IT'LL NEVER FLY, SHAMIL:

Ruthless rebels who dream of an Islamic empire (Damien Mcelroy, 05/09/2004, Daily Telegraph)

When the Chechen terrorist mastermind Shamil Basayev hijacked hundreds of hostages including many schoolchildren in Beslan last week, it was not for a narrow nationalist cause.

His objective is more radical - and less likely to be achieved - than the aims of more run-of-the-mill Chechen nationalists, who merely want full independence from Russia.

He dreams of establishing an Islamic Emirate across the North Caucasus, and to do so, he has been fomenting the Islamic rebellion that plagues states across the broad stretch of territory from the Red Sea to the Caspian.

As President Vladimir Putin waded through the cold Caucasian dawn yesterday, it was a point that he was keen to stress. "One of the tasks pursued by the terrorists was to stoke ethnic hatred, to blow up the whole of North Caucasus." Not just Chechnya, in other words - and not just Chechens.

In the horror of that moment, the Russian leader was briefly united with his sworn foe: Alsan Maskhadov, the exiled Chechen president, who disputed the suggestion that this terrible outrage could be blamed on the cause of independence.

Akhmed Zakayev, Maskhadov's London spokesman, insisted that the militants who took hundreds hostage at the school in Russia were not Chechens at all. "They were Ingush, Ossetians, Russians, but not Chechens," he said .

"But, of course, their demands have all to do with Chechnya, so whatever has happened the Chechens will be held responsible. That's what I'm afraid of."

Less likely to be achieved because, unlike Chechen independence, not a popular and just cause.

Posted by Orrin Judd at September 5, 2004 7:59 PM