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| Caucasus |
| An unmarked grave for Raduyev... |
| 2002-12-17 |
| Salman Raduyev, a Chechen rebel leader who died in a Urals labor camp, was buried Tuesday in a municipal cemetery, Russia's justice minister said. Justice Minister Yuri Chaika, who is responsible for Russia's prisons, said Raduyev's family had been informed of his death but did not request his body within the required three days. "Yo! Salman's toes up! You want the carcass?" "Sorry. I was in the shower. What'd you say?" It was unclear whether the body would have been handed over in any case, since parliament has passed legislation providing for terrorists' bodies to be buried in unmarked plots. Russian authorities routinely refer to Chechen rebels as terrorists. Salman took hundreds of people hostage at a hospital. Does that sound familiar? Maybe that accounts for why they call them terrorists... Raduyev, who led a 1996 hostage raid in southern Russia that left 78 people dead, died of internal bleeding while serving a life sentence in a labor camp in Perm, about 750 miles east of Moscow, officials said Sunday. Chaika said he was buried in a municipal cemetery there. I doubt if they really wrapped him in pigskin... Russian media reported that prosecutors had questioned the 35-year-old Raduyev several weeks ago as they tried to build a criminal case against Akhmed Zakayev, an aide to Chechnya's elected president and rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. Maybe that's how he got the thump on the head... Russian officials have said Raduyev died of natural causes. Chaika said no criminal case had been opened into the death because there was no evidence of a crime. "Insofar as Raduyev died of natural causes, and no signs of violent death were fixed, no criminal case has been opened," he said at a Justice Ministry conference on human rights in Moscow. "I mean, there aren't any bullet holes or anything, so what's the problem?" The Kommersant daily quoted a prison source as saying Raduyev died after a guard struck him repeatedly. Prison officials denied it, Kommersant said. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Maybe we should send the Russians down to run Gitmo? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2002-12-17 14:02:34 |
| #1 Nobody ever said they closed the gulags. A camp of "strict regime". |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-12-17 12:48:16 |