03 June 2004 18:53
Rebel web site says Russian intelligence behind abductions in Chechnya
The Chechen rebel web site Chechenpress has accused the Russian security services of masterminding abductions in
Chechnya. The web site touched on the abduction of Medecins Sans Frontieres employee Arjan Erkel, saying that it was
staged by the Kremlin to "teach various humanitarian organizations not to go roaming around Chechnya and
elsewhere". Chechenpress quoted an MSF official as saying that all such crimes in Chechnya are sanctioned by the
Kremlin. "It is becoming more and more certain that the abduction of people in Chechnya and its surrounding
republics has become a part of the so-called anti-terrorist operation which was planned by the Kremlin in the autumn of
1999," the rebel web site added. The following is an excerpt from Mayrbek Taramov's report by Chechenpress
news agency web site headlined "The Kremlin's 'contribution' to the release of Arjan Erkel".
Subheadings have been inserted editorially:
Not just a sensation
The news that the Dutch authorities had paid a ransom for the kidnapped member of the Medecins Sans Frontieres
organization [kidnapped in Dagestan in August 2002] should not be just a sensation, but have the effect of an exploding
bomb. Why? - first and foremost, because the ransom was paid to the Russian special services, who were acting on
instructions of the Russian authorities. Even before Erkel's release, several Chechen sources pointed out that the
abduction had been sanctioned by the Kremlin and the Lubyanka. Other people soon came to the same conclusions as the
Chechens, and to back this up here is an extract from the text of an Internet-chat with Marie (?Jegou), a journalist of
Le Monde, and an expert on Russia.
(?Ervek): Does Vladimir Putin have any chance of obtaining the release of Arjan Erkel, a volunteer from the Medecins
Sans Frontieres organization, who was abducted eighteen months ago? And if so, why will the heads of government of the
Western countries (and particularly Holland) not join together to put joint pressure on the Kremlin?
Marie (?Jegou): You are right. There is no doubt that Putin, as Medecins Sans Frontieres claims, may at any moment
demand Erkel's release. Did you know that when he was abducted Erkel had a mobile phone with him? Six months after
he was abducted an account arrived at MSF for calls on this phone. The bill included a list of about 50 local Dagestani
numbers. From this same telephone for six months after the date of Erkel's abduction, MSF passed on these numbers
to the Russian authorities. But all they would say is that they had switched off the phone, saying the subscribers'
numbers were not of any interest to the investigation. But MSF carried out their own investigation during which it
transpired that the numbers on which these calls were held were those of representatives of the local Dagestani power
bodies, who included even a local MP.
[Passage omitted: Other details]
Intricate scheme
Marie (?Jegou) and her interlocutor (?Ervek) have told us a great deal, but by no means everything. It goes without
saying that after such reports it was simply too dangerous to keep Erkel hostage, because all the publicity could lead
to an inter-state scandal. But at the same time, there was a reason why those who kidnapped and held Erkel could not let
their victim go even if the order came from President Putin. A ransom was an obligatory part of this intricate scheme of
the special services, otherwise suspicions that the Russian and Dagestani authorities were involved in it would be
strengthened.
But the operation to "release" Erkel went very badly, just like all the other "anti-terrorist"
operations of the Kremlin and the Lubyanka. Another shocking fact is that Erkel's "valiant liberators"
turned out to be veterans of the Russian special services, who at the end of their careers have stained themselves with
a scandal. Here is a thoroughly false statement by the head of the organization of foreign intelligence veterans,
Valentin Velichko, who after the "anti-terrorist" operation had been completed said: "The details of the
operation are a big secret so that people who may still be hostage do not come to any harm". "I can say
straight away that this was not a bribe." Now it turns out that basically there was no such operation, but a
performance was laid on for the release of a hostage, the sort of thing which happens virtually every day in Chechnya.
And so the ransom was made, and quite a sum - one million euros - in order to teach various humanitarian organizations
not to go roaming around Chechnya and elsewhere. And this means that the money, as happens in such cases, was divided
between the contractors and the executors of the crime. You don't have to be a Solomon to understand that the
Kremlin and the Lubyanka made their own contribution to this affair.
The ongoing so-called "anti-terrorist operation" in Chechnya, which more corresponds to the title
"terrorist operation of the Kremlin authorities", is remarkable for its ineptitude. This ineptitude becomes
even more obvious against the background of the complete failures of the Russian special services in the period from
Autumn 1999 up to now. Let us recall some of their epic failures: the blowing up of apartments in Russian cities, when
the FSB was caught red-handed attempting to blow up a house in Ryazan; the tragic spectacle of the Nord-Ost [theatre
siege in Moscow in October 2002] where the victims who numbered over 200 were poisoned by the Russian special services;
the trial of the Chechen President's envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, where KGB stooges played the part of witnesses, and
when the London Magistrates Court reached a verdict that a full-scale war was going on in Chechnya; the terrorist act of
the Russian special services in Qatar, which was carried out on the direct instruction of Russian Defence Minister
Sergey Ivanov, and that means President Putin, as a result of which the Chechen Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was
murdered and his son injured. And, now, to complete the litany of Kremlin-Lubyanka bloody bacchanalia, the affair of the
Dutch humanitarian Arjan Erkel.
