§ Mrs. BrowningTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) when the British Embassy in Moscow learnt of the Interfax report of 6 December that a rescue attempt was to be made to release the hostages in Chechnya, employed by Granger Telecom; [66958]
(2) when the Foreign Office in London learned of the BBC World Service report from the Caversham Monitoring Service that Interfax had reported that a rescue attempt was to be made to release the hostages in Chechnya employed by Granger Telecom. [66959]
§ Mr. Tony Lloyd[pursuant to his reply, 21 January 1999, c. 536]: An administrative error led to an omission in my answer of 21 January to the hon. Member. The correct answer should read as follows:
On 7 December 1998, both HM Embassy Moscow and FCO officials in London saw the Interfax news agency despatch reporting Chechen assertions that the men were being held outside Chechnya and that Russian law-enforcement agencies might try to rescue the hostages.