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Maskhadov
says he’s still prepared to hold peace talks with Putin
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MOSCOW,
November 11 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Russian President
Vladimir Putin left Monday, November 11, for a Russia-E.U. summit in
Brussels that had faced the threat of being cancelled over disputes
between the two sides on Chechnya and Kaliningrad.
The
Kremlin’s press office confirmed that Putin flew to the meeting on
Monday morning.
The
summit had been set for Copenhagen but was moved under strong Russian
pressure after Denmark hosted an international Chechen forum during last
month’s Moscow hostage-taking by Chechen fighters.
Kaliningrad,
a Russian enclave half the size of Belgium wedged between Poland and
Lithuania, has been at the heart of a dispute between Moscow and
Brussels over the right of free movement for its 950,000 inhabitants
after the EU expands eastwards in 2004.
The
Kremlin’s special envoy to the enclave, Dmitry Rogozin, said Friday
that the two sides were close to an agreement.
“The
solution we have found is a political one and at the same time has a
solid legal base,” he said.
His
optimism was echoed in an interview published Monday in the daily
Izvestiya by European Commission president Romano Prodi, who said Russia
and the E.U. had brought their positions “considerably closer
together.”
The
European Commission - the E.U.’s executive arm - has proposed a
transit document to enable Kaliningrad residents to cross the new E.U.
states with what would amount to a multiple-entry visa.
Meanwhile
the Russia-E.U. summit is also to discuss cooperation in the war on
terror and the Chechen conflict.
Russia
has attempted to link the two but many European states see them as
distinct, and are calling on Moscow to negotiate an end to the war in
Chechnya.
On
Monday, U.K. newspaper, the Independent, quoted Putin saying that a
Kremlin peace plan to be imposed on Chechnya will exclude separatist
rebels from any role in the process and will legally bind the tiny
territory to Russia forever.
“In
his toughest rejection of any contact with the elected Chechen
President, Aslan Maskhadov, Putin told a meeting in the Kremlin of
pro-Moscow Chechen businessmen that last month’s theater siege proved
there could be no dialogue with ‘scum’,” the Independent reported.
According
to the Independent Putin said: “Those who choose Maskhadov choose war.
Those who propose negotiating with that murderer might as well suggest
reaching an agreement with [Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders, Osama] bin
Laden and Mullah Omar.”
The
paper added that the Kremlin has yet to present convincing evidence that
Maskhadov, a secular nationalist elected in Chechnya’s only democratic
poll in 1997, had any connection with last month's mass hostage-taking.
Meanwhile,
Maskhadov issued a statement on Monday saying that he was still prepared
to hold peace talks with Putin despite the Russian leader describing him
as a “murderer.”
“Despite
the presence of Russian soldiers on the territory of Chechnya, the
Chechen side has repeatedly said, and continues to say, that it is ready
to conduct unconditional political