Jack Straw condemns Chechnya bombing
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has this morning issued a condemnation of the terrorist bomb attack in the Russian Caucasian region of Chechnya in which the Chechen president was killed.
A mine was detonated in the VIP area of the Chechen capital Grozny’s Dynamo stadium, during a Second World War memorial ceremony.
President Akhmad Kadyrov, his chief of military staff and at least five others died in the blast, and up to 50 have been injured.
Mr Straw declared, “I would like to express my sincere condolences for the death of President Kadyrov and all of the innocent victims killed and wounded in this terrorist attack. It seems all the more terrible, coming on a day when Russia is recognising the heroism and sacrifice of its soldiers during the Second World War.
We unreservedly condemn all terrorist acts, and offer our condolences to all those who have suffered loss. The situation in Chechnya can never be resolved by violence and assassination.”
Chechen officials have blamed rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and local warlord Shamil Basayev for the attack.
Pro-Moscow President Kadyrov came to power in October in elections that many Chechens believed were dishonest. Chechen prime minister Sergei Abramov has been appointed acting president.
Speaking on Channel 4 News on Sunday evening, Dennis Sammut of pro-democracy agency Links, explained, ” He was certainly Moscow’s man in Chechnya, but he was an important person, because throughout the 90s he was the most important Muslim cleric in Chechnya, and when he crossed over to the Moscow side just before the 1999 conflict, it was a great coup for Moscow.
“So his loss is a great loss for Moscow, and he is not easily replaceable.”
Speaking on the same programme, Chechen separatist activist Akhmed Zakayev argued, “Kadyrov was nothing but a puppet, and played no role whatsoever in the decision-making process in Moscow with regard to Chechnya”.
Russia has been waging an at-times brutal war against separatists in the largely Muslim province for some years, and it had appeared that President Putin’s policy of suppression had restored order until Sunday’s bomb.
Russian and Chechen authorities have begun a crackdown against separatist rebels in the region.
“Five people were arrested in the stadium, but searches are continuing across Chechnya”, a spokesperson for the Russian interior ministry stated.
