Chechnya rejects Russian ultimatum

MOSCOW, March 8: As Russian officials pulled out of Grozny, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov rejected the Kremlin's ultimatum to release...

MOSCOW, March 8: As Russian officials pulled out of Grozny, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov rejected the Kremlin8217;s ultimatum to release a kidnapped high-ranking military official as 8220;unacceptable8221;.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin had set a deadline of Monday for the release of General Gennady Shpigun, representative of the Russian Interior Ministry in Chechnya, who was kidnapped by gunmen last Friday as he was about to fly back to Moscow.

Maskhadov declared that Chechen law enforcement agencies would do their best to free Shpigun from the Chechen kidnappers within a few days. Russian media said Yeltsin, who is being treated for his bleeding stomach ulcer in a Moscow hospital, talked about the situation on the phone with Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin. Primakov is currently on a 10-day holiday at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Stepashin, during an interview to NTV, accused former Chechen prime minister and dreaded field commander Shamil Basayev of beingbehind the kidnapping of Shpigun.

He said 8220;all measures8221; would be taken to free the general and punish his kidnappers if Chechen authorities fail to comply with Russia8217;s ultimatum to release Shpigun from his captors.

In a sign of mounting tension, the Kremlin has alerted its troops in the Caucasus region and closed its border with Chechnya to road transport. Russia has also threatened an economic blockade of the separatist-minded republic to deal a deadly blow to the organised business of kidnapping in the region, whose future status is still to be negotiated under an agreement which ended the war in 1996.

Since then, Chechnya has become a 8220;kidnap capital8221; of the world. Currently about 100 hostages, including a dozen foreigners, are being held in Chechnya by gangs of kidnappers who have found abduction for ransom a profitable business. They have received ransoms of up to 2 million for foreign hostages.

Too ill to leave

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Doctors treating Boris Yeltsin for a stomach ulcer say the RussianPresident should remain in hospital at least until March 20, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Monday. Quoting a source close to the Kremlin, the agency said that Yeltsin, 68, might decide to ignore the doctors8217; recommendations and leave hospital earlier as his condition was stable.