Banned Chechen Web Site Now Operating On Swedish Server

[R.A. Hettinga]

<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,BT_CO_20041115_000923,00.html>

The Wall Street Journal


 November 15, 2004 4:57 a.m. EST


 Banned Chechen Web Site Now Operating On Swedish Server


DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
November 15, 2004 4:57 a.m.


STOCKHOLM (AP)--A pro-independence Chechen Web site that was shut down by
the Lithuanian government and then removed from a Finnish server because of
a posting that claimed responsibility for the school massacre in southern
Russia began operating on a Swedish-owned server.

Jean Hamberg, managing director for Port80 AB, a Stockholm-based Internet
service provider, said the Web site, www.kavkazcenter.com, was up and
running on its servers since late last week.

"Nobody has complained about it," he told The Associated Press on Monday.
"No officials, I should say."

The site is regarded as a clearing house for pro-Chechen information and a
mouthpiece for Chechen rebel leaders battling Russian troops in the
breakaway province.

Lithuania's State Security Department shut the site down in September when
it was hosted by Elneta, an Internet service provider in the Lithuanian
capital, Vilnius.

In early October, the site surfaced on a server owned by Finland's Sonera,
but was shut down by the Finnish government.

Russia's government has called the site an "information tool of
international terrorists."

On Sept. 17, the site posted a letter - purportedly by Chechen rebel leader
Shamil Basayev - in which he claimed responsibility for the three-day siege
of a Russian school in Beslan. More than 330 people died in the standoff,
nearly half of them children.

It was impossible to confirm whether the letter on the Web site was
genuine, but Basayev's previous claims of responsibility have appeared
there.

Hamberg said the Web site would stay online, since it appeared to have not
violated any law.

"Our policy is if they're doing anything illegal, then they're out," he
said. "If they're not doing anything illegal we don't wish to interfere."

The Swedish government had no comment on the site.

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R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
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