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Russian-Chechen Deal Could Mark Start Of Political Settlement
MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian and separatist Chechen politicians have signed a protocol that could mark the start of a political settlement in the breakaway republic, Interfax agency said Sunday, quoting a former Russian minister.
Boris Nemtsov, leader of the Russian Movement of the Forces of the Right (SPS) party and a former deputy prime minister, spoke in Moscow after signing the deal in the Russian republic of Ingushetia on Saturday.
"After four hours of negotiations with deputies from the Chechen parliament, we signed a very significant protocol which could mark the beginning of a political settlement in Chechnya," Nemtsov said.
Nemtsov signed the deal in a meeting with Chechen deputies led by Hoj-Akhmed Iarikhanov, nominal education minister in the popularly elected separatist government of Aslan Maskhadov, which is not recognized by Moscow.
"We can discuss at length the actual legitimacy of this Chechen parliament, but it was nevertheless elected in 1997," public television RTR quoted Nemtsov as noting.
"The document makes clear that a military solution cannot resolve the Chechen problem and that negotiations must immediately begin," Nemtsov told journalists.
"We exclude however holding talks with terrorists and bandits," RTR quoted him as saying.
Nemtsov also told reporters that both sides agreed on the necessity of "eradicating terrorism and religious extremism as well as restoring order" in the region.
Nemtsov has said that he is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin this week to brief him on the document and on his visit to refugee camps in Ingushetia, where thousands of Chechen refugees are reported to be living in appalling conditions.
The former minister told RTR he had informed Putin of his Ingush visit before leaving for Chechnya.
Another member of the Russian delegation, SPS deputy and human rights activist Sergey Kovalev told Moscow's Radio Echo, "our aim was to attract the attention of the Kremlin and of society to this bloody problem which will never be settled with force."
Former Russian Justice Minister Pavel Kracheninnikov, who as president of the independent commission on Chechnya was also involved in Saturday's negotiations, took part in talks in May in Ingushetia with Chechen deputy prime minister Kazbek Makhachev.
Both Kracheninnikov and the Kremlin at the time said that the meetings should in no way be considered as the beginning of negotiations with secessionist Chechens.
More than 14 months after Russia launched a military intervention in Chechnya on October 1, 1999, skirmishes between separatist Chechen fighters and federal troops continue on a daily basis.
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