Chechnya air crash kills security chiefs

A top Russian security official and 13 senior police officers were killed yesterday when their helicopter crashed in Chechnya. The Kremlin said the helicopter carrying General Mikhail Rudchenko, a deputy interior minister, went down north-east of the capital Grozny.

Although first reports said it might have been the victim of rebel action from the ground, officials later said the exact cause of what might also have been an accident was still being investigated.

The crash is the second in just over four months to kill senior officers in Chechnya. In September, two generals were among 13 people killed when their helicopter went down after taking off from Grozny.

General Rudchenko is one of the highest-ranking Russian officials to die in Chechnya since Russian forces went back to the rebel republic in 1999. His death underlines Russia's failure to re-exert control, even as Moscow refuses to renew talks with rebel leaders.

Meanwhile, an official said that Russian planes have continued to bomb suspected rebel bases in eastern Chechnya, and artillery units have shelled targets in the east and a district near the capital.

Western governments recently resumed their criticism of Russia's use of force after a lull following the start of President George Bush's war on terrorism. The Council of Europe last week condemned Russia's slow progress in prosecuting troops and officers for suspected crimes against civilians, in particular for alleged mass killings.

To Moscow's annoyance Akhmed Zakayev, special envoy of the last elected Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, addressed the council and urged it to press Moscow back to the talks. Moscow also protested after Mr Zakayev talked to British officials in London.

Moscow still considers the rebels terrorists and disapproves of any international attempts to make contact with their leaders.

Mr Zakayev led the Chechen side last November in the only meeting that President Vladimir Putin has authorised with rebel leaders.

Describing the encounter, Mr Zakayev told the Guardian: "Viktor Kazantsev, President Putin's representative, had just one message: to lay down our weapons. We proposed an immediate ceasefire, an end to Russia's armed 'sweeps' through populated areas, and the establishment of a joint Chechen-Russian commission to continue the talks.

"The Russians merely asked us to give up our weapons. We cannot accept capitulation."

He added: "Kazantsev said further meetings could be held. However, since then we have heard nothing, and we believe hardliners in the army convinced Putin to give them time to finish the war off. The sweeps have intensified since November."

Russian human rights groups have criticised the army for abuses during the "sweeps", as they go through villages rounding up all males of military age for questioning and often beating or torturing them. Some men never return.

President Putin has tried to deflect western criticism by linking Osama Bin Laden with Chechnya and comparing the World Trade Centre attacks with the explosions in Moscow in 1999 which left 300 dead.

"The blood of Russians who died in Moscow is of the same colour as the blood of the people who perished on September 11," he snapped recently at a press conference with President Jacques Chirac in Paris.

Chechen leaders are quietly confident that their alleged links with international terrorism will be shown to be exaggerated.

"After September 11 we had a meeting with US officials and told them we were ready to cooperate in the search for terrorists and would hand over any who are in Chechnya," Mr Zakayev said.

"There has been a lot of talk of Chechen volunteers in Afghanistan but not one Chechen has been found, dead or alive, as part of al-Qaida or Taliban forces."