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Red Cross killing suspect `in Russia'

Phil Reeves,Moscow
Monday 26 January 1998 00:02 GMT
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Chechen officials have accused Russia of harbouring a man who masterminded the killing of six Red Cross workers 13 months ago, an outrage which sent a wave of shock around the world.

The claim reflects a long-held suspicion in Chechnya that the Russians have, at best, ignored atrocities carried out in the republic or, at worst, have orchestrated them in an effort to pressure the Chechens into abandoning their claim for complete independence.

A statement by the Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, named the organiser of the murders of the foreign Red Cross workers as Adam Deniyev, a Chechen.

It said that he was living in Moscow, where he had been given an office and "all the required conditions ... to carry on his activities". It also charged Deniyev with murdering seven Chechen villagers in 1994.

The killing of the Red Cross workers, who were sleeping in their beds in a hospital compound in a small town not far from Grozny, prompted the International Committee of the Red Cross to pull out of Chechnya.

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