January 26, 2002	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 11, 1422

WASHINGTON, Jan 25: The US State Department said on Thursday that US officials had met here this week the self-styled foreign minister of Chechnya in a move that drew an angry response from Moscow.

“State Department officials (on Wednesday) met with Mr Ilyas Akhmadov for a discussion on the situation in Chechnya,” spokesman Richard Boucher said, adding that the meeting, held outside the department’s headquarters was at the level of “office director.”

Boucher stressed that Washington did not recognize Akhmadov as a representative of a foreign government and that it in no way indicating a shift in it policy toward Chechnya which it considers a part of Russia.

“We recognize Russia’s sovereignty over Chechnya,” he told reporters. “We did not meet with Mr Akhmadov in any official capacity, but as an individual with particular insights into the Chechen conflict.”

“This is one of a great number of contacts we have had with many individuals, both public and private, as part of our efforts to encourage a peaceful settlement to the conflict.”

Russia, however, immediately accused the United States of applying double standards in its “war against terrorism”, because it says the Chechens are terrorists.

The Russian foreign ministry said on Friday it had called in a US embassy representative to demand an explanation as to why State Department officials had met the Chechen representative who Moscow regards as a “terrorist”.

The ministry said in a statement that the senior embassy official was delivered a “demarche” over the State Department’s meeting with Ilyas Akhmadov.

The US official was told the meeting “contradicts the spirit of cooperation and partnership between the two countries, and our close cooperation in the fight against international terrorism”.

The statement added that Russia was “amazed” that the United States was maintaining regular contacts with Chechens “whose direct links with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda are being proven with constantly emerging, irrefutable evidence”.

The meeting with Akhmadov “cannot be viewed as anything other than an unfriendly step toward Russia that contradicts the two sides’ partnership in the fight against international terrorism”, the Russian foreign ministry said.

“We are faced with the question: Can it really be true that the Americans are still under the influence of old stereotypes and continue to separate between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ terrorists?” it said in a statement.

“It must be absolutely clear that Chechen guerillas and terrorists in other parts of the world are of the same ilk and we must fight against them together.”

The United States has recently toned down its criticism of the two-year Russian offensive in Chechnya but has still pressed Moscow to pursue political dialogue with the fighters and their leader Aslan Maskhadov.

Russia, however, has described the guerillas as “terrorists” and alleges they were partially financed by the Taliban and broken off talks with them after only one round.

Earlier, this month the State Department criticized Russian military operations in Chechnya, saying they encouraged terrorism and called on Moscow to follow through on a pledge to seek dialogue with the guerillas.

On Jan 10, Boucher said Washington thought it “unfortunate” that Moscow had not seriously followed through with an offer for dialogue with Chechens made in September by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Boucher also said reports that detailed a wide array of abuses, including arbitrary killings, beatings and hostage-taking, were “credible”.

The Kremlin quickly denied the charges, saying they were based on “distorted” reports in the US media.—AFP