DATE=1/26/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA / JOURNALIST (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258457
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A reporter for the U-S financed Radio Liberty
is missing in Chechnya. V-O-A's Peter Heinlein in
Moscow reports the journalist disappeared nearly two
weeks ago after filing a series of dispatches from
inside the Chechen capital, Grozny.
TEXT: Correspondent Andrei Babitsky, well known for
his independent dispatches from Chechnya, was last
heard from in Grozny January 15th. At that time, the
35-year-old Russian-born journalist filed a long
report on intense fighting in the city. He later
called his wife.
Lyudmilla Babitsky says during that phone call, her
husband said he was feeling ill, and suspected federal
troops had released chemical agents into the air.
/// BABITSKY ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
///
She says, "He complained that his throat was hurting
as if he had tonsillitis, and said they had probably
spread some terrible stuff over Grozny."
There has been no information about Mr. Babitsky's
whereabouts since he disappeared. But Radio Liberty's
Moscow bureau chief, Savik Shuster, says sources he
has been able to contact inside the war zone, as well
as other correspondents in the region, believe the
journalist may be in Russian custody.
/// SHUSTER ACT ///
And only yesterday, all of a sudden, we received
from - again, absolutely unconfirmed sources -
but one kind of information that actually he was
arrested by the federal side. That it happened
somewhere in the surroundings of Grozny.
/// END ACT ///
But Russia's deputy armed forces chief of staff,
General Valery Manilov, Wednesday denied that Mr.
Babitsky is in custody.
/// MANILOV ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
///
He says, "I don't have any information about it. I
only know he is missing and we will do our best to
help him if he is in a bad situation."
Mr. Babitsky's battlefield reports were highly-
acclaimed during the first Chechen war from 1994 to
1996. But they regularly contradicted official
information. Russian human rights activist Andrei
Mironov says the journalist's most recent dispatches
were becoming a serious threat to the credibility of
the official government line.
/// MIRONOV ACT ///
Lately, he was a unique source of reliable
information from Grozny and provoked incredible
hatred of Russian authorities, especially of the
so-called Rosinform, which is a sort of
disinformation agency designed to suppress all
independent information from Chechnya. They
even publicly accused him of being an accomplice
of Chechen butchers.
/// END ACT ///
Radio Liberty Bureau chief Shuster called Mr.
Babitsky's work "heroic", and said his disappearance
has dealt a serious blow to independent reporting from
Chechnya.
/// SHUSTER ACT ///
Basically he did real independent reporting, and
that was the only source of independent
information coming out of Chechnya during this
war. He was quoted by, I think, the main
television networks, information agencies, the
New York Times, exactly because he was the only
source, and I repeat, of independent, uncensored
information.
/// END ACT ///
Radio Liberty issued an appeal to Russia's Defense
Ministry Wednesday for any information about Mr.
Babitsky's whereabouts.
Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe are U-S government
financed radio stations set up during the Cold War to
broadcast to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet
Union. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/JWH/JP
26-Jan-2000 13:32 PM EDT (26-Jan-2000 1832 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
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