DOHA, 15 February 2004 — Qatar yesterday cautioned that it was too early to say who killed former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. “We are still in the process of collecting evidence about the circumstances of Friday’s assassination,” a Qatari official told reporters.
His remark echoed that of security chief Mubarak Al-Nasr, who told Al-Jazeera TV channel hours after the blast that finger-pointing would be premature.
Russia had demanded Yandarbiyev’s extradition, but its foreign intelligence service denied Chechen rebel accusations that it was involved in the death of the 51-year-old leader, who had been living in Qatar for three years.
Yandarbiyev’s 13-year-old son was wounded in the blast which hit the former Chechen leader’s white Land Cruiser in a residential area of the capital after he left weekly noon prayers at a mosque.
A newspaper editor close to the government scoffed at the notion that the tiny emirate had burned its fingers by trying to act as a regional mediator, saying Yandarbiyev’s murder would not keep Doha from its active diplomacy.
“It would be misplaced — indeed foolish — to suggest that Qatar is reaping the fruit of its remarkable political activity on the world scene,” wrote Abdul Latif Al-Mahmud on the front page of the daily Asharq.
He was referring to Qatar’s mediation in disputes as complex as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the use of its close ties with the United States to try to ease tensions between Washington and foes such as Iraq under ousted President Saddam Hussein or Libya before its recent climb down on weapons of mass destruction.
Doha has often hosted Arab dissidents like Abbasi Madani, the leader of Algeria’s banned Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) who has been here since November, ostensibly to undergo medical treatment.
Madani told AFP news agency yesterday that he did not fear meeting the fate of Yandarbiyev and that he still felt safe in Qatar.
Friday’s assassination “is a transient incident, which will only strengthen Qatar’s resolve to stand by every underdog,” said Qatari academic Muhammad Al-Misfer.
But while Qataris and their guests are playing down the incident — the first of its kind in the Gulf state — it has come at a time when Qatar is engaged in ambitious plans to use its huge gas wealth to become a major tourist destination.
Last month, Doha signed a contract with US engineering giant Bechtel to start to build a $5 billion airport to accommodate up to 60 million passengers a year.
Bechtel was awarded the “engineering, project and construction management” (EPCM) deal for the first of three stages for the New Doha International Airport which would be completed by late 2008 at a cost of $2.5 billion.
— Additional input from AFP
