Rybakov called for the deployment of peacekeepers in Chechnya, opposes Zakayev's extradition

MOSCOW, November 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Russia said Friday, November 22, it would hold a referendum in Chechnya in March to help restore normalcy in the war-ravaged republic after U.S. President George W. Bush called for a peaceful solution.

As Bush flew in to Saint Petersburg for brief talks with President Vladimir Putin, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and a group of Chechen organizations seized the occasion to urge him to press Putin to open peace talks, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

At a press conference that appeared timed to coincide with Bush's visit, Russia's Minister for Chechnya, Stanislas Ilyasov, said that a referendum on a new constitution for the republic would go ahead.

Russia has argued for months that the referendum, and a presidential election which will follow, will put Chechnya on the path to stability.

"The referendum, slated for March, has been approved by the Kremlin," said Ilyasov.

Moscow has tried to portray Chechnya as returning to normal but casualties continue to mount in the war between independence fighters and Moscow's forces, which re-entered the republic in October 1999 after a two-year withdrawal.

The proposed new constitution "provides for the establishment of a presidential republic and a single-chamber parliament.

"The principal ministers will be proposed by the president and have to be approved by parliament," Ilyasov said, flanked by the Chechen pro-Russian prime minister, Mikhail Babich.

Chechnya will require a budget of nine billion rubles (282 million dollars/euros) next year together with 20 billion rubles for the restoration of buildings damaged in fighting. Russian businesses are already set to invest 3.5 million rubles in the republic, he said.

With fighting continuing in Chechnya, Russia has taken an increasingly intransigent line since last month's hostage-taking crisis in Moscow that left 128 people dead, but is facing calls from Western capitals to reach a political solution.

The U.S. administration has muted its criticisms of the Russian conduct in the conflict in recent months, and Bush this week backed Putin's handling of the hostage crisis, but he is expected to press Putin to make greater efforts to end the conflict by political rather than military means.

In a television interview aired on the eve of Friday's talks with Putin, Bush said he would bring up Western concerns over Russia's military tactics in breakaway Chechnya.

"Our position on Chechnya is we hope this can get solved peacefully, that this is an issue within Russia and that I will continue to work with Vladimir Putin as best as I can to encourage him for there to be a peaceful resolution with the Chechnya issue, the larger issue," Bush told NTV television.

Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya in 1997, but Putin has since branded him as a leader of a "terrorist formation" who cannot be offered a seat at a negotiating table aimed at ending the current three-year war.

Asked whether Bush also now viewed Maskhadov as a terrorist, he replied "I haven't had a chance to talk to Vladimir Putin about these connections."

From his hideout in southern Russia, Maskhadov -- Chechnya's last legitimately elected president -- welcomed Bush's announcement that he would urge Putin to open a political dialogue.

"I welcome Bush's decision to pose the question of a political solution to the Chechen problem before Putin," he said in a statement released at a refugee camp at Sleptsovsk, Ingushetia, near the Chechen border.

"I hope that Bush will be able to influence the situation and help launch the start of peace talks," he said.

Putin has vowed not to hold talks with Maskhadov, whom he branded as a "murderer" after the hostage crisis.

But Bush, asked during the interview whether he also viewed Maskhadov as a terrorist, sidestepped the question and said had not yet "had a chance to talk to Vladimir Putin about these connections."

Separately, a group of Chechen organizations called on Bush in an open letter to "set up negotiations and take part in a process leading to a political settlement."

The signatories, who included the president of the Chechen Committee of National Salvation Ruslan Badalov, denounced what he called "genocide in Chechnya."

The Committee and other organizations, which are broadly sympathetic to the separatist cause but have not sided with the rebels, said that a Kremlin proposal to organize a referendum on a new constitution next year "will not settle but rather aggravate the conflict."

The process being set up by Moscow "will prolong the war and divide society definitively," they warned in the letter.

In Copenhagen, Russian deputy Yuly Rybakov on Friday called for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers in Chechnya to gradually replace Russian troops in the war-torn republic.

Rybakov, the head of the human rights commission in the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, launched the appeal during a conference on Chechnya at the Danish parliament.

"The introduction of international peacekeepers replacing Russian forces would establish a buffer in the country," he said.

"As we know from Bosnia, the process of introducing peacekeeping troops is not an easy process, but is an absolutely necessary process to establish a sort of peaceful life in Chechnya," he added.

However, he said such a move would have to be preceded by negotiations between the two sides and a ceasefire.

"The average citizen in Chechnya is only able to see the Russian soldiers as a representative of an occupied force and unfair occupied force.

"Right now, today, for every Russian soldier, any Chechen citizen represents a danger," he said.

Rybakov stressed that his proposal represented neither the opinion of President Putin nor his government.

"It reflects the opinion of the human right defense organizations and groups and people I represent," he said.

Rybakov, meanwhile, urged the Danish government not to extradite top Chechen envoy Akhmed Zakayev, who was arrested in Copenhagen on October 30 after addressing a first Chechen meeting and who Russia wants extradited on terrorist charges.

Zakayev is being held in Danish custody pending a decision on the Russian request.

"In my opinion, the extradition of Zakayev is not acceptable. And this kind of issue should only be considered by an international objective court," he said.

"It is not possible for a democratic society to allow an extradition to a country where the death penalty can still be used," he said.

The Chechnya conference is being attended by Russian deputies, human rights activists and former Russian soldiers who have served in the region.

It is hosted by the opposition Socialist People's Party, a Chechen support group and the Zakayev committee.

Denmark refused to ban that conference, prompting outrage from Moscow who accused Denmark of "solidarity with terrorists."

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