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Russian Government And Chechens Hurl Accusations Over Hijacking
by Alvy Zakriyev
SLEPTSOVSK (AFP) - The dramatic ending of a hijack drama involving a Russian airplane diverted to Israel by alleged "terrorists" linked to the Chechen war left Moscow and the opposition Chechen leadership disputing who was to blame for the incident.
The 12-hour hijack drama, which began over southern Russia, ended peacefully on a remote military airbase in southern Israel with the arrest of the hijacker, who claimed to be carrying "a message to the world and to the emperor of Japan."
All 48 passengers and 10 crew aboard the Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev TU-154 scheduled to fly from the Dagestani capital Makhachkala to Moscow were released unharmed at the Uvda military airbase, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of the Red Sea resort of Eilat.
But Russian civil aviation authorities had earlier placed blame for the hijacking on an unspecified number of "Chechen terrorists," ITAR-TASS reported.
Military sources indicated that the hijackers may have been so-called Chechen "mujahedeen," Islamists who re-routed the plane to Israel out of sympathy for fellow Muslims behind the Palestinian uprising.
The Russian security services (FSB, formerly KGB) sent an anti-terrorist unit to Israel's Uvda military airport, and Moscow authorities also dispatched a team of legal experts to prepare the way for the hijacker's extradition to Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had been immediately informed of the incident, instructed FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev to coordinate the Russian security services' effort, Interfax reported.
The hijacker, who boarded the plane in the Russian autonomous republic of Dagestan, which borders the war-torn north Caucasus republic of Chechnya, had claimed to have a bomb in his possession.
In fact, the only weapons aboard were four pistols and a Kalashnikov assault rifle belonging to four bodyguards traveling with Dagestan Finance Minister Abdusamad Hamidov, a senior Israeli military official said.
Earlier Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's top security advisor Danny Yatom said, "We know that the hijackers are Chechen. They are Islamists who have called the operation al-Aqsa."
But a spokesperson for Chechnya's president Aslan Maskhadov reacted angrily to Russian speculation that Chechen fighters were responsible for the hijacking, and hinted that the FSB may have planned the incident itself.
"The Chechen leadership continues to abide by the commitment, which it has pledged in the past, that no Chechen military operation will ever target the civilian population," said Maskhadov's press service.
The Chechen leadership believed "the hijacking of the plane by unknown persons may be a personal revenge of some people against the actions of [Russian] federal troops in Chechnya," said a spokesperson contacted by phone from the neighboring republic of Ingushetia.
"It may be a provocation organized by the Russian special services, with a view to creating a negative image of the Chechen movement of armed resistance," he added.
For the past 13 months, Russian forces have been waging a self-styled "anti-terrorist" campaign against separatist Islamic opposition in the southern republic of Chechnya.
The Russian foreign ministry said the hostage drama had ended "safely" adding that the hijacker, whom it described as a "terrorist," was a Dagestani citizen and "most likely a mentally unbalanced person."
It added in a statement that the ministry and other Russian agencies had taken "energetic measures to save the lives of the passengers and crew," dispatching experts to Israel to assist the authorities.
The identity of the hijacker was cast into doubt Sunday when Dagestan's prosecutor said the culprit could be a Dagestani religious extremist called Zagir Huseinov, news agencies reported.
Huseinov, who was registered as an active member of various extreme religious organizations, had already been convicted in the past three times for criminal offences, the prosecutor Khabibula Aliyev told Interfax.
However, in Israel, army chief General Yom Tov Samia had earlier identified the hijacker as Amarkhnov Ahmed Abnarkhan, an "unbalanced" individual whose nationality was not yet clear.
Israeli radio reported that another three people, apparently hijackers, had also left the plane at Uvda military airbase.
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