A pro-independence Chechen Web site was shut down by the Lithuanian government

A pro-independence Chechen Web site - www.kavkazcenter.com - was shut down by the Lithuanian government, two days after a message claiming responsibility for the school massacre in southern Russia was posted on it. Lithuania's State Security Department on Monday began investigating the site, which is hosted by Elneta, an Internet service provider in Vilnius. The company's director, Rimantas Pasys, was questioned by security officials but was not arrested, security spokesman Vytautas Makauskas said. The site is regarded as a clearing house for pro-Chechen information and a mouthpiece for Chechen rebel leaders battling Russian troops in the breakaway province. The site is based on a server in the apartment of renowned Soviet-era dissident and political prisoner Viktoras Petkus. It disappeared from the Web over the weekend except for a short announcement in English, Russian and Turkish saying the site was blocked. On Friday, the site posted a letter — purportedly by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev — in which he claimed responsibility for the three-day siege of a Russian school in Beslan this month. More than 330 people died in the standoff, nearly half of them children.