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Chechen Commanders ask Russia to Negotiate, Reaffirm Maskhadov Leadership
SLEPTSOVSK, Russia, Dec. 9 (News Agencies) - Leading Chechen opposition commanders have called on Russia to negotiate an end to the conflict in the breakaway republic and reaffirmed the legitimacy of Chechen opposition President Aslan Maskhadov.
"Today, Russia and Chechnya have a unique chance to put an end to this war [and] all that is possible must be done to end this carnage and bloodshed by sitting down at the negotiation table," a declaration published late Saturday said.
The Chechen Armed Forces Commanders Council, comprising seven top commanders and separatist Vice-President Vakha Arsanov, issued the document.
Russian and Chechen envoys held their first direct peace talks since the beginning of the brutal 26 month-long conflict last month, but Russian authorities then dismissed the prospect of further talks and fighting has persisted in the war-torn republic.
Council members also reasserted the legitimacy of Maskhadov, whom Moscow describes as a "terrorist" and ceased to recognize as Chechen president following the entry of Russian troops in the breakaway republic to put down an uprising on October 1, 1999.
"Whatever Russian politicians and generals may say, only one man can speak for the whole of the Chechen people, this is President Maskhadov, who controls 90% of Chechen fighting units, which obey any order he gives," the declaration says.
Maskhadov "never had any contacts with terrorists or terrorist organizations and was elected by the Chechen people under the supervision of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe [OSCE] and other international organizations," it went on.
Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya in 1997 just months after Russia suffered a humiliating defeat in a 1994-96 war in a poll overseen by the OSCE.
Russia has consistently tried to establish a direct link between Chechen fighters and "international terrorism", including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization.
The negotiation calls followed further violence Saturday when a pro-Russian Chechen policeman and two pro-Russian prosecutors were killed in separate attacks, according to official sources.
Senior police lieutenant Shamkhan Magomadov, 36, was killed after gunmen burst into his house in Chechnya's second city of Gudermes and shot him in the head, the pro-Russian administration said. He was rushed to the city hospital after the shooting, but died without regaining consciousness, Interfax quoted interior ministry sources as saying.
The two prosecutors, Akhmed Khamzatov and Alexander Leushin, died Saturday after a remote-controlled landmine blew up their car in a suburb of the Chechen capital Grozny, the city's military commandant told the agency.
Over 50 police and other law enforcement personnel have been killed in the eastern city of Gudermes alone this year, while Chechen activists fighting Russian forces have often targeted pro-Moscow Chechens whom they regard as traitors.
Meanwhile, Russia's military commander in the North Caucasuses, General Gennady Troshev, was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying Saturday that Russia had completed over the past month the withdrawal from Chechnya of all troops not involved in Russia's self-styled "anti-terrorist operation" against Chechen fighters.
"We withdrew all that we needed to withdraw over November and December," Troshev said at a press briefing.
Russia announced earlier this year that it would withdraw army forces from Chechnya, but put the move on hold after the first 5,000 troops were pulled out.
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