UN adds Chechen leader to al Qaeda 'terror list'

At Russia's request, the United Nations yesterday added former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev to its list of groups and people with suspected ties to Osama bin Laden or his al Qaeda network.

Yandarbiyev, who has been living in exile in the Qatar capital, Doha, for the past three years, was the first Chechen separatist to be added, UN officials said.

He has been on the Interpol wanted list since 2001 along with other prominent Chechen rebels such as fugitive rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.

Moscow, which has repeatedly sought his extradition from Qatar, sees him as a key figure behind Chechnya's 1999 invasion of neighboring Dagestan and as an advocate of Islamic extremism in predominantly Muslim Chechnya.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has charged him with armed revolt and organising illegal armed units.

He is also suspected of links to a bloody October hostage-taking at a Moscow theatre.

Michael Chandler, chairman of an expert committee charged by the Security Council with monitoring al Qaeda, told reporters yesterday his panel saw similarities between the workings of Chechen separatists and al Qaeda.

Both were "looking for big publicity with maximum casualties," he said, citing past Chechen suicide attacks and the Moscow theater attack.

Putting groups and individuals on the UN list obliges the United Nations' 191 member nations to freeze their funds and other assets and block their movements.

The goal of the UN list, which is maintained by a UN Security Council committee and has more than 300 names of businesses, individuals and organisations, is to deprive alleged terrorists of the money and other resources they need to carry out attacks.