"Terrorism Can Never Be Justified," Annan Condemns Terrorist Attacks in the Russia Federation by United Nations 7:24pm 6th Dec, 2003   9 December – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today condemned the suicide bombing outside a hotel in central Moscow, saying terrorism "can never be justified under any circumstances whatsoever."    Media reports said at least five people were killed and 13 injured when one or more suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the National Hotel in central Moscow, close to the Kremlin building. On Friday 44 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a train in the south of the Russian Federation, near Chechnya.    Mr. Annan "was shocked to learn that the Russian Federation had been the victim of yet another act of terror," a UN spokesman in New York said in a statement.    The Secretary-General sent his condolences to the Russian Federation's Government and to the families and friends of those killed in the bombing.    5 December – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today condemned this morning's explosion inside a commuter train in the Russian Federation, saying the attack appears to be "yet another act of terrorism."    Media reports say at least 40 people have been killed and over 170 injured, including students after a suicide bomber blew himself up on the train, just outside Yessentuki station in the southern fringe of the Russian Federation, near Chechnya.    The Secretary-General stated again that he believes "terrorism can never be justified," a UN spokesman in New York said in a statement. Mr. Annan sent his condolences to the Government of the Russian Federation and the families of those killed or injured by the explosion.    BBC World News: "Russia's suicide bomb nightmare" by Stephen Mulvey.    It is 18 months since President Vladimir Putin said the war in Chechnya was over - but Russia is increasingly coming to realise that a new kind of war may be beginning. Experts are talking worryingly about the Palestinisation of the conflict - and pointing out that Israel has been powerless to halt suicide bombers.    The first suicide bombings took place in June and July of 2000, but in the last year they have become regular occurrences. The list includes a lorry bomb attack on the Grozny administration at the end of December 2002, which left 80 people dead.    A carbon copy of that attack in Znamenskoye, in the north of Chechnya in May, left more than 50 dead.    Later that month two women blew themselves up at a religious ceremony, in an attack apparently aimed at Chechnya's pro-Moscow leader (now president) Akhmad Kadyrov.    Another lorry bomb the next month destroyed a branch of the Federal Security Service in Grozny and a local government building. This was quickly followed by a suicide bomb attack on a bus carrying air force personnel near Mozdok in North Ossetia. And in July, 16 people were killed by two female suicide bombers at a rock concert in Moscow.    Another truck bomb attack hit a military hospital in Mozdok in August.    In all, more than 250 people have died in these attacks, often thought to have been carried out by Chechen women - the wives, mothers and sisters of Chechen men killed by Russian security forces.    The radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who apparently masterminded the mass hostage-taking at a Moscow theatre in October 2002, has boasted of having a whole unit of female suicide fighters.    It is little consolation to ordinary Russians that the Chechen rebel government, headed by Aslan Maskhadov, repeated on Friday that it was guided by the principles of "international humanitarian law" and condemned acts of violence against civilians. Nor that Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov issued a blood-curdling threat to the rebels: "The earth will burn under their feet. These animals will never feel safe anywhere."    Statistics dating from July 2003 show how badly the war has affected both the lives of both Chechens and Russians:    * Thousands of Russian troops remain in Chechnya - some 38,000 were entitled to vote in the March referendum - only a tiny fraction have been withdrawn.    * There are few places where they can feel totally safe. A missile attack on a helicopter last August killed 116 - the heaviest Russian casualty toll in a single incident since the start of the second war.    * The official figure for the number of Russian soldiers who have died in Chechnya since 1999 is 4,705, though the organisation Soldiers' Mothers of Russia puts the figure at 11,000.    * Their estimate for the first Chechen war, which lasted from 1994 -1996 is 14,000 dead, compared with the official 5,500. Civilian deaths in this war are numbered in the tens of thousands.    * More than 60,000 Chechen refugees remain in neighbouring Ingushetia.    * More than 250 people have gone missing in Chechnya this year, according to a member of the pro-Moscow government    * Another government official was quoted as saying that 1,178 people had been killed in the first nine months of 2002, and that 654 people had disappeared.    The disappearances are in some cases linked to a disturbing new trend. Whereas in the past, Russian units would cordon off a village during daylight and "cleanse" it - taking in young men for violent interrogations - this practice appears to have been replaced by targeted night-time raids on particular houses. The men taken away allegedly have a tendency to "disappear". Visit the related web page
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