Far-reaching conclusions
A statement by the general director of the Regional Policy and Consular Affairs Department of the Dutch Foreign
Ministry Peter van (?Wulften Palte) at a press conference in The Hague gives grounds for far-reaching conclusions,
firstly that not only this abduction is the work of the Russian special services, but also that virtually all such
crimes have been sanctioned at the highest level.
One has to ask why, with all the numerous abductions of people in Chechnya and beyond its borders, the press
conference of the Dutch official has been virtually the only such conference? Why were such conferences not held after
the release of another member of the Medecins Sans Frontieres organization, the American Kenneth Gluck, the British
businessman Peter Shaw, and others whose names we do not know? Who gained from this silence? There is one reasonable
explanation - such publicity was not part of the scenario of the notorious struggle against terrorism, in which the
Chechens have been given up for sacrifice. Otherwise the whole terrorist "truth" would have come out into the
open.
It is becoming more and more certain that the abduction of people in Chechnya and its surrounding republics has
become a part of the so-called anti-terrorist operation which was planned by the Kremlin in the autumn of 1999.
Unique document
We have made a number references to a unique document of the Russian special services entitled "Special measures
to neutralize pockets of separatism in the Northern Caucasus (Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan), which came into our
hands back in 1998. Here is a paragraph of this document which exposes the essence of abduction:
"Widescale ideological brainwashing must be accompanied by specific measures on Chechen territory.
The first plan - the information isolation of Chechnya.
The second plan - total isolation.
"The task of the first plan is easily solved. In an impoverished republic it is not difficult to find people who
want to earn money, as much as possible and straight away. This can be done with the help of journalists and members of
the humanitarian organizations. They must be the barter. At the next stage, everyone who has money must become the
barter. Clearly, the greatest effect will be achieved if Chechnya's neighbours are the object of the
attacks."
Some people claimed that this document was a falsification. Of course, the special services have never admitted that
a document, having been made public, was their work, even if it contained dozens of prints, signatures and secret seals.
But people who think logically can easily make distinctions and they can see that this document represents a serious
charge against the Russian authorities. At least all the subsequent events in Chechnya and in the North Caucasus proved
the truth of this document. Although this document was published, the plan of action of the Russian special services
remained unchanged.
European politicians support Putin's campaign in Chechnya
The postulates of this FSB document were corroborated by the head of Medecins Sans Frontieres Jean-Herve Bradol, who
in March of this year openly accused the Russian federal authorities and the Dagestani leadership of Erkel's
abduction. Bradol said that officials and even deputies of the State Duma were involved in the crime. According to him,
Erkel was kidnapped because he criticized the situation in Chechnya.
I am a long way from believing that the heads of the world's leading states did not know about the Putin
team's "little escapades". They knew perfectly well virtually everything, but still they shut their eyes
to it. Otherwise, how can one explain the loathsome behaviour of the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who more
than once has come out as Putin's free advocate? How can one explain the disgraceful behaviour of the so-called
Commissar for Human Rights Alvaro Hill-Robles, who supports Putin over practically everything, openly mocking at human
rights? It was precisely Berlusconi, Hill-Robles, and others like him who gave Putin carte blanche to carry out the
genocide of the Chechen people.
Gelayev's attempt to rescue Arjan Erkel
It is as though it was not only the Dutch authorities who knew where and how the member of the Medecins Sans
Frontieres organization was being held. It is quite possible that this important information reached the Chechen
commander Khamzat Gelayev who, at the cost of his life and his fighters, decided on the desperate operation to free the
Dutch doctor. It is hard to imagine what a powerful response this would have had in the world if the Gelayevs'
odyssey had ended successfully and they had managed to free Erkel. World public opinion would have changed sharply in
favour of the Chechen people, and this might have led if not to the end of the war in Chechnya, then to talks which is
exactly what Gelayev was banking on.
But the initiators of the global "anti-terrorist operation", the Kremlin and those with whose silent assent
the genocide in Chechnya continues, could not allow such a turn of events to happen. That is the only way to explain the
fact that while Gelayev's raid was in progress, in the mountain regions of Dagestan was concentrated a huge
grouping of Russian troops, including long-range artillery and aviation, whose task was to prevent the Dutch
humanitarian's release by Gelayev's group at all costs. It should be stressed that the Gelayevs' raid was
being tracked by American satellites, and their tracking route was passed on by the Americans to Moscow, as the Russian
media reported.
This is where one can seek the solution to the Gelayev group's subversive raid to Dagestan and his no less
mysterious death.
Whatever others might claim, one can be sure that the Gelayev group's raid, even though it ended in tragedy for
them, still brought nearer the hour of Erkel's release. Let us hope future details of his release will not be long
in coming.
Mayrbek Taramov, for Chechenpress, 31 May 2004.
[Chechenpress web site] |
RUSSIA IN FACTS
