IT’S NOT MY DEPARTMENT…

Facing charges that he had failed to seizeChechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev when the latter was flying in an airplane lastyear, Sergei Stepashin, the director of the Federal Security Service said he wasnot responsible, Komsomolskaya pravda reported May 5-12. Stepashin said thatthe Anti-Aircraft Forces had that responsibility; “Our task was to seize him onland.” The paper suggested that perhaps other agencies would be given evenmore specialized assignments: the coal mining ministry might have to seizeDudayev if he were in a mine, the fleet might be responsible if he were on thewater, and NASA might have to be called in if the Chechen leader were locatedon Alpha Centauri.Copyright (C) 1995 The Jamestown Foundation

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