Beslan Massacre Chief Promoted

Shamil Basayev, the warlord behind last year's bloody school siege in Beslan, was named second-in-command of Chechnya's rebel government yesterday in a sign of the separatists' growing radicalism.

Since fleeing to the forests after Russian troops reclaimed control of Grozny in 2000, Chechen rebels have maintained what they claim is a legitimate cabinet.

Basayev was named to the post by Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, the rebels' president, who succeeded Aslan Maskhadov, killed by special forces in March.

Maskhadov, who was seen as a relative moderate, had marginalised Basayev and promised to prosecute him for the Beslan massacre if he retook Chechnya from the current pro-Moscow administration.

Basayev admitted in an interview with an American television station last month that he was a terrorist, but claimed his actions were justified by Russian suppression.

Analysts said his appointment was likely to bolster the rebels' power to attract funding from Islamic radicals abroad. But some commentators said it would play into Moscow's hands by tarring the entire separatist movement with the brush of extremism.

The late Maskhadov had condemned terrorist acts and had given the rebels a veneer of respectability.

"From a PR point of view, giving Shamil this role is a great mistake that will only make Moscow happy," said one Chechen resident of Moscow, who once knew the warlord. "But he has always wanted to be part of a legitimate administration and he genuinely believes that's what this is."

Under a decree published on the rebel website Kavkaz Tsentr yesterday, Basayev was given responsibility for "power structures" including a national security service and an anti-terrorism centre.

A spokesman for the pro-Moscow administration in Grozny ridiculed the rebels' cabinet arrangements, saying: "They can make him president of the universe if they want. It's just laughable."

The rebels' leader, Sadulayev, a Muslim cleric, also appointed Akhmed Zakayev, Maskhadov's former envoy in London, to the post of culture minister in his new cabinet.

Mr Zakayev, who has said in the past that Basayev should not be an "official representative of the Chechen people", did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.

Basayev has admitted organising the school siege in Beslan, North Ossetia - which ended almost a year ago with more than 330 people dead - and two deadly airline bombings a few days earlier.