against Russia and was credited 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.

Saidullayev is not widely known in Chechnya.

He is thought to be in his mid 30s and is known to have served on Chechnya’s Shari`ah court in Maskhadov’s government during the Caucasus republic’s three years of independence in between the two wars with Moscow.

Maskhadov’s associates praise him as a decent ally who despite a lack of experience on the battlefield enjoys wide authority within the fighters’ ranks.

“He is a just person and Maskhadov saw in him someone who could continue the battle,” said Khambiyev, who served as Maskhadov’s health minister.

Pro-Moscow authorities in Chechnya labeled him a proponent of Wahhabism, a faith-based Saudi political and reformist movement with a focus on purging Islam of its decadence, alien ideas that mean nothing more than polytheism, in addition to reviving the fervor of days gone by.

Anzor Maskhadov (2nd R) prays with the members of local Chechen community during a mourning vigil in memory of his father in Baku. (Reuters)

In another related development, Maskhadov's family Thursday appealed to the international community to try and press Moscow to release his body for burial.

“We are appealing to you to use all of your authority and opportunities to demand that the Russian leadership return the body of Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov to his relatives and close ones,” said a letter signed by Maskhadov’s widow, son and daughter and addressed to the international community.

“We think that (Russian President Vladimir) Putin will listen to your opinion,” said the message posted on the kavkazcenter.com Web site.

Moscow had said it would not hand Maskhadov’s body over to the family for burial, claiming he was a “terrorist” must be buried in unmarked graves.

"We remind you that observers from your countries stated that Aslan Maskhadov became a legitimate president of Chechnya, having convincingly won free elections in the Chechen republic of Ichkeria on January 27, 1997,” said the appeal, using the name they use for their homeland.

“Under the pretext that the slain legitimate president Maskhadov was a so-called terrorist, the Russian leadership is not releasing his body for burial,” added the message.

“That way, the pain of our loss is compounded. This is blasphemous and completely inexplicable in a modern civilized world.”

In February, Maskhadov declared a one-month unilateral ceasefire and called for peace talks with Moscow.

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.

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