Chechen president assassinated in bomb attack

Chechen president assassinated in bomb attack

ISN SECURITY WATCH - Chechnya's pro-Russian President Akhmad Kadyrov was
assassinated on Sunday in a bomb attack in a stadium in the Chechen capital of Grozny, during celebrations of Russia's victory in World War II. Five others were also killed in the blast, including Chechnya's State Council chairman, a journalist, an 8-year-old girl, and two of Kadyrov's bodyguards.

Russia's top military commander in Chechnya, General Valery Baranov, has been wounded and was still in stable condition on Monday after undergoing surgery and having one of his legs amputated, according to MosNews. Russian news agencies reported that at least 53 others were also wounded in the attack. The explosion ripped through the VIP box at the stadium at 10:35a.m. local time, minutes after Kadyrov had delivered his holiday speech to the crowds. Reuters video footage of the event taken seconds after the explosion showed Kadyrov slumped over and motionless in his VIP seat, with massive head wounds. The Chechen president was rushed to the hospital where authorities confirmed his death hours later. Russian authorities have speculated that the attack was carried out by Muslim extremists who viewed Kadyrov as a traitor of the Chechen people. Russian authorities said that a preliminary investigation indicated that the bomb had been sealed in the concrete structures of the stadium. Renovations at the stadium had been completed the day before, MosNews reported. Five suspects have been detained in connection with the explosion. Kadyrov has long been a controversial figure in Chechnya. Appointed as the breakaway republic's president in 2000 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kadyrov was then elected to the post in contested elections in 2003 - elections opponents say were rigged in order to give the Kremlin a cooperative hand in Grozny. Kadyrov had been the target of several assassination attempts in the past. He fought with the Chechen separatists in the first war with Russia from 1994-1996. In 1995, then-Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev appointed him the supreme mufti, or the top religious leader. He was given his own armed detachment and declared a holy war against Russia. But by the second war, which began in 1999, he had offered his loyalties to the Kremlin, earning himself the title of traitor and "fake mufti" among his own people. Many Chechens say the president's own special police force has been behind much of the recent violence in the republic and continue to terrorize the civilians. Kadyrov's police force has no legal status, and its size and power are unclear. But together with Russian troops and separatist rebels, it is one of the main players in Chechnya's seemingly unending violence. Kadyrov's death comes after recent statements by Putin that life in Chechnya is returning to normal. On Sunday, Putin said that Kadyrov late president had "confidently led his republic to a peaceful life". But "peaceful" it had not been. Russian security forces are killed on a daily basis, and many of the top rebel leaders remain at large. In accordance with the constitution, Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov has been named acting president and early presidential elections will be held on 9 September. On Monday, Kadyrov's son, Ramzan Kadyrov, was appointed Chechnya's first deputy prime minister. Under his father, he had headed the security services. Kadyrov was buried in his native village of Tsentoroy in Chechnya on Monday.

NGOs say humanitarian aid diverted for 'war on terror'

ISN SECURITY WATCH - Nongovernmental agencies have warned that the US-led "war on terror" is threatening humanitarian aid, relief, and development programs by diverting funds and distorting priorities, the BBC reported on Monday. A report by the British-based Christian Aid charity said that the world's poorest people are suffering because governments are diverting aid project funding to anti-terrorism efforts, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Uganda. "Some of the world's poorest people are already paying for the war on terror as the giving of aid by the world's richest countries is ruled by the rhetoric of 'with us or against us'," John Davison, one of the report's authors, told the BBC. "The blurring of the line between humanitarian and development activity and military and security activity by donor governments is dangerous," he said. According to Christian Aid, a US$2.2 billion aid program for Afghanistan in 2004 saw funds diverted to military projects and emergency relief. The aid money, he said, was intended for long-term redevelopment. The report also said that the British government in 2003 had diverted to Iraq money earmarked for aid projects. Finally, the report said that almost a quarter of funds earmarked for Uganda's social services budget in 2002 had been used instead to finance military operations against rebels. Nongovernmental organizations have also expressed concerns that donor states may be tempted to redefine "aid" in order to divert funds to international security measures - a policy they say could create a new era of polarized politics in which the poor and human rights will suffer. According to another report released by the British Action Aid charity, the independence of aid is under threat as a result of the war on terrorism and crucial development programs are being subordinated to foreign policy goals now more than ever. After attacks on the US in September 2001, "suddenly, the most important factor about an aid recipient was not the recipient's level of need, but its importance and usefulness in the war on terror," Action Aid's report said. Christian Aid urged major donor states to reverse the "dangerous international drift" to link aid to the "war on terror'. The report called for definitions of aid laid out by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to be safeguarded.

First court martial set for Iraqi prisoner abuse

ISN SECURITY WATCH - US military officials have announced the first court martial trial of a US soldier for abuse of Iraqi detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison. A 24-year-old military policeman, Specialist Jeremy Sivits, will be tried in a special court martial in Baghdad on 19 May. He is charged with maltreatment of detainees, conspiracy to maltreat, and dereliction of duty. In a special court martial trial, he faces one year of confinement in a military prison, a reduction in rank, a forfeiture of pay for 12 months, and a monetary fine if convicted. He could also be discharged from the army for "bad conduct". A special court martial trial carries more lenient sentences than a general court martial. In an unprecedented move for the US military - as it grapples with a serious loss of credibility as a result of the abuse scandal - the trial will be open to the broad public and Arab news media will be invited to attend. Though US court martial trials are not generally closed off to the public, they are not known to be easily accessible. "It is our endeavour and it is our desire to make the upcoming courts-martial as available as possible," news agencies quoted Brigadier-General Mark Kimmitt as saying. Sivits is only one of seven US soldiers facing trial for the abuse of Iraqi detainees in Abu Ghraib. The scandal unfolded when media outlets worldwide began broadcasting photographs showing US soldiers physically abusing and sexually humiliating Iraqi prisoners. Sivits was alleged to have taken many of the photographs detailing the abuse of the prisoners, Reuters said, citing an unnamed military source. The court martial will be held in Baghdad, most likely in a high-security convention center built by Saddam Hussein inside the heavily fortified "Green Zone" set up by US-led forces in Iraq. If convicted, Sivits would serve out his sentence in the US. Also on Monday the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told reporters that its officials had gone to Washington in January to warn US Secretary of State Colin Powell and Deputy Defense
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in person to the abuses in Abu Ghraib. Before that, the ICRC said, it had urged US officials to address the abuse issue as early as last October - but their concerns were dismissed with a US military intelligence officer saying such treatment was "standard practice". US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - who is now facing calls for his resignation - has said that he learned of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners only in January. Bush has said he learned of the abuses only last week when the shocking photographs were first aired on CBS' 60 Minutes II program. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is also grappling with allegations that British soldiers abused prisoners.

Shi'ite rebels threaten 'second phase' of resistance

ISN SECURITY WATCH - US aircraft bombed the headquarters of radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr in Baghdad on Sunday night, as coalition forces attempted to close in on insurgents in four key locations in Iraq. News agencies reported that the US military nearly destroyed al-Sadr's one-story office building in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City with a single bomb. According to US military sources, 19 members of al-Sadr's Madhi Army were killed in overnight clashes in the area. An explosion in a market in Baghdad's western Biyaa district killed four people and wounded 17 others, news agencies reported. Also in western Baghdad on Sunday, three Iraqi police, two civilians, and one militant were killed in a shootout. In Falluja, a Sunni militant stronghold, US Marines entered the city in an armoured column for the first time since early April. Iraqi security forces accompanied the US Marines and are expected to eventually take over the city's security. A dozen Humvees, pick-up trucks, and light-armored vehicles mounted with machineguns transported the coalition's newly assembled Iraqi security force to the mayor's office. The forces met no resistance, but Iraqi security forces urged US troops to vacate the area as soon as possible, fearing reprisals if they were seen cooperating with foreigners. Al-Sadr on Monday ordered his militants to begin a new offensive against US forces in response to the US bombing of the Madhi Army headquarters in Baghdad, news agencies reported. An aide to al-Sadr told news Reuters that the resistance has now entered "a second phase".