MOSCOW, February 24 (Xinhuanet) -- The extremist Islamic
organizations Muslim Brothers and al-Qaeda are trying to set up
terrorist bases in Georgia and Azerbaijan, a representative of
Russia's law enforcement agency in Chechnya said Sunday.
   These organizations "are trying to turn Georgia and Azerbaijan
into a stronghold for preserving the combat and ideological
potential of international terrorism," the official told Russian
news media in Grozny, the Chechen capital.
   He noted Georgia is being used as the main training and trans-
shipping center. "Territories are being seized and Wahhabite
(Chechen warlord) enclaves are being created in Georgia. The same
was observed in 1997-1999 in the Kadar zone of (the Russian
republic of) Dagestan," he said.
   Citing words of Saikhan Khamzatov, a captured aide of Chechen
rebel leader Khattab, the official said that "a Chechen autonomous
district, with its center in the village of Dunisi in Georgia's
Pankisi Gorge," may be proclaimed in Georgia's Akhmeta district,
where Chechen rebels and foreign mercenaries are based.
   The demand to establish a Chechen autonomous district in
Georgia is being voiced at rallies of Chechen refugees organized
by rebels in the Pankisi Gorge, while the Muslim Brothers are
financing the rallies.
   Since the end of the Chechen war, Russia has repeatedly blamed
Georgia for harboring Chechen rebels on its territory, but Tbilisi
always rejects such accusations.
   According to the official, at the end of January, the Supreme
Military Majlis-Shura, operating in Chechnya and led by terrorist
heads Khattab and Shamil Basayev, made a decision to open a "
Chechen human rights center" in Azerbaijan's capital Baku.
   Officially, this center has been set up "to facilitate the
resumption of the International Tribunal for Chechnya and to
gather information about Russia's military crimes in Chechnya."
   According to the official, "believable documents" Russia has
gained from rebels show that the Chechen human-rights center in
Azerbaijan will be a front organization for transferring
mercenaries and money to the Chechen rebels.  Enditem