Will terrorists' relatives be taken hostages?

There are different views in Chechnya concerning the statement on the necessity to "counter-take" terrorists' relatives made by the Russian prosecutor general at the October 29 session of the Russian State Duma. President of Chechnya Alu Alkhanov supported the initiative to "counter-take" terrorists' relatives almost at once claiming only that it was essential that the proposal should be legalized. "If such a law is passed, state agencies and executive authorities will be entitled to act in conformity with this law," he said. Chairman of the Chechen State Council Taus Dzhabrailov gave an opposite point of view. He thinks Wahhabis who take hostages are indifferent to the fate of their relatives, so the "counter-taking" of hostages will not lead to desirable results.

Meanwhile, the practice of taking civilians hostages exists among officers of Russian and local security agencies in Chechnya. The hostage-taking of close relatives of Ichkerian defense minister Magomed Khambiyev was one those that were much talked about. Aslambek Khambiyev, Magomed Khambiyev's nephew studying at the Department of Medicine of the Chechen State University, was abducted by Kadyrov's people right from a university lecture-room in Grozny on March 1. Another nephew of Khambiyev was abducted from a flat in Grozny the same day. At the same time, officers of security agencies seized more than 30 of his relatives, including women, in the Khambiyev family's native village of Benoy, Chechnya's Nozhay-Yurt district. Magomed Khambiyev got an ultimatum to lay down arms in exchange for lives of his relatives. And he did it giving himself up to the authorities in a few days.

In early September, when terrorists captured a school in Beslan, a "special operation" against relatives of Chechen field commanders was conducted in Chechnya. Russian soldiers and officers of local security agencies seized over 40 people - close relatives of president of the unrecognized Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov as well as relatives of notorious field commanders Shamil Basayev and Dokku Umarov. When the Beslan hostage crisis was over, all field commanders' relatives detained in Chechnya were set free.