"As your elected president, I call on those who still hold dear our suffering land to...openly say that there is no alternative to an independent Chechen state," said Maskhadov

GROZNY, March 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov urged Saturday, March 8, his people to shun the controversial Russian referendum which attempts, inter alia, to formalize a constitution that will fix the Muslim republic's place in the Russian Federation.

"Russia in vain will force us to submit to its supremacy, which our ancestors had not acknowledged in centuries.

"They want to make us the first people in world that would be forced to vote in a referendum with machine guns staring at us," stressed Maskhadov.

"As your elected president, I call on those who still hold dear our suffering land and our honour to unite at this time and openly say that there is no alternative to an independent Chechen state," he urged.

Maskhadov said Russia is fully mindful of the fact the appalling consequences of its aggressive wars would provoke Chechens to boycott the March 23 constitutional referendum, noting that the so-called Russian democracy in Chechnya was nothing short of a mere charade, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"Russia understands that the bloody consequences of its aggressive wars would not entice Chechens to stay within Russia. Falsification of democratic procedures is the only thing Russia has left," he derided.

The proposed referendum is widely seen as a chance for the Kremlin to argue that it has established a political settlement to its war with Chechen independence fighters, now in its fourth year.

Russia claims that it is keen on establishing some semblance of security in Chechnya ahead of the referendum, tearing down checkpoints and even withdrawing some of its troops despite daily attacks by independence fighters.

Moscow then plans to hold presidential elections by early next year in a vote aimed at removing any traces of legitimacy from the democratically elected leadership of Maskhadov, who was elected president of the northern Caucasus republic in a 1997 poll held after the end of the first war (1994-96).

However, observers have criticized the vote as premature, with Chechen fighters and Russian troops continuing to battle for control of Chechnya and civilians living in the war-torn area.

E.U. human rights envoy for Chechnya Lord Frank Judd warned  in January that the "oppressive" security situation in Chechnya would not allow a free vote.

"On the basis of what I've seen and heard, I do not believe there is evidence of a sufficiently widespread momentum and political consensus for the constitutional referendum to go ahead," Judd said.

"There is a lot of hard work to be done before a referendum can convincingly take place," he added.

Judd urged Russian authorities to first open peace talks with "the other side" in the current Chechen conflict, which has been raging between Russian forces and Chechen independence seekers since October 1999.

"If you are going to build peace, you have to involve some of the people that have been your enemies," he said.

Official numbers say nearly 5,000 Russian troops and 13,000 Chechen fighters have died in the second war, but humanitarian groups say those numbers are grossly underestimated and as many as 20,000 civilians may have also been killed.