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U.S. Helping Cut Chechnya Rebel Aid
December 28, 2001
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV

MOSCOW (AP) - The U.S. ambassador to Russia said Friday that the United States has taken steps to help cut financial and military support to foreign fighters operating in Russia's breakaway region of Chechnya

But Ambassador Alexander Vershbow added that the United States remains concerned about the human rights situation and urged Russia to negotiate a peace deal with Chechen separatists, who have resisted Moscow's attempt to crush the their independence bid.

With U.S.-Russian relations bolstered by Moscow's support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, Washington has tempered its criticism of the Russian war in Chechnya and endorsed Moscow's assertion that followers of Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States, had links with Chechen rebels.

``We have since Sept. 11 tried to do more to help in stopping the international terrorist dimension of the conflict from growing,'' Vershbow said in an interview Friday on the Echo of Moscow radio. ``We have made some progress in cutting off financial support, military support for the foreign terrorists like Khattab, who are operating there.''

Russian officials have long claimed that Khattab, a Jordanian who uses only one name, is closely linked with bin Laden. Vershbow said it was important to distinguish between foreign terrorists like him and rebels who have championed Chechnya's independence bid.

``Clearly those who have chosen to take up arms against Russian authority can't simply be destroyed by military means, that's proving to be a blind alley,'' Vershbow said.

``We do continue to have concerns about the human rights situation inside Chechnya and abuses that have sometimes been carried out by Russian forces,'' he added.

On other issues, Vershbow called on the Russian government to help protect media freedom and voiced concern about a bankruptcy case against the independent TV6 television station.

TV6 is led by a group of journalists who left NTV television after it was taken over earlier this year by the state-connected Gazprom natural gas company. NTV's former owner, tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky, accused the Kremlin of ordering the takeover to silence a critical voice - an allegation the government has denied. Gazprom said it was acting to protect its business interests.

TV6 journalists and their supporters say a court order to liquidate the station - still pending an appeals decision - was also part of an alleged Kremlin crackdown.

Vershbow said Secretary of State Colin Powell conveyed American concern about the fate of TV6 to Russian officials during his visit to Russia earlier this month.

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