Journalist Given to Rebels, Russia Says

A correspondent for U.S.-funded Radio Liberty who was arrested while covering the war in Chechnya was handed over to Chechen rebels Thursday in exchange for three Russian soldiers, the Kremlin announced.

Sergei V. Yastrzhembsky, the government’s chief spokesman on the Chechen war, said veteran journalist Andrei Babitsky had been given to Islamic separatists despite earlier reports that he would be released and flown to Moscow.

“He is now in the hands of the rebels, and the responsibility for him lies with those who traded the three servicemen for him,” the Kremlin aide told reporters.

The announcement stunned Babitsky’s colleagues at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and was met with disbelief by supporters and human rights advocates. Some suggested that the bizarre report of a prisoner exchange was a cover story fabricated to hide the fact that Babitsky had been killed in the custody of Russian troops.

“This is a barbarity,” said Babitsky’s lawyer, Henri Reznik. “Unfortunately, journalists in the North Caucasus have been placed on the same footing as rebels--a pen on the same footing as a bayonet--and this alarms all of us. There is every reason today to be worried about Babitsky’s life.”

The Babitsky case threatened to make relations between Washington and Moscow--already rocky--even worse. State Department spokesman James B. Foley called the announcement of the exchange “disturbing” and “unacceptable” and said: “If this report proves true, it would raise very serious questions about Russia’s adherence to its international commitments regarding the treatment of noncombatants.”

Even before word of the exchange came out, the issue of Babitsky’s mid-January arrest had attained such a high profile that it came up this week during the Moscow visit of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright--who sits on the board of the radio network. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow had earlier raised the issue with the Russian government. Acting President Vladimir V. Putin had said he was taking a personal interest in the case.

Among journalists in Russia, Babitsky’s detention had highlighted efforts by the Putin government to control media coverage of the Chechen war, especially by restricting access.

Babitsky, an accredited correspondent who also covered the 1994-96 war in Chechnya, was widely recognized in the profession as an even-handed journalist. However, his reports giving the Chechen viewpoint had angered Russian officials.

“The information Babitsky used to give was not always objective, to put it mildly,” said Defense Minister Igor D. Sergeyev. “Three Russian soldiers were exchanged for him. . . . I would give 10 Babitskys for one soldier.”

No one has heard from Babitsky, a Russian citizen, since Jan. 15, when he telephoned his Moscow office from Grozny, the embattled capital of Chechnya, and said he would soon leave for home.

It was not until Jan. 28 that the Russian government disclosed that it had arrested Babitsky outside Grozny on charges of aiding the rebels. Throughout his detention, the government never allowed him to speak to his wife, his attorneys or his employers.

On Wednesday, Russian news agencies cited government reports that Babitsky was being freed but would be required to remain in Moscow while authorities investigated his activities. Yastrzhembsky said Thursday that such a deal had never been reached.

“It’s simply terrible. I don’t know what to think,” said Babitsky’s wife, Lyudmila. “They said yesterday he was coming home. Why did they lie? It doesn’t fit at all, like many other strange twists in this story.”

Rebels Allegedly Proposed the Trade

The Russians have adamantly refused to negotiate with the Islamic separatists, whom they label “terrorists” and “bandits.” Yet when the rebels proposed the trade Sunday, it was quickly agreed to and organized, Yastrzhembsky said.

The proposal, he said, came in the form of a handwritten letter from a rebel leader asking Russian officials “to release from prison our friend and reporter Babitsky who stood shoulder to shoulder with us, protecting the interests of the Chechen people.”

On Monday, according to Yastrzhembsky, Babitsky signed a letter agreeing to the trade. “Wishing to render assistance to the commission on liberation of forcibly detained servicemen, I agree to participate in my exchange for Russian servicemen,” Babitsky purportedly wrote. “I’d like to stress that my decision is prompted by a sincere desire to render assistance in releasing prisoners of war.”

There is no evidence that Babitsky was coerced into signing the letter. However, torture of prisoners to extract confessions is a widespread practice in Russia recently documented in detail by the New York-based group Human Rights Watch.

At 3:05 p.m. Thursday, Yastrzhembsky said, Babitsky was handed over to the Chechens on a stretch of highway between the towns of Argun and Shali outside Grozny.

It was unclear how the rebels reached the meeting point, since the area lies between towns that Russian forces claim to occupy.

One of the Russian soldiers was released before Babitsky was handed over, Yastrzhembsky said. He identified the three only as Dmitriev, Vasilyev and Nikolai Zavarzin. He said a videotape of the exchange would later be brought to Moscow and provided to news media.

Media Rights Groups Fear Babitsky Is Dead

Babitsky’s wife and officials at Radio Liberty in Moscow said they did not hear from Babitsky after the exchange was said to have taken place.

Thomas A. Dine, president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, condemned the Russian decision to hand over Babitsky and said it raised concerns about the reporter’s physical well-being before the exchange. Free-press advocates were more blunt, saying the sequence of events prompted them to fear that he is dead.

“There is not a single piece of documented evidence that Andrei Babitsky has been alive since the news of his detention,” said Mariya Simonova, an official of the Glasnost Protection Fund. “I think what we see now is the government desperately trying to cover its tracks.”

Naum Nim, editor in chief of Censorship Dossier, a magazine that reports on press freedom in Russia, said he believes that Babitsky was arrested leaving Grozny and thrown into one of the notorious “filtration camps” where Russian forces hold suspected rebels. Like most of the prisoners, Nim said, Babitsky would have been beaten and tortured.

He speculated that Babitsky refused to cooperate with the authorities and would not promise to remain silent about his treatment. When word of Babitsky’s detention leaked out, Nim alleged, the government decided to kill him and fabricate the story of a prisoner exchange.

“I am afraid we won’t see Andrei anymore and no one will be held responsible,” Nim said. “It is very much like in the old KGB days.”

Russian generals said openly Thursday that deception is one of their weapons.

With rebel forces retreating from Grozny earlier this week, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Shamanov said an operation code-named “Wolf Hunt” was hatched. It was designed to fool rebels into thinking that a corridor from the city remained open, when in reality it was mined and heavily guarded. An agent of the FSB--the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB--promised to show the rebels the route for $100,000; one large unit took the bait.

Shamanov did not say how many rebels were killed in the trap, but officials said earlier that 586 rebels died when they were caught crossing a minefield to escape Grozny. Rebel commanders who were leading their troops were among the first to die, he said.

“Frankly speaking, we didn’t expect that the bandits would fall for this,” Shamanov said in a television interview.

“Far less did we expect such a huge number of them.”

*

U.S. SEIZES TANKER

The U.S. Navy seized a Russian-flagged tanker suspected of smuggling Iraqi oil. A11