At Dudayev Death Site, Revenge Rules

DZHOKHAR, Chechnya -- A huge gaping crater in the soft brown earth marked the place where Dzhokhar Dudayev died Sunday night.


Smashed trees, the twisted wreckage of his car and the smell of burning still lingered Friday, but trophy hunters had already carried away all the remains of the missile that killed him.


It happened in a small gully in the woods above the village of Gekhi-Chu, renamed Dzhokhar after the late president by decision of the elders Friday.


It was 8 p.m. and everyone in the village heard the explosion and the sound of planes afterwards. But few had known what it meant. Dudayev knew he was being trapped, villagers said. They said he had gone up the hill to the secluded spot a kilometer away from the nearest house, accompanied only by his closest aides, so as not to endanger the villagers.


The crater was four meters wide and four meters deep. The car was hurled 10 meters down the hill by the force of the blast.


"It was a barbarians' act and you see the people who have done it. They are Soviet and Dzhokhar was trying to negotiate with them at the time. They will pay for this," said Khamsat Labazanov, standing by the crater.


"They will build a monument at the spot," said Movladi Raisov, a field commander and himself from the village. "The place of his death will be a memorial and people from all over the world will come and recognize it as such," he said.


In the school below, villagers were stirring huge cauldrons of mutton stew and laying trestle tables with food to mark the final hours of three days of national mourning declared by the Chechen rebel government.


Old men in torn lambskin hats gathered to discuss the changing of the village name. "The elders have passed a resolution and our government of independent Ichkeria also agreed to it yesterday," Raisov said.


Dudayev's ministers and field commanders were putting up a united front Friday, although the faces of many showed the strain and the personal grief over what they called the "political assassination" of their leader.


"We will carry his flag to the end, to a victorious end," said Doku Makhayev, one of Dudayev's top commanders who controlled the region where Dudayev spent most of his time in recent months.


"Adequate measures will be taken. Russia will weep for a long time for the death of our president," said Akhmed Zakayev, Dudayev's Minister of Culture, but also a commander of the southwest front, dressed in camouflage fatigues and wearing a black Arab headdress and green headband.


Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former vice president, had taken over the reins of government and the position of commander-in-chief in accordance with the Chechen constitution, Zakayev said.


"It is of prime importance that our constitution is not jeopardized. Principles have a great meaning for us," he said. "Everyone was united, there was no question of whether he had a little or a lot of authority."


Aslan Maskhadov, the Chechen chief of staff, had sworn his allegiance to Yandarbiyev, Zakayev said. But Maskhadov remained chief of staff. His absence from the government meeting to name Yandarbiyev was because of fighting in eastern Chechnya.


"He is preparing a statement for the puppets in Grozny," Zakayev said, referring to the Moscow-installed Chechen government. "You will see interesting things too," he said.


Zakayev also denied that Shamil Basayev had been named chief negotiator, as reported in Moscow on Thursday. "Nothing has changed apart from the demise of Dzhokhar Dudayev. Nothing else has changed," he said.


The immediate resumption of negotiations was out of the question after the "political murder" of Dudayev, Zakayev said. Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin said Thursday that his government is making contact with the rebels.


The Chechens wanted the United Nations or the United States to mediate, Zakayev said, adding that the Russian side had simply disregarded the guarantees it gave under last year's peace deal, sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.


"Without definite guarantees no dialogue is possible, We need concrete, strong guarantees," Zakayev said, speaking to a small group of journalists after hundreds of people gathered to mark the last day of official mourning in an open field outside the town of Urus Martan, 25 kilometers southwest of Grozny.


Helicopters rattled in the sky but kept their distance as fighters and commanders drew up in convoys of buses and jeeps flying Chechen flags. They gathered with men, women and children from surrounding villages to pray and listen to speeches.


Low wooden benches made three sides of a huge square. Women in white head scarves and green headbands sang and wailed on one side. Men in tall fur hats sat and prayed on the other. Boys perched high on top of trucks to watch, hanging banners in memory of the president. Green independence flags flew from the telegraph poles.


"Allah, help the soul of our brother, from all our grief," a group of villagers chanted as they clapped and danced in a circle.


"We think he did not die. With his death he only strengthened us," Adam Gadirov, a member of the Islamic Path party said. "We will follow his to the end. We cannot walk away from his will," he said.


Many promised revenge for Dudayev's death, even though they said Dudayev himself was against terrorism and always argued the case for keeping to international conventions. "We will take terrorism to Russia," said Said Selim Aidamirov, 43, administration head of the nearby village of Gekhi.