Russia, Chechen MPs call for peace talks

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, DEC. 24. Russian and Chechen parliamentarians have called for political dialogue to end the 15-month-long war amid growing signs that the Russian military campaign in the rebel region has reached an impasse.

Russian MPs met members of Chechnya's pro-independence Parliament for talks in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia on Saturday in the first such contact after the Russian army launched a second attempt to crash Chechen separatists in October 1999.

Mr. Boris Nemtsov, leader of the SPS liberal party in Russia's Lower House of State Duma, told the NTV television on Sunday that a delegation of Russian MPs and Chechen legislators after four hours of talks signed a protocol which called for political dialogue to bring peace to war-torn Chechnya. The seven-member delegation consisted of legislators elected in 1997 after Chechnya won a de facto independence from Moscow following a two- year war. It also included representatives of the Chechen separatist leader and President, Mr. Aslan Maskhadov.

``We have agreed the Chechen problem has no military solution and political dialogue must be launched immediately to establish peace, end terrorism and banditry and create conditions for the return of refugees,'' Mr. Nemtsov, who led the Russian delegation, told the NTV television. ``It is time to talk peace. Every week more people get killed in Chechnya than we lost in the Kursk submarine disaster, when 118 sailors died.''

Mr. Nemtsov said negotiations should be conducted between the Russian government and representatives of the Chechen Parliament and Mr. Maskhadov. So far the Kremlin has refused to talk about anything but the terms of the rebels' surrender.

It was not clear whether the Russian MPs acted with the approval of the Russian leadership, but Mr. Nemtsov said he would report the results of his mission to the President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday.

The meeting between Russian and Chechen MPs came a week after the Russian military acknowledged that its strategy to end rebel resistance has failed.

Russian troops nominally control the whole of Chechnya, but they continue to suffer daily casualties in hit-and-run attacks. The General Staff chief, Gen. Anatody Kvashnin, admitted earlier this month that the strategy of setting up several large garrisons in Chechnya had proved ineffective against guerilla tactics. He said troops would now leave their bases to deploy in small contingents across Chechnya to limit the rebels' freedom of movement. However, analysts said the new tactics would expose smaller groups of Russian soldiers to the militants night-time strikes and increase Russian losses.

Even a pro-Russian Chechen leader admitted last week that Russian forces were unable to crush rebels.

The war can go on for 10 or even 20 years more, said Mr. Akhmad Kadyrov, a Chechen religious leader appointed by Moscow to run the war-shattered republic in June. Only we, the Chechens, can stop this war, not Russian weapons and bombs, he said, adding that the population of the republic did not trust the Russians.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : Pak. voters apathetic to local bodies polls
Next     : Mahathir vows to check political violence