UK charity teaching Chechens to make bombs, say Russians
Princess Diana wore a Halo Trust bulletproof jacket during a visit to a landmine field in Huambo, Angola, in January 1997. File photo by JOSE MANUAL RIBEIRO.
MOSCOW, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Russia's FSB domestic security service on Thursday accused a British anti-landmine charity of teaching Chechen rebels explosives techniques and of spying on Moscow's military.
The allegations, which came two days after a bomb killed eight people in a Moscow underpass, were denied by the Halo Trust mine clearance agency, which dubbed them a smear campaign.
Some officials have blamed the Moscow bomb on Chechen rebels.
The FSB, a successor body to the Soviet-era KGB, said in a statement: "The FSB has reliable information about the training of mine and explosives experts for armed groups of international terrorists fighting in Chechnya.
"One group which is secretly carrying out such operations inside Russia is the international non-governmental organisation, the Halo Trust."
The FSB said the Halo Trust held courses to train "specialists in mines and explosives" inside rebel Chechnya on Russia's southern rim and harboured British secret agents.
"It's a straightforward smear campaign, frankly," said the charity's director, Guy Willoughby. "If (the FSB) is trying to link Halo Trust training humanitarian mine clearance to bombs being made, then that's just sad really; it's stupid."
Speaking by telephone from Scotland, Willoughby said FSB allegations that Halo Trust workers had links to British intelligence were "ridiculous".
The trust is linked to the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who started her campaign against landmines in Angola in 1997.
A photo of her posing for the world's media wearing Halo Trust protective gear became an enduring image of her following her death in a car crash later the same year.
The FSB said it had found 15 Halo Trust workers inside Chechnya last November when searching for rebels as part of its now 11-month-old war against separatist guerrillas in the region.
FSB SAYS MINE CLEARERS GATHER INTELLIGENCE
"We have information that most of them are members of various British military structures and the leader, Matthew Middlemiss, is a staff military spy," the FSB said, adding that it was holding an unspecified number of the charity's workers.
Willoughby said Middlemiss had worked for the Halo Trust briefly but left the charity in 1996.
"He has never ever been to Chechnya, nor has he had anything to do with any Halo Trust programme in Chechnya," he said.
He said he had no knowledge of any of the trust's workers being detained. He said some staff had formerly worked in the military, but accusations that they gathered military intelligence were "completely untrue".
He also denied the possibility of Chechens applying mine clearance training to mine laying. Mine clearers were taught to find the mines and blow them up.
"You could say you gain knowledge (of explosives) but it would be a bit like saying: by training someone to pass their driving test, you're training them to be a getaway driver in an armed robbery," he said.
Russia has seized most territory in Chechnya, but has suffered mounting losses from landmines planted in roads in areas it says it controls. The rebels have vowed to step up their mine warfare.
The Halo Trust started working in Chechnya after the 1994-96 war which ended in a Russian rout and left much of the land scattered with deadly anti-personnel mines.
The charity said it was not working in Chechnya now and only did so with proper Russian visas and documentation. It said it had trained 150 Chechens to clear mines. The FSB said 100 had been trained as specialists in mines and explosives.