RYP [guest] from www.comebackalive.com
Latest from Chechnya on Roddy. Very disturbing Posted 9-28-2002 04:35

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[my translation from the Russian - K.I]
 http://www.kavkaz.org/russ/article.php?id=5689

British reporter shot after he surrendered to Russians

In the telephone interview to the Caucasus-Center
agency
the Chechen commander amir Sultan who took part in the
battle near Galashki[*] on September 26 has told that
the
British reporter who was with mujaheeds was shot by
Russians
after he has surrendered. Amir Sultan reported that on
Thursday
morning when an intense skirmish started British
journalist
told to Chechens that he wishes to stay in the village
surrendering to the Russians and then to return home
via Ingushetia.
Mujaheeds told to the reported that he is free to do
whatever he
likes. On one of the streets where the skirmish was not
so intense
the Briton rose a white sheet from a nearby home and
went in
the direction of Russian positions. "We don't know what
was his
fate then" - told amir Sultan. [**]

-------------------------------------------------------
---------
[*] Amir Sultan was quoted as a source of all new
from Galashki published yesterday by Caucasus-Center.

[**] I wonder if the British government will take a
proper
action on this evidence and take serious steps to find
out
the circumstances of the death of the Queen su

Jetsetredneck [guest] from www.comebackalive.com
Source Posted 9-28-2002 04:42

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Is this the same source that said he was an 'inadvertant' causuality in the fighting?

machiz from www.comebackalive.com
Posted 9-29-2002 23:00

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 http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2002/09/24092002152454.asp




machizmo from www.comebackalive.com
from my last post..what I thought was pertinent Posted 9-30-2002 07:22

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"We continue to be concerned by the continuing reports of human right abuses carried out by Russian security forces against the civilian population, and we continue to make the case at the highest level and at every other level that there will only be a solution to Chechnya through a political process and not through a military strategy," Vershbow said.

But a breakthrough seems unlikely to happen soon. In mid-September, Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said negotiations with Chechen rebels are unacceptable, arguing that Chechen rebels take negotiations as a signal to step up their activities. The Interior Ministry official also said the ministry is creating six special antiterrorism units comprising a total of 3,700 troops, adding that two of the units will be deployed to fight rebels in Chechnya in November.

(Part 2 will address growing support for a political solution to the Chechen war. Part 3 will feature a Q&A interview with RFE/RL's Andrei Babitsky on his view of the conflict.)

I am curious as to how long Andrei Babitsky was held for by the Russians on those trumped up charges. Does anyone know?

RYP [guest] from www.comebackalive.com
Sunday London Times Posted 9-30-2002 11:35

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CLICK HERE TO PRINT CLOSE WINDOW

September 27, 2002
British TV man killed in Chechen battle
By Dominic Kennedy and Robin Shepherd in Moscow

THE British author of a travel guide to the world's most
dangerous places has been killed as Chechen rebels fought
a fierce battle against an overwhelming Russian force.

Chechnya is the most perilous place on Earth, according to a
book co-written by Roddy Scott, 31, whose passport was
discovered by Russian soldiers searching bodies among the
insurgents.

Mr Scott had toured the world's trouble spots as a freelance
journalist for years and was acting as a cameraman for the
Frontline News agency of London.

His passport was discovered on the body of a man killed
alongside 80 rebels by Russian artillery and attack planes.

Mr Scott is the third journalist killed working for Frontline
News since it was created in the 1980s to go where other
television cameramen would not go. He had no insurance for
the trip. He had a visa to enter neighbouring Georgia but had
no right to be on Russian soil, where he was with Chechen
rebels who have been sneaking across the border.

His actions divided war journalists yesterday. Some privately
said he was naive and his behaviour was suicidal. But he
was publicly praised for his courage in endeavouring to
create a lasting visual record of a forgotten conflict.

Gervaise Roderick John Scott, described fondly by
colleagues as a "toff" from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, was
educated at what he liked to call a "pseudo-military school".
According to his CV, he left Edinburgh University with a 2:1 in
History. He worked as a sub-editor for a magazine dealing
with Middle East affairs before embarking on a life of
adventure overseas.

He explored northern Iraq with the PKK Kurdish guerrillas,
the Bekaar Valley with Hezbollah and the Sierra Leone
rainforest with the RUF rebels. He ventured to the hotspots of
eastern Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Albania. His work
was used by respected journals and agencies, including
Jane's Intelligence Review, although he had yet to become
famous in his field.

He became a co-author of The World's Most Dangerous
Places, an annual travel guide which once reported that Mr
Scott had been spending time "cooling his heels in an
Ethiopian jail".

The book boasted that Mr Scott "seeks out the least visited or
most dangerous spots, and then manages to choose the
world's most dangerous people to be his travel companions".

Nick Della Casa, one of Frontline's founders, was murdered
by his guide in northern Iraq in 1991 and Rory Peck, another
founder, was shot dead in Moscow in 1993. Frontline
provided the cameraman who accompanied John Simpson
into Kabul when the veteran foreign correspondent joked that
the Afghan capital was being liberated by the BBC.

Although Mr Scott used the Frontline agency to sell his work,
he was self-employed. He chose to travel to Chechnya via
Georgia, where Chechen anti-Russian rebels have made a
base in the lawless Pankisi Gorge, to the fury of Moscow.

Mr Scott's visa for Georgia had expired on September 15.
This would suggest that he had been smuggled out of the
country into Russia among small bands of rebels led by the
warlord Ruslan Gelayev, who is said to have crossed the
border in mid-September.

A Western reporter in Georgia, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said it was regarded as "practically suicidal and
really crazy" for a journalist to join those rebels.

"There's this bandit, outlaw connection," she said. "You could
be kidnapped. The Russians might shoot you. The rebels
might shoot you. There's no safe side for you if you are a
Western journalist in Chechnya. You might do it if you knew
somebody and were being protected by them."

Mr Scott appears to have been on the front line this week
when the bloodiest battle for two years broke out along the
border between Chechnya and Ingushetia around the village
of Galashki.

Up to 300 rebels had moved in from the Pankisi Gorge and
were ambushed by the Russians when they were trying to
cross the river Assa.

The Kremlin put the rebel death toll at 80. Up to 20 Russians,
including the two-man crew of a downed Mi-24 helicopter
gunship, were also killed. Russia has already threatened to
launch strikes against rebels based in Georgia if incursions
continued.