Home | China | World | Business Terrorists to Create Bases in Georgia, Azerbaijan: Russian Official MON, FEB 25, 2002     The extremist Islamic organizations Muslim Brothers and al-Qaeda are trying to set up terrorist bases in Georgia and Azerbaijan, a representative of Russia's law enforcement agency in Chechnya said Sunday. These organizations "are trying to turn Georgia and Azerbaijan into a stronghold for preserving the combat and ideological potential of international terrorism," the official told Russian news media in Grozny, the Chechen capital. He noted Georgia is being used as the main training and trans-shipping center. "Territories are being seized and Wahhabite (Chechen warlord) enclaves are being created in Georgia. The same was observed in 1997-1999 in the Kadar zone of (the Russian republic of) Dagestan," he said. Citing words of Saikhan Khamzatov, a captured aide of Chechen rebel leader Khattab, the official said that "a Chechen autonomous district, with its center in the village of Dunisi in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge," may be proclaimed in Georgia's Akhmeta district, where Chechen rebels and foreign mercenaries are based. The demand to establish a Chechen autonomous district in Georgia is being voiced at rallies of Chechen refugees organized by rebels in the Pankisi Gorge, while the Muslim Brothers are financing the rallies. Since the end of the Chechen war, Russia has repeatedly blamed Georgia for harboring Chechen rebels on its territory, but Tbilisi always rejects such accusations. According to the official, at the end of January, the Supreme Military Majlis-Shura, operating in Chechnya and led by terrorist heads Khattab and Shamil Basayev, made a decision to open a "Chechen human rights center" in Azerbaijan's capital Baku. Officially, this center has been set up "to facilitate the resumption of the International Tribunal for Chechnya and to gather information about Russia's military crimes in Chechnya." According to the official, "believable documents" Russia has gained from rebels show that the Chechen human-rights center in Azerbaijan will be a front organization for transferring mercenaries and money to the Chechen rebels. Editor:Zhong Source:Xinhua Recommend to your friend email:    China Central Television,All Rights Reserved