Topic 3056

Chechnya Rebel Kidnapping and Beheading

Set Sokol

WHAT: Criminals in Chechnya have abducted dozens of foreigners and Russians, usually seeking large ransoms, since the end of a bitter independence war with Moscow in 1996.
WHERE: Chechnya, a breakaway republic of Russia in the northern Caucasus Mountains
***These two maps provide a better understanding of its location:

Republics of Southern Russia Republic of Chechnya

WHEN: {seed story} 4 severed heads found 12.8.1998

***There is an interesting, albeit long, history of Chechnya-Russia relations and conflicts at Chechen Republic Online.

TIMELINE: (the most relevant entries are starred***)

11.23.1996
*** Yeltsin orders last troops withdrawn from Chechnya, ending the Chechnya-Russia war. Moscow loses control over the region, although no country has recognized Chechnya as independent.

July 1997 British aid workers Camilla Carr and Jon James, who worked for a Russian organization called the Center for Peacemaking and Community Development, are seized in Grozny by half a dozen masked people. They are released 15 months later on September 20, 1998. British officials deny paying a ransom.

08.03.1997 Four French aid workers are kidnapped from Dagestan, neighboring Chechnya. Reports say they were taken to Chechnya. They are released on November 17, 1997, it was not clear whether a ransom was paid.

Sept. 1997 Lithuanian businessman Viktoras Grodis is kidnapped, and a $100,000 ransom is demanded. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Sept. 1997 A Turkish businessman is kidnapped in Chechnya. He is freed on October 21, 1998.

10.23.1997 Two Hungarian aid workers are kidnapped, and then freed on July 25, 1998.

11.04.1997 Swiss engineer Peter Zollinger, who was helping build an airport in Nazran, a nearby town outside Chechnya, is kidnapped and taken to Chechnya. He is released on June 21, 1998, after a ransom of as much a half a million dollars is paid.

12.17.1997 Kidnappers seize five Polish volunteer aid workers who were delivering medicine, food and other supplies. The criminals demand $3 million in ransom. Chechen special services storm the building and liberate the hostages unharmed on February 9, 1998.

01.08.1998 Two Swedish missionaries, Daniel and Paulina Brolin, who work for the Pentecostal church, are kidnapped from Dagestan. They are held for half a year in an unheated cellar in Chechnya and then released in June. The Swedish foreign ministry says no ransom was paid.

01.29.1998
*** Frenchman Vincent Cochetel, a staffer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in North Ossetia, is kidnapped from Vladikavkaz reportedly by a gang operating from Chechnya.

05.01.1998
*** President Boris Yeltsin's personal envoy to the region, Valentin Vlasov, is kidnapped, and Chechen officials say as much as $7 million in ransom is demanded. His abductors release him more than six months later on November 13. Russian officials deny any ransom had been paid.

09.29.1998
*** Akmal Saidov, head of the social and economic department of the Russian government's representative office in Chechnya, is kidnapped after attending a speech by the Chechen president on the problem of kidnapping. His body is found on October 3.

10.03.1998
*** About 20 gunmen seize three Britons, Darren Hickey, Rudolf Petschi and Peter Kennedy and a New Zealander, Stanley Shaw, after a shoot-out with their bodyguards. The four were engineers working for the British telecommunications company Granger Telecom.

11.12.1998
*** U.S. citizen Herbert Gregg, who did charitable work in the neighbouring region of Dagestan, is kidnapped upon leaving a local orphanage.

12.07.1998
*** Chechen police capture one of the kidnappers of the four foreigners and force him to reveal where the hostages were being held. Chechen authorities then mount a rescue attempt that went "tragically wrong."

12.08.1998
*** Chechen authorities find the decapitated heads of the four foreigners near Grozny, Chechnya's capital. The severed heads are identified by Umar Makhauri, a bodyguard assigned to the four when they were abducted. Their bodies are not found.

12.09.1998
*** British ambassador Sir Andrew Wood meets with Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin in Moscow to discuss the recent killings in Chechnya.

12.10.1998
*** Mansur Tagirov, Chechnya's top prosecutor investigating the killings, is abducted.

Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Turpal Atgeriyev said authorities arrested Apti Abitayev, who confessed to kidnapping the four foreigners. Atgeriyev also dismisses as a forced false-confession a videotape showing hostage Peter Kennedy admitting to being a British spy.

A Russian soldier (Alexei Novikov) taken during the war is released.

12.12.1998
*** French U.N. official Vincent Cochetel is freed during a raid by Russian commandos in Ingushetia and flown to Moscow.

Mansur Tagirov is released.

Turpal Atgeriyev claims that rebel warlord Arbi Barayev, head of the Islamic Regiment (also Islamic Jamaats or Warriors of Islam), masterminded the kidnapping and killing of the four foreigners and the kidnapping of Tagirov.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov orders a partial call-up of army reserves in an effort to fight crime in the region.

12.14.1998
*** Chechnya's parliament hampers President Maskhadov's plans to stop rampant crime by declaring that he cannot use army reserves to fight internal lawlessness.

12.15.1998
*** Chechen parliament declares 30-day state of emergency in response to mounting crime.

12.16.1998
*** Arbi Barayev, leader of a militant Islamic group based in Urus-Martan (Chechnya's second largest city after Grozny) denied accusations that the group killed the four beheaded foreigners. The group has dug trenches around Urus-Martan and threatened to attack Russian sites outside of Chechnya if Maskhadov tries to fight them. (Barayev doesn't want to fight within Chechnya for fear of "spill[ing] the blood of Muslim brothers" or playing into the hands of Russia's secret services and enemies of Chechen independence.)

12.17.1998
*** Thousands rally in Grozny in support of broader powers for Maskhadov and his promise to clamp down on crime.

12.21.1998
*** Chechnya officials announce plan to travel to Moscow to deliver the heads to the British and New Zealand embassies.

British and Chechen officials deny that the kidnappers were demanding a ransom for the bodies of the four foreigners.

The head of the Chechengazprom gas company was kidnapped in Grozny.

12.25.1998
*** A Christmas present to the families of the four foreigners found decapitated on 12.08.1998: their bodies were found after weeks of searching on the outskirts of Grozny and flown to London on 12.29.1998.

11.23.1996 ***	Yeltsin orders last troops withdrawn from Chechnya, ending the Chechnya-Russia war. Moscow loses control over the region, although no country has recognized Chechnya as independent.
July 1997	British aid workers Camilla Carr and Jon James, who worked for a Russian organization called the Center for Peacemaking and Community Development, are seized in Grozny by half a dozen masked people. They are released 15 months later on September 20, 1998. British officials deny paying a ransom.
08.03.1997	Four French aid workers are kidnapped from Dagestan, neighboring Chechnya. Reports say they were taken to Chechnya. They are released on November 17, 1997, it was not clear whether a ransom was paid.
Sept. 1997	Lithuanian businessman Viktoras Grodis is kidnapped, and a $100,000 ransom is demanded. His whereabouts are still unknown.
Sept. 1997	A Turkish businessman is kidnapped in Chechnya. He is freed on October 21, 1998.
10.23.1997	Two Hungarian aid workers are kidnapped, and then freed on July 25, 1998.
11.04.1997	Swiss engineer Peter Zollinger, who was helping build an airport in Nazran, a nearby town outside Chechnya, is kidnapped and taken to Chechnya. He is released on June 21, 1998, after a ransom of as much a half a million dollars is paid.
12.17.1997	Kidnappers seize five Polish volunteer aid workers who were delivering medicine, food and other supplies. The criminals demand $3 million in ransom. Chechen special services storm the building and liberate the hostages unharmed on February 9, 1998.
01.08.1998	Two Swedish missionaries, Daniel and Paulina Brolin, who work for the Pentecostal church, are kidnapped from Dagestan. They are held for half a year in an unheated cellar in Chechnya and then released in June. The Swedish foreign ministry says no ransom was paid.
01.29.1998 ***	Frenchman Vincent Cochetel, a staffer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in North Ossetia, is kidnapped from Vladikavkaz reportedly by a gang operating from Chechnya.
05.01.1998 ***	President Boris Yeltsin's personal envoy to the region, Valentin Vlasov, is kidnapped, and Chechen officials say as much as $7 million in ransom is demanded. His abductors release him more than six months later on November 13. Russian officials deny any ransom had been paid.
09.29.1998 ***	Akmal Saidov, head of the social and economic department of the Russian government's representative office in Chechnya, is kidnapped after attending a speech by the Chechen president on the problem of kidnapping. His body is found on October 3.
10.03.1998 ***	About 20 gunmen seize three Britons, Darren Hickey, Rudolf Petschi and Peter Kennedy and a New Zealander, Stanley Shaw, after a shoot-out with their bodyguards. The four were engineers working for the British telecommunications company Granger Telecom.
11.12.1998 ***	U.S. citizen Herbert Gregg, who did charitable work in the neighbouring region of Dagestan, is kidnapped upon leaving a local orphanage.
12.07.1998 ***	Chechen police capture one of the kidnappers of the four foreigners and force him to reveal where the hostages were being held. Chechen authorities then mount a rescue attempt that went "tragically wrong."
12.08.1998 ***	Chechen authorities find the decapitated heads of the four foreigners near Grozny, Chechnya's capital. The severed heads are identified by Umar Makhauri, a bodyguard assigned to the four when they were abducted. Their bodies are not found.
12.09.1998 ***	British ambassador Sir Andrew Wood meets with Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin in Moscow to discuss the recent killings in Chechnya.
12.10.1998 ***	Mansur Tagirov, Chechnya's top prosecutor investigating the killings, is abducted.
Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Turpal Atgeriyev said authorities arrested Apti Abitayev, who confessed to kidnapping the four foreigners. Atgeriyev also dismisses as a forced false-confession a videotape showing hostage Peter Kennedy admitting to being a British spy.
A Russian soldier (Alexei Novikov) taken during the war is released.
12.12.1998 ***	French U.N. official Vincent Cochetel is freed during a raid by Russian commandos in Ingushetia and flown to Moscow.
Mansur Tagirov is released.
Turpal Atgeriyev claims that rebel warlord Arbi Barayev, head of the Islamic Regiment (also Islamic Jamaats or Warriors of Islam), masterminded the kidnapping and killing of the four foreigners and the kidnapping of Tagirov.
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov orders a partial call-up of army reserves in an effort to fight crime in the region.
12.14.1998 ***	Chechnya's parliament hampers President Maskhadov's plans to stop rampant crime by declaring that he cannot use army reserves to fight internal lawlessness.
12.15.1998 ***	Chechen parliament declares 30-day state of emergency in response to mounting crime.
12.16.1998 ***	Arbi Barayev, leader of a militant Islamic group based in Urus-Martan (Chechnya's second largest city after Grozny) denied accusations that the group killed the four beheaded foreigners. The group has dug trenches around Urus-Martan and threatened to attack Russian sites outside of Chechnya if Maskhadov tries to fight them. (Barayev doesn't want to fight within Chechnya for fear of "spill[ing] the blood of Muslim brothers" or playing into the hands of Russia's secret services and enemies of Chechen independence.)
12.17.1998 ***	Thousands rally in Grozny in support of broader powers for Maskhadov and his promise to clamp down on crime.
12.21.1998 ***	Chechnya officials announce plan to travel to Moscow to deliver the heads to the British and New Zealand embassies.
British and Chechen officials deny that the kidnappers were demanding a ransom for the bodies of the four foreigners.
The head of the Chechengazprom gas company was kidnapped in Grozny.
12.25.1998 ***	A Christmas present to the families of the four foreigners found decapitated on 12.08.1998: their bodies were found after weeks of searching on the outskirts of Grozny and flown to London on 12.29.1998.

ssokol@ldc.upenn.edu