Chechnya Official Denies Report of Chemical Weapons Experiments

Moscow, 12 April: The secretary of the Chechen Security Council, Rudnik Dudayev, has denied claims by an unnamed but highly-placed French counterterrorism source that "terrorists with Al-Qa'ida links are experimenting in Chechnya to develop chemical weapons." The claims were reported in British newspaper The Financial Times.

"There are no conditions or opportunities in Chechnya for such experiments," Dudayev said today in an exclusive interview with ITAR-TASS. "Virtually all petrochemical facilities in the republic have been totally ruined, and only the shells of the buildings are left. So the equipment needed for the purpose doesn't exist."

Nor does the republic have people with the requisite skills, Dudayev continued. "And even if it did, the special services would have been 'minding' them. And such experiments are impossible even in underground conditions," he said. "As far as I recall, in two military campaigns the only weapon the extremists have managed to develop and start makeshift production of is the primitive Borz machine pistol."

"We cannot allow international terrorists linked to Al-Qa'ida to use the republic for chemical weapons experiments," the head of the Chechen Security Council said.

A spokesman for a French counterterrorism unit told the FT that western intelligence allegedly had reports of terrorists experimenting to make chemical weapons in Chechnya. It was also claimed that Pakistani fighters with Al-Qa'ida links were involved.

(Description of Source: Moscow ITAR-TASS in Russian -- main government information agency)

Translated from the original by WNC.