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TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=BABITSKY FATE (L-UPDATE)
NUMBER=2-259580
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  A Russian journalist who disappeared while 
covering the war in Chechnya last month has apparently 
surfaced in the neighboring republic of Dagestan.  
Nothing had been heard from Radio Liberty reporter 
Andrei Babitsky for the past 40 days, prompting the 
president of the U-S funded radio station to urge the 
United States to pressure Moscow for more details 
about his fate.  Correspondent Nick Simeone brings us 
the latest on the mysterious case of a Russian 
journalist whose reporting on the war in Chechnya had 
apparently offended the Russian leadership.
TEXT:  Just hours after Radio Liberty President Thomas 
Dine said he feared Andrei Babitsky might be dead, 
word reached Moscow that the reporter was alive, but 
being detained in the Russian republic of Dagestan.  
Paul Goble is a spokesman for Radio Free Europe and 
Radio Liberty.
            /// GOBLE ACT ///
      He has spoken with one of our correspondents in 
      Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan and his 
      wife has spoken with him briefly as well.  His 
      wife reports to us that his condition seems 
      fairly good, that he was laughing about press 
      reports about where he had been held earlier, 
      but we do not have any more details than that.
            /// END ACT ///
His sudden re-emergence is another strange twist in an 
already mysterious case.  Radio Liberty President Dine 
had feared Mr. Babitsky's tough reporting from 
Chechnya had angered Moscow so much that no effort may 
have been spared to silence him.
                /// DINE ACT ///
      His reporting again was clear cut, graphic and 
      told the story to the Russian audience about the 
      military casualties that the Russian army was 
      receiving, as well as the brutality that was 
      being put on Chechen civilians.
                  /// END ACT ///
During his disappearance, the Russian government had 
offered contradictory accounts of the journalist's 
status.  First, it denied holding him, then said it 
had handed him over to Chechen rebels in exchange for 
two Russian prisoners of war.
Few ordinary Russians have shown sympathy for the 
Radio Liberty reporter, and state-run media in Russia 
have implied that Mr. Babitsky was a traitor who chose 
to consort with the enemy.
                 /// COOPER ACT ///
      They were equating him with combatants in the 
      war in Chechnya.
                   /// END ACT ///
Ann Cooper is a former Moscow-based correspondent and 
now executive director of the Committee to Protect 
Journalists.
                /// COOPER ACT ///
      They had a very callous disregard for this 
      particular journalist, who wrote things that 
      made them very uncomfortable and very irritated 
      because he did write very frankly about what was 
      happening in Chechnya and I think there's no 
      doubt that the Russian government wanted his 
      voice silenced, wanted his reports to end.
             /// END ACT ///
At this point, Radio Liberty does not know what kind 
of treatment Russian authorities may have given him 
over the past 40 days, or why he is now apparently 
being detained in Dagestan. (SIGNED)
NEB/NJS/JP
25-Feb-2000 16:41 PM EDT (25-Feb-2000 2141 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.