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NO GENETIC EXAMINATION OF MASKHADOV'S BODY IS REQUIRED

RIA Novosti

GROZNY, March 10 (RIA Novosti) - There will be no genetic examination of Aslan Maskhadov's body, Chechnya's prosecutor's office said.

"In the course of visual identification, which was conducted in Khankala in the presence of Maskhadov's relatives, he was positively identified, and an appropriate protocol was drawn up. In this connection there is no need for additional genetic examination," they said at the prosecutor's office.

They added that there is no verdict yet of a forensic commission on the causes of Maskhadov's death. But according to the main story which the investigators stick to, the cause of the death was "a dynamic impact produced by an explosive device detonated in the bunker."

Chechen terrorist leader Maskhadov was destroyed on March 8 in the course of a special FSB operation in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt in Chechnya.

Meanwhile, the head of the State Council of Chechnya, Taus Dzhabrailov, believes that any person replacing the killed Maskhadov "will be an errand boy" for Shamil Basayev.

He said that Basayev was the actual "leader of bandits" under Maskhadov.

"Ever since Maskhadov tacitly allowed Basayev to invade the territory of Dagestan, he became hostage of his policy," Dzhabrailov remarked. He said that Maskhadov three times lost his power.

"He was illegitimate on three occasions. First, by revoking the constitution he lost this power, second, when he declared direct Sharia rule, he lost this power for the second time, and the third time he lost legitimacy was in 2002, when the so-called Ichkerian parliament impeached him," the agency's source said.

Dzhabrailov said that with Maskhadov's death the time of the so-called independent Ichkeria is gone never to return.

Dzhabrailov expressed the view that Maskhadov's body, following all the necessary investigative procedures, should be handed over to his relatives so that they could bury him according to existing customs.

"I do not think people will flock to his grave. People will see the ruins of Grozny, recall their dead near and dear ones, and also recall Maskhadov, one of the men guilty of this tragedy," the agency's source said.