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U.S. To Meet Chechens As Russia, Chechens Trade Accusations
SLEPTSOVSK, Russia, March 20 (News Agencies) - Russians and Chechens traded accusations of mass murder Tuesday after the bodies of 10 civilians were discovered in the center of the Chechen capital of Grozny, as U.S. officials plan to meet soon with Chechnya's foreign minister.
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov flatly accused Russian troops of being behind the attacks and demanded a full inquiry into the case.
But Russian prosecutor Vsevolod Chernov denied the charge, saying separatists had murdered the civilians as part of a campaign to intimidate residents into joining the fight against Moscow.
He alleged that two Chechens - themselves murdered during a gunfight with Russian troops - had been responsible for the slaughter.
Four women and three men, residents of Grozny's central Leninsky district, were killed by a gunshot to the back of the head, while another man was found dead with a stab wound in the neck.
Separately, the bodies of two other men thought to have been killed at least two months ago were found in another district of the capital, news agencies quoted official Russian sources as saying.
And in a third incident Tuesday, the 78-year-old head of the pension fund in Chechnya's second city, Gudermes, was shot dead after being ordered to step out of his car by unknown assailants.
"The Russian soldiers are responsible for this," a spokesman for Maskhadov said.
The discovery of the murders came only a month after a mass grave with 60 bodies, apparently civilians, was found on outskirts of the virtually destroyed city.
The human rights group Memorial said Monday that 17 of the 60 bodies had been identified as civilians reported missing after arrested by Russian troops.
Many of the victims, aged between 17 and 41, bore traces of torture according to testimony from relatives, said Memorial member Alexander Sokolov, a doctor.
Chernov partially confirmed Maskhadov's version of the Grozny killings, saying eight of the victims had been "murdered within the past three days."
But he insisted that separatists killed the civilians.
Russian prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov said it was necessary to "strengthen the control of the state prosecutors over the 'cleanup' operations" carried out by Russian troops, the Ria-Novosti news agency reported.
"We must establish who is responsible for the civilians' deaths" Ustinov said.
Both Chechens and Russians throughout the 18-month war have accused each other of committing war crimes.
The allegations are difficult to confirm independently, in part because there are few outside reporters on the ground.
Reports of atrocities have surfaced from both Russian and Chechen sources, as well as human rights groups, with increasing frequency just as federal troops are starting to pull out of the war-torn republic.
The issue of human rights in the war-torn province is due to top the agenda when Council of Europe deputies meet with Russian politicians in Moscow on Wednesday and Thursday.
The working party delegation will raise the question of alleged killings, disappearances and mass graves in the secessionist republic.
President Vladimir Putin, heavily dependent for his popularity on the war's progress, announced a partial troop pullout from Chechnya earlier this year, handing the command of the campaign to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
Russian troops first pulled out of the secessionist republic following their defeat in the 1994-96 conflict that cost tens of thousands of lives, but stormed back on October 1, 1999, in a new operation.
Russia's presence in the republic continues to attract almost daily attacks by Chechen fighters and protests by local residents.
On Tuesday, hundreds of women blocked a key Chechen road in protest against Moscow's 18-month military campaign in the province.
The women sat down on the Kavkaz federal highway in the eastern Gudermes region, unfurling banners demanding an end to Russian "murders" and the "filtration camps" in which dozens of civilians are alleged to have been tortured by federal troops.
Moscow's latest military intervention in the province has been declared a success by the Kremlin, but condemned in the West due to the heavy civilian toll.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials plan to meet soon with Chechnya's foreign minister to continue their dialogue with parties interested in the conflict in the breakaway Russian republic, the State Department said Tuesday.
The meeting between U.S. diplomats and Ilias Akhmadov will mark the first contact between President George W. Bush's administration and the Chechen separatists, said a spokesman for the department, Charles Hunter.
"We intend to meet with him as we have before but details have yet to be worked out," Hunter said, noting that the last contact between Washington and the separatists had been last October while former president Bill Clinton was still in office.
Another State Department official, Marc Grossman, told a Congressional panel earlier Tuesday that the meeting would likely occur this week.
Prior U.S. contacts with Akhmadov and other Chechens have drawn stiff criticism from Moscow.
Hunter stressed that the meeting did not signal a shift in U.S.-Chechnya policy which has long held that the republic is part of Russia but has also included harsh criticism for Moscow's handling of the war against separatists.
"We recognize Chechnya as a part of Russia, however, we always seek to have the broadest range of contacts in our diplomacy," Hunter said.
"We meet Mr. Akhmadov not as a foreign minister but in the same way we meet with other prominent individuals with insight on this issue," he said.
He added that U.S. officials would convey to Akhmadov the need for a political settlement over Chechnya, respect for humanitarian law and the rejection of "terrorism".
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