(30 Jul 2005)
1. US State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack enters press conference
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sean McCormack, US State Department spokesperson:
"In our view, Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev is a terrorist, who has claimed responsibility for the seizure of the school in Beslan last year and for the seizure of the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow in October 2002 as well as other acts of terrorism resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people. Basayev was a designated terrorist threat to U.S. security and citizens in August 2003. We condemn in the strongest possible terms any act of terrorism. And, you know, we have said before. And, you know, we have said before specifically with regard to the issue of Chechnya that no cause can justify actions that take the lives or risk the lives of innocent civilians."
3. Wide conference room
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Sean McCormack, US State Department spokesperson:
"With respect to the issue of the broadcast of this interview, the US Government has had no involvement in ABC's decision to air the interview. The US Government has no authority to prevent ABC from exercising its constitutional right to broadcast the interview."
3. Wide shot of journalists leaving the conference room
STORYLINE
The US State Department responded on Friday to Russian criticism over the broadcast of an interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev by American network ABC.
Earlier on Friday, Russia's Foreign Ministry had summoned the US Embassy's charge d'affaires to protest over the interview, which was broadcast by ABC on Thursday.
State Department spokesperson Sean McCormack said "the US Government has had no involvement in ABC's decision to air the interview. The US Government has no authority to prevent ABC from exercising its constitutional right to broadcast the interview."
However, he strongly condemned Basayev.
"In our view, Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev is a terrorist, who has claimed responsibility for the seizure of the school in Beslan last year and for the seizure of the Dubrovka Theatre in Moscow in October 2002 as well as other acts of terrorism resulting in the deaths of hundreds of people, " he said.
ABC's interview was conducted by well-known Russian journalist Andrei Babitsky who has focused on human rights abuses by Russian troops in previous reports from Chechnya.
Russian authorities accused him of being a Chechen sympathiser.
Basayev, who has a 10 (m) million dollar bounty on his head and rarely speaks to journalists, claims responsibility for the deadly hostage-taking attack on a school in the Russian town of Beslan last year which killed 330 people, mostly children.
Among other attacks, Basayev has been linked to a 2002 hostage-taking assault on a Moscow theatre that left 170 people dead, a 2003 suicide attack in the Moscow subway that killed 41 people, and a 2003 double suicide bombing at a Moscow rock concert that killed 17 people.
The Kremlin sent troops into Chechnya in 1994 to crush its separatist leadership, but they withdrew after a devastating 20-month war that left the region de facto independent.
Russian forces returned in 1999 after blaming rebels for a string of apartment building blasts that killed about 300 people.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch accused Russian forces of "a crime against humanity" in March, noting local human rights groups estimate up to 5,000 people have gone missing in Chechnya since 1999.
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