Listing of terrorist entities

Prime Minister Helen Clark has designated the following individuals as terrorist entities pursuant to the provisions of the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002:

Zelimkhan Ahmedovic YANDARBIEV

Shamil BASAYEV.

Helen Clark said that these designations follow a decision by the United Nations Security Council to list these individuals as terrorist entities. The designations take effect immediately for a period of three years, unless extended.

The decision to proceed with these designations was taken by the Prime Minister, in consultation with the Attorney General, pursuant to the Terrorism Suppression Act.

Zelimkhan Ahmedovic Yandarbiev is the former Vice-President and now former President of Chechnya. He is accused of having supported the 1999 Chechen-led incursion into Daghestan utilising illegal paramilitary formations and threatening to take the lives of law enforcement officials.

Shamil Basayev is a former field commander under former President Yandarbiev. Basayev is the leader of the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs – listed by the United Nations and previously designated within New Zealand as a terrorist entity. To date Basayev and this organisation have been responsible for the Dubrovka Theatre Seizure in October 2002; the explosion of the House of Government in Grozny December 2002; and a suicide bomb attack on the Chechen Administration complex in downtown Grozny May 2003. Also in May this year a female suicide bomber blew herself up among several thousand civilians attending a religious celebration near the Chechen village of Iliskhan-Yurt. Basayev and his organisation have also claimed responsibility for that attack.

The Prime Minister indicated that none of the designated individuals is known to have any current links to New Zealand.

“Nevertheless, designating these entities as terrorists will serve to deter New Zealanders from becoming inadvertently involved in their activities. It obliges all UN member-countries to freeze bank deposits and other assets owned by them, and to deny them entry or transit visas. The financing of international terrorism is a matter of grave concern to the international community as a whole and one that New Zealand recognises the need to effectively address. These designations assist in that process,” Helen Clark said.

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