Chechen rebels vow to continue resistance, warn of radicalization

MOSCOW - Chechen rebels will continue their fight against Russia if reports of the death of their longtime leader Aslan Maskhadov turned out to be true and warned that the conflict risked turning more radical, a close Maskhadov ally told AFP Tuesday.
"The resistance will continue, no doubt about it," Akhmed Zakayev, a longtime ally and spokesman of Maskhadov, told AFP by phone from Britain where he has received political asylum.
"We've lived through this once before, when (first Chechen president Jokhar) Dudayev was killed," in April 1996, he said. First Russian president Boris "Yeltsin and his team thought that with the killing of Jokhar Dudayev, the resistance will stop, but this didn't happen. It can't happen."
"This is the tragic mistake of the Russian leadership. Instead of Dudayev came Maskhadov. Instead of Maskhadov there'll be someone else."

03/08/2005 16:56 GMT