Russian Hijackers Free Captives, Seek Asylum

Hijackers who held a busload of workers and two policemen hostage in southern Russia for a day released their captives Saturday after winning freedom for two imprisoned burglars and safe passage to a separatist region.

The three heavily armed hijackers gave themselves up to authorities in Grozny, capital of the breakaway Chechen Republic in Russia, where they had driven their hostages in a bus after failing to persuade Russian authorities to give them a plane.

The drama ended in the remote Caucasus region after Turkey, Jordan and Iraq--all countries the hijackers said they would like to fly to--refused to accept them.

There was confusion over the number of hostages released. A news correspondent at the scene put it at 16, including the two police officers. The Interior Ministry in Moscow said it was 10.

News reports quoted the leader of the hijackers, Ali Daurov, 28, as saying their main aims were to free two of their friends from jail and to draw attention to the situation of their Adygei ethnic group, which has communities in Turkey and Jordan.

The three hijackers and two convicts were in custody in Grozny and appealing for asylum.

Lt. Sharip Abdulkarimov, duty officer of the Chechen Interior Ministry, said the Chechen government was considering the request. Police had questioned the five, he said.

The autonomous republic, led by President Dzhokar Dudayev, declared itself independent in November and in February said that Russian criminal law was no longer valid on its territory. But Dudayev told Itar-Tass he would observe international law in the case.