Moscow arrests alleged Chechen rebel carrying mercury
( 2002-11-01 09:30 ) (7 )

A suspected Chechen terrorist was arrested in Moscow carrying 18 pounds of poisonous mercury while allegedly planning a new attack, and Russian officials said Thursday that evidence gathered after last week's hostage siege implicated Chechnya's top elected leader.

Sergei Krym-Gerei, allegedly a member of a gang led by prominent Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, was carrying the mercury in a bottle when he was arrested. He has refused to answer questions.

"Such an amount of mercury would poison a very large number of people," police spokesman Filipp Zolotnitsky said on NTV television.

Krym-Gerei, 36, from Russia's North Caucasus region, was detained several days ago by police acting on a tip, he said.

Meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesman said Thursday the leader of the Chechen hostage-takers, Movsar Barayev, was heard on intercepted telephone conversations saying he acted on orders from Basayev, who in turn was carrying out an order from separatist president Aslan Maskhadov. Barayev was killed in the hostage rescue operation.

Chechen rebels demanding an end to the war in the breakaway republic stormed a central Moscow theater Oct. 23, taking an audience of about 750 people hostage for 58 hours. Security forces ended the siege by pumping knockout gas into the auditorium; the sedating fumes killed at least 117 hostages.

At a news conference Thursday, officials played tapes of conversations between the hostage-takers and their contacts outside the theater. In one of the Chechen-language calls, translated into Russian, a voice identified as the attackers' leader, Movsar Barayev, said that "Shamil," meaning Basayev, was present during preparations for the hostage-taking. "Shamil was acting on Aslan's instructions," the voice said.

"There was other clear evidence that Mr. Maskhadov was fully aware of the developments and the people in the hall acted with his knowledge," Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said, though he did not offer further proof.

Moscow has sought to erase any distinction drawn by foreign governments between rebel warlords such as Basayev and those who also serve as political representatives, including Maskhadov and his aides. Denmark on Wednesday detained Maskhadov's foreign envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, at Moscow's request.

Russia will ask Qatar to extradite another top Chechen political representative, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, Yastrzhembsky said. He also criticized Turkey for allegedly allowing funds for the Chechen rebels to be raised on its territory.

Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit denied Thursday that Chechen groups in his country had links to the hostage crisis.

"There's definitely no connection with Turkey," Ecevit told reporters, adding that Turkish intelligence agencies were cooperating with Russian authorities.

The alleged evidence against Maskhadov and Zakayev essentially ruled out any peace negotiations over Chechnya, Yastrzhembsky said.

"We can see that the image of Maskhadov — even in the eyes of those who pushed Moscow toward negotiations with Maskhadov — has seriously paled," he said.

"Name one leader (in Chechnya) with whom we could negotiate. I don't know of any such person."

In another intercepted call played at Thursday's news conference, Abu Bakar, earlier identified in media reports as Barayev's deputy, claimed his band had more than 100 accomplices around the Russian capital ready to carry out suicide attacks.

Yastrzhembsky said that claim could have been false and intended to frighten authorities because hostage-takers were aware their calls were being monitored.

Moscow Prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov said some of the 41 hostage-takers whose bodies were recovered from the scene were foreigners from former Soviet republics and beyond. He said two surviving hostage-takers, both Russian citizens, were in custody.

Yastrzhembsky said the attackers had connections with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which is on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist groups.

Officials also showed reporters explosives, most sealed in plastic evidence bags, taken from the theater. Federal Security Service expert Vladimir Yeryomin said the hostage-takers had explosives equivalent to about 250 pounds of TNT, including two large devices, 25 smaller devices — mostly worn by the assailants around their waists — and more than 100 grenades.

The news conference came a day after Russia's health minister confirmed that a powerful opiate was used to subdue the attackers during the storming.

The aerosol compound, based on the fast-acting opiate fentanyl, was pumped through the building's ventilation system before special forces stormed the theater early Saturday. It proved fatal for many of the exhausted hostages, who were dehydrated, hungry and weakened by stress and lack of movement.

Some 184 former hostages remained hospitalized Thursday, eight of them in serious condition, said Lyubov Zhomova, a spokeswoman for the Moscow health department.

Meanwhile, Chechens living in Moscow complained of increased harassment following the theater siege and said police were making unannounced visits to their homes.

Elita Usmanova, 33, said police took her two teenage sons from her home and questioned them for several hours. They were photographed and fingerprinted before being released.

"Friends called and said it's better to stay home. The police are stopping women and children, there's no difference," she said.