CHECHEN PROSECUTOR GENERAL THINKS VLASOV’S KIDNAPPERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ATTEMPT ON HIS LIFE.

In an interview with the newspaper Moskovsky komsomolets, Chechen Deputy Prosecutor General Magomed Magomadov, head of Chechnya’s special anti-kidnapping detachment, suggested that the recent attempt on his life (see the Monitor, May 14) was the work of criminal groups involved in the abduction of Valentin Vlasov, the Russian president’s representative in Chechnya.

According to Magomadov, there have been thirteen recorded cases in which foreigners from outside the former Soviet Union have been kidnapped, and fourteen cases of journalists being kidnapped. About $20 million has been spent to get victims from these categories released. According to Magomadov, however, it is wrong to think that only foreigners and journalists are kidnapped. Today, more than sixty-six people are being held hostage in Chechnya. Some fifty of them are citizens of Chechnya. Five are foreigners from inside the former USSR, and another five are foreigners from outside the former USSR. Magomadov said that there are some twenty bandit groups specializing in kidnapping. The Chechen government is, in principle, capable of destroying these groups, he said, “but there are so few of us Chechens that we cannot permit ourselves the luxury of killing each other.” (Moskovsky komsomolets, May 16)

ADAMKUS MEETS THE POPE.