The Hindu : Putin vows to wipe out terrorism

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2003

International

International

Putin vows to wipe out terrorism

By Vladimir Radyuhin

— AP

A woman places flowers at the site of Saturday's blast, in Moscow on Monday. — AP

MOSCOW JULY 7. The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, vowed today that Russia would not succumb to terrorism and denounced Chechen rebels as the most dangerous part of international terrorist networks.

``No country in the world bows to terrorists and Russia will not do so either,'' Mr. Putin said two days after a twin suicide bomb attack killed and wounded scores of people at a rock concert in Moscow. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, but one of two female bombers was identified as an ethnic Chechen.

``Today, after the latest spate of terrorist acts, we can say that the bandits active in Chechnya are not simply connected with international terrorist organisations, they are an integral, maybe the most dangerous part, of the international terrorist cobweb,'' the Russian leader said in televised remarks at a meeting with key cabinet ministers on Monday. In a telephone conversation on Sunday night Mr. Putin and the U.S. President, George W. Bush, "stressed the need for further consolidation and coordination of efforts in the fight against the common enemy — international terrorism,'' the Kremlin press service said.

Authorities have scaled down the initial estimate of those killed in Saturday's blasts from 20 to 15, including two suicide bombers. Out of 59 people hospitalised with various injuries, 38 remained in hospital on Monday, including five whose condition was described as "very grave.'' The attack forced Mr. Putin to cancel a tour of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Malaysia. Moscow will observe a day of mourning on Tuesday for the victims of the suicide bomb attack, the first in the Russian capital. Over the past six months more than 200 died in suicide attacks in Chechnya and neighbouring regions. The Russian President said the terrorist attacks were aimed at wrecking political settlement in Chechnya and called for wiping out their perpetrators. ``We must pluck them out from the basements and caves where they are hiding and destroy them.'' Under a peace plan devised by Moscow Chechnya is to elect a President in October and to acquire broad political and economic autonomy.

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