Military

DATE=11-04-02

TYPE=ON THE LINE

NUMBER=1-01221 SHORT #1

TITLE=CHECHEN TERRORISM

INTERNET=Yes

EDITOR=OFFICE OF POLICY 619-0037

CONTENT=

THEME: UP, HOLD UNDER AND FADE

Host: This is On the Line, and I'm ----. Terrorists from Chechnya recently held a theater full of people hostage in Moscow. The heavily armed guerrillas rigged the building with explosives and threatened to blow up themselves and their captives if Russia didn't immediately withdraw its troops from Chechnya, a Russian province that has been seeking independence. In a pre-dawn raid, Russian forces flooded the theater with a powerful gas meant to render the terrorists unconscious. Fifty guerrillas were killed. A few were captured. But over one-hundred fifteen hostages died from the gas that was pumped into the theater.

Host: Ariel Cohen is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. He says that despite the loss of life, Russian President Vladimir Putin made the right decision in ending the terrorist takeover.

Cohen: This was a horrible bungle in terms of execution. But the basic call that President Putin made -- that he won't negotiate with terrorists, that it's unacceptable that a bunch of people who are connected to the same financiers of Muslim radical terrorism as people who attacked the United States on nine-eleven [September 11th], that Russia will negotiate with them or Russia would surrender to their demands. So, Putin's call was sound.

Host: Ariel Cohen says that Russia should reform its security and military forces which have been operating in Chechnya since 1999. Those forces have committed serious human rights abuses in attempting to restore Moscow's authority in the province.

Nikolas Gvosdev is executive editor of the National Interest magazine. He says the seizure of the Moscow theater by Chechen terrorists has badly damaged the cause of self-rule for Chechnya.

Gvosdev: There had been significant movement among some sectors of the Russian political elite to say, "The military solution is not leading us to be able to resolve this conflict. We have to reopen negotiations." Then this crisis hit.

Host: Glen Howard is executive director of the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya. He says negotiations with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov are still the path Russians should follow.

Howard: I would point out that the White House again called for a negotiated settlement to ending the war in Chechnya, and that Echo Moskvy [Echo of Moscow], the Russian radio station, on the national day of mourning, conducted a poll of Russians. And forty-nine percent of the Russians who called in said that they support a political settlement with President Maskhadov.

Host: A political resolution does not seem near. Russian officials say there are no legitimate Chechen leaders who can be trusted as partners for peace. For On the Line, I'm ---------.