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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Russia Pays Bounty on Chechen; Body Dispute Grows
2005-03-15
Russia said Tuesday it had paid millions of dollars for a tip-off that helped it find and kill Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, as an outcry grew over Moscow's refusal to return his body for burial. Maskhadov was killed a week ago in a notable triumph for Russian forces, but Russian rights activists said the government has not treated its defeated foe with respect and criticized the decision to bury Maskhadov in an unmarked grave. The activists said the repeated display of the former Soviet army colonel's half-naked corpse on television risked further radicalizing the resistance.

The Federal Security Service (FSB), successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said it had received a tip-off in response to a $10 million bounty on the leaders of the Chechen separatist movement. "This helped us establish the precise location of the international terrorist and band leader of the Chechen republic Aslan Maskhadov and conduct a special operation," an FSB spokesman said. He said the bounty had been paid out but would not say who had provided the tip-off. "They have received the money, but their identity will not be officially announced," the spokesman said. The rights activists said the decision to invoke Russia's anti-terrorism law and refuse to give Maskhadov's body to relatives for burial was a violation of human rights. "We think the refusal to hand back the killed man's body to his relatives for burial is shameful," said a statement by a group of prominent Russian activists published on the Web site www.zaprava.ru. "His death was not the result of an accidental clash, but, as the government has confirmed, the result of a well-prepared FSB operation. There is no doubt that the technical capabilities of the special forces would have allowed them to take him alive -- and he could have had a fair trial."
Posted by:Steve

#9  somewhere a latrine has a body in it...good riddance
Posted by: Frank G   2005-03-15 9:01:40 PM  

#8  Wow...they actually paid a reward.

Contrast that to our own government, which finds any reason it can, no matter how thin, to avoid paying reward money.
Posted by: gromky   2005-03-15 8:31:05 PM  

#7  Zip up a good load of Semtex in his body and ship it back with a radio controlled detonator. That will give his compatriots something to talk about and will end this body business, too. Sorta like unlocking your car to get your keys, courtesy of OnStar or something like that.
Posted by: Alaska Paul In Nikolaevsk, Alaska   2005-03-15 4:24:28 PM  

#6  Easy people! When in Rome do as the Romans or something like that. I understand that the bodies of various types of people killed or kidnapped in Chechnya are commonly held until payments are made. Maybe the Russians can hit up Basayev for a couple million bucks for each piece with the proceeds going to a fund to pay for the return of russian dead? Chechnya's a wonderful place isn't it?! There is little respect anywhere in Chechnya - for self or others it appears. Why should Maskhadov be treated differently. Isn't it he who helped make Chechnya what it is today? (Yes, he needed a little help from the Russians and his "field commanders" (read sociopaths) like Basayev but he was the one in charge of the place and set the machinery for it's destruction in motion. He never could accept his failure as civilian leader of his nation).
Posted by: Tkat   2005-03-15 3:44:46 PM  

#5  They are doing the right thing. If the Chechen get the body back it's burial site will become a focus point for the terrorists and their supporters. The body should be stitched into a pig carcass and buried with his butt pointing toward Mecca in a remote and unmarked grave.
Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom   2005-03-15 2:29:51 PM  

#4  "Human rights" activists must be the same everywhere. Let's all sit down and have cake and ice cream and reason with these people. Maybe a group hug afterwards. Can't we all just get along?
Posted by: tu3031   2005-03-15 12:38:13 PM  

#3  Oh for pete's sake, Russia has the same pussies as we do here in the states.

"... risked further radicalizing the resistance..."

How the HELL more radical can they get besides TORTURING, RAPING, and KILLING over 300 of your children??? Are they going to start calling you names or something?

If it was me, I'd put his head on a pike and feed his body to the pigs, and video tape it and play it 24x7 on the jihadi websites...
Posted by: Francis   2005-03-15 12:32:29 PM  

#2  Dead Kennedys, heh...
Posted by: Jello Biafra   2005-03-15 12:07:26 PM  

#1  He was a band leader too, huh? Was he with the Talking Heads too, or some other group?
Posted by: Phil Fraering   2005-03-15 10:17:19 AM  

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