Chechen's Jeep Treated with Phosphorus
// Aslan Maskhadov's Liaison Ends Up in the Hospital
Chemical Attack
Georgian Interior Ministry and State Security Ministry officials began an additional investigation yesterday in the poisoning case of Khizri Aldamov, Ichkeria's representative in that country, and two of his relatives. All three were hospitalized with symptoms of severe poisoning, apparently caused by phosphorus. Mr. Aldamov's assistant alleges that Russian special service agents may have been involved in the poisoning.
According to information of the regional antiterrorist operation headquarters (ROSh) in the North Caucasus, Khizri Aldamov is Aslan Maskhadov's representative in Georgia, and there is also online data that he is involved in forming and financing rebel brigades. At Russia's request, Ichkeria's representative office in Tbilisi, which Mr. Aldamov headed, was closed two weeks ago. However, Khizri Aldamov continues to maintain that he is the leader of the Chechen diaspora in Georgia. He has recently been defending Chechens accused of having connections with rebels in Georgia and has organized many protests against the actions of federal forces in Chechnya.
Khizri Aldamov, his son Zelimkhan, and nephew Ruslan were taken to a Tbilisi isolation hospital last Friday. All of them showed symptoms of severe poisoning: dizziness, cramps, vomiting, and dehydration. Their condition was so serious that the patients were starting to lose consciousness. The doctors were most concerned about Ruslan's condition, and he was sent to reanimation for blood transfusions.
Meanwhile, the Georgian media, quoting the doctors in the case, have rejected suggestions that the poisoning might have had a criminal nature. According to the doctors, it was most likely food poisoning, for example, from poorly washed strawberries.
– Strawberry poisoning? – Khizri Aldamov's assistant Akhmed, calling on Mr. Aldamov's cell phone, asked the Kommersant correspondent again (Mr. Aldamov was unable to take the call). “They didn't eat any strawberries! They haven't eaten anything for the last three or four days!”
According to Akhmed, on Friday afternoon, Khizri Aldamov, Zelimkhan, and Ruslan set out in a Nissan Patrol for some important meeting. Ruslan, who was driving, immediately alerted his passengers to a strange odor in the car. “They opened the windows to drive out the odor and continued on their way, but Ruslan soon started to feel ill,” Akhmed said. “By the time they returned home, Khizri and Zelimkhan, who were sitting in the back, also felt sick.” Friends took the three of them to the hospital and as they were waiting for the doctor to admit them, Khizri lost consciousness. “The poisoning aggravated Khizri's diabetes and other chronic ailments, and we could have lost him,” Akhmed believes.
After an examination, the victims were diagnosed with poisoning, so they were sent from the district hospital to a specialized one. As soon as the doctors managed to stabilize the patients' condition, officials of Georgia's Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of State Security paid them a visit. Khizri Aldamov told them he was the victim of an attempted political assassination. His relatives confirmed this after talking with the investigators. According to Mr. Aldamov's relatives, the investigators examined the Nissan and discovered that the car's instrument panel had been coated with some sort of phosphorus-containing substance. Therefore, the first one to feel the effect of the poison was Ruslan, who was behind the wheel. “Several other relatives and friends of the Aldamov family were also poisoned, but less severely,” Kommersant's informant confirmed. “This happened when they took the victims to the hospital and wiped the car's interior. Luckily, it had had an airing by that time, so they're all right now.” Zelimkhan was discharged from the hospital on the weekend, but on Monday he started feeling sick again and they prescribed an intensive course of treatment for him.
Khizri Aldamov's sister Asmat told Kommersant that her brother had warned her and other relatives several times never to leave the car unattended and to be very cautious. Asmat herself is convinced that her brother was deliberately poisoned but has refused to speculate who might have done this.
Khizri Aldamov's assistant is convinced that special service agents treated the car with a poisonous substance. “Georgia's law enforcement agencies and special services treat us OK, which you can't say about the Russian force departments,” Akhmed noted. “Khizri isn't Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, of course, but he's done quite a lot for his historical homeland and for Chechens living in Georgia.” “It's impossible to protect yourself completely, but we'll take certain measures,” Akhmed promised. Russia's FSB refused to comment, saying they had no information about the incident in Tbilisi.
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Attacks on Chechens Abroad
On May 22, 2000, Chechen field commander Magomed Kariev was murdered in the entrance of his apartment building on Tbilissky Prospekt in Baku near the Yasmalsky District prosecutor's office. The murderers fired a round from a Makarov pistol at him and then shot him in the head to make sure he was dead. The murder suspects, Russian citizens and Chechens Ramzan Dunduev, Suleiman Balaev, and Omar Kadyrov (probably the actual perpetrator), are being sought.
On November 11, 2002, Khizir Talkhadov, a former bodyguard of Aslan Maskhadov, was shot near his home in Baku. According to his widow Milana, when two unknown assailants who had been lying in wait for her husband opened fire on him, she rushed to help; but one of the killers shouted at her in Chechen not to come near if she wanted to live, after which they shot the victim in the head to finish him off. The murderers have not been found.
On September 7, 2003, 55-year-old businessman Vakha Ibragimov was murdered in Baku. At various times he had been an advisor to the President of Ichkeria, Minister of Finance, and Ichkerian ambassador to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. During the 1997 presidential elections in Ichkeria, he had run for the post of vice-president along with Shamil Basaev. He had lived in Baku since 1999, working as a gold trader. According to press information, funds from Eastern countries sent as aid to the rebels passed through him. The murderers shot the victim four times and then gave him a final shot in the head. According to the version advanced by the Azerbaijani authorities, former associates were taking revenge on Vakha Ibragimov. The murderers have not been found.
In October 2003, Vakha Ibragimov (the exact namesake of the businessman murdered in September), the representative of the President of Ickheria's widow Alla Dudaeva, claimed in Tbilisi that there had been an attempted kidnapping of his son Dzhamal Ibragimov, a student in the tenth class at a Tbilisi school; however, the teenager managed to escape his attackers. Ibragimov was convinced that Russian special services were behind the kidnapping attempt.
On February 13, 2003, the jeep belonging to former President of Ichkeria Zelimkhan Yandarbiev was blown up in Doha, the capital of Qatar, as he was returning from Friday prayers. The bomb went off a few minutes after the car drove off from the mosque. The former president died in the hospital of wounds received, and his son Daud Yandarbiev was seriously injured. The trial of two Russian citizens suspected of arranging the murder is currently in progress in Qatar.
Fedor Maksimov, Vladimir Novikov, Tbilisi
All the Article in Russian as of June 01, 2004
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