Nickdfresh
02-08-2005, 05:15 PM
February 8, 2005
Russia Faces Chechen Cease-Fire Bid Amid international pressure on the Kremlin to end the fighting, two fugitive rebel leaders offer to halt attacks and begin peace talks.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
MOSCOW — After years of war in the separatist republic of Chechnya, Russia faces an offer that politically is almost as difficult: an end to the fighting.
Rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov confirmed Monday that he had ordered a unilateral cease-fire and appointed an emissary to attend peace talks on the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people since 1994.
Another rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for the September assault on a school in the southern Russia town of Beslan that left 331 hostages dead, said last week that he would observe the cease-fire.
The two announcements significantly upped the ante for Russia, which faces growing international pressure for a political solution to the war. President Vladimir V. Putin has long refused to negotiate with separatist leaders, and officials Monday left no doubt that they would not take Maskhadov up on his cease-fire offer.
"Maskhadov doesn't represent anyone but himself, so there is nothing to discuss," said Yury Sharandin, head of the constitutional legislation committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.
"The sole act of goodwill Maskhadov should take now is to lay down arms and set an example to others. Only by doing so will he be able to prove that peace for the long-suffering land of Chechnya is not empty talk for him," Chechnya's deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, told the Itar-Tass news agency.
Moscow last week criticized British Channel 4's broadcast of Basayev declaring he also was "planning Beslan-type operations in the future."
Russia has offered a $10-million reward for the two leaders' captures. Though Maskhadov has condemned terror attacks in recent months and threatened to put Basayev on trial, Russia has held both responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks against Russian civilians.
Russian television showed footage Monday of Maskhadov that it said was aired by Al Jazeera television two weeks after the Beslan siege in which he spoke glowingly of a dead Saudi believed to be Al Qaeda's envoy in Chechnya. Maskhadov said there were "very many … brothers from Arab countries" in Chechnya — an assertion that Russia considered proof of Maskhadov's Al Qaeda connections.
Maskhadov, a former president of Chechnya, told the newspaper Kommersant on Monday that he had ordered his field commanders to observe a cease-fire until Feb. 22. "It is a gesture of goodwill. It's one more invitation to the other side to sit down at the negotiating table," he said.
After Feb. 22, he added, "it's all in the hands of God, and his mercy is boundless. If our Kremlin opponents are reasonable, the war will end at the negotiating table. If not, blood will continue to be spilled for a long time yet, but we will reject any moral responsibility for this continued madness."
The date has significance for Russians and Chechens. Russians observe Feb. 23 as the day the Red Army was founded in 1918, and Armed Services Day, formerly Red Army Day, is still a major holiday. In 1944, Chechens' deportation to Kazakhstan began that day on the orders of Josef Stalin, who accused them of collaborating with the invading Nazis.
Across Russia, there has been growing discomfort with the conflict and mounting pressure to end it through negotiations.
The Soldiers' Mothers Committee, a rights group formed by Russian mothers whose sons have served in Chechnya, offered in October to meet with Maskhadov's envoy in Europe, but the talks never took place.
"Since Putin believes that his political career is closely connected with the Chechen war, he doesn't want to hear anything about the termination of hostilities," said committee leader Valentina Melnikova. "We finally figured out that peaceful appeals fell on deaf ears on Putin's side, so we had to address the other side, the field commanders."
Also last fall, the Parliamentary Assn. of the Council of Europe's political affairs committee drafted a resolution saying Russia had failed to distinguish between Chechen rebels advocating political dialogue and those instigating attacks. That approach is "one of the big errors of Russian policy," the statement said.
"Without the moderate nationalists and autonomists to be heard and listened to, only the most violent and criminal elements with links to international terrorism got a 'voice,' " the resolution concluded. "In order to make peace, one needs the 'other side.' "
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, elected in August in a Kremlin-supervised vote, said the European parliamentary body would participate in talks March 3 with the Chechen government and ex-ministers from Maskhadov's administration.
Usman Ferzauli, Maskhadov's envoy in Copenhagen, said the former ministers could not negotiate.
"The so-called representatives of the Maskhadov government in these discussions are in fact some former Chechen legislators who … have been recruited by the Kremlin to give this process an air of some serious consultations," he said by telephone. "Nothing can come of such discussions."
LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chechens8feb08,0,7478398.story?coll=la-home-world)
Russia Faces Chechen Cease-Fire Bid Amid international pressure on the Kremlin to end the fighting, two fugitive rebel leaders offer to halt attacks and begin peace talks.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
MOSCOW — After years of war in the separatist republic of Chechnya, Russia faces an offer that politically is almost as difficult: an end to the fighting.
Rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov confirmed Monday that he had ordered a unilateral cease-fire and appointed an emissary to attend peace talks on the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people since 1994.
Another rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for the September assault on a school in the southern Russia town of Beslan that left 331 hostages dead, said last week that he would observe the cease-fire.
The two announcements significantly upped the ante for Russia, which faces growing international pressure for a political solution to the war. President Vladimir V. Putin has long refused to negotiate with separatist leaders, and officials Monday left no doubt that they would not take Maskhadov up on his cease-fire offer.
"Maskhadov doesn't represent anyone but himself, so there is nothing to discuss," said Yury Sharandin, head of the constitutional legislation committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.
"The sole act of goodwill Maskhadov should take now is to lay down arms and set an example to others. Only by doing so will he be able to prove that peace for the long-suffering land of Chechnya is not empty talk for him," Chechnya's deputy prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov, told the Itar-Tass news agency.
Moscow last week criticized British Channel 4's broadcast of Basayev declaring he also was "planning Beslan-type operations in the future."
Russia has offered a $10-million reward for the two leaders' captures. Though Maskhadov has condemned terror attacks in recent months and threatened to put Basayev on trial, Russia has held both responsible for suicide bombings and other attacks against Russian civilians.
Russian television showed footage Monday of Maskhadov that it said was aired by Al Jazeera television two weeks after the Beslan siege in which he spoke glowingly of a dead Saudi believed to be Al Qaeda's envoy in Chechnya. Maskhadov said there were "very many … brothers from Arab countries" in Chechnya — an assertion that Russia considered proof of Maskhadov's Al Qaeda connections.
Maskhadov, a former president of Chechnya, told the newspaper Kommersant on Monday that he had ordered his field commanders to observe a cease-fire until Feb. 22. "It is a gesture of goodwill. It's one more invitation to the other side to sit down at the negotiating table," he said.
After Feb. 22, he added, "it's all in the hands of God, and his mercy is boundless. If our Kremlin opponents are reasonable, the war will end at the negotiating table. If not, blood will continue to be spilled for a long time yet, but we will reject any moral responsibility for this continued madness."
The date has significance for Russians and Chechens. Russians observe Feb. 23 as the day the Red Army was founded in 1918, and Armed Services Day, formerly Red Army Day, is still a major holiday. In 1944, Chechens' deportation to Kazakhstan began that day on the orders of Josef Stalin, who accused them of collaborating with the invading Nazis.
Across Russia, there has been growing discomfort with the conflict and mounting pressure to end it through negotiations.
The Soldiers' Mothers Committee, a rights group formed by Russian mothers whose sons have served in Chechnya, offered in October to meet with Maskhadov's envoy in Europe, but the talks never took place.
"Since Putin believes that his political career is closely connected with the Chechen war, he doesn't want to hear anything about the termination of hostilities," said committee leader Valentina Melnikova. "We finally figured out that peaceful appeals fell on deaf ears on Putin's side, so we had to address the other side, the field commanders."
Also last fall, the Parliamentary Assn. of the Council of Europe's political affairs committee drafted a resolution saying Russia had failed to distinguish between Chechen rebels advocating political dialogue and those instigating attacks. That approach is "one of the big errors of Russian policy," the statement said.
"Without the moderate nationalists and autonomists to be heard and listened to, only the most violent and criminal elements with links to international terrorism got a 'voice,' " the resolution concluded. "In order to make peace, one needs the 'other side.' "
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, elected in August in a Kremlin-supervised vote, said the European parliamentary body would participate in talks March 3 with the Chechen government and ex-ministers from Maskhadov's administration.
Usman Ferzauli, Maskhadov's envoy in Copenhagen, said the former ministers could not negotiate.
"The so-called representatives of the Maskhadov government in these discussions are in fact some former Chechen legislators who … have been recruited by the Kremlin to give this process an air of some serious consultations," he said by telephone. "Nothing can come of such discussions."
LA Times (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chechens8feb08,0,7478398.story?coll=la-home-world)