Chechnya's rebel leader said today that warlord Shamil Basayev would go on trial for the mass hostage-seizing at a Russian school that ended with more than 320 people being killed, half of them children.
"I responsibly announce that after the end of the war, individuals guilty of conducting illegal acts, including Shamil Basayev, will be passed to a court of law," said Aslan Maskhadov in a statement on a rebel Web site responding to Basayev's claim to have masterminded the seizure of the school in Beslan.
President Vladimir Putin's officials blame Maskhadov and Basayev equally for the Beslan attack this month, and announced a $10 million bounty for information leading to their capture.
But Maskhadov, who was elected president of a de facto independent Chechnya in 1997 and is seen as Moscow's only possible negotiating partner if it decided to return to negotiations, denied any link to the raid.
"I announce that the leadership of the Chechen Republic and the armed forces under my control... had nothing to do with this terrorist act," the statement on www.chechenpress.comsaid.
He has condemned Basayev before and broke with him in 2002, when rebels seized a Moscow theatre in a raid that left 129 hostages dead.
But observers said the two men had seemed to be uniting their efforts this year and Maskhadov's declaration could well weaken the rebel forces who are now more active than they have been for years.
Russian media reported fierce fighting across the region overnight, and quoted the Russian military as saying Maskhadov's forces were involved. One rebel Web site said guerrillas were holding two villages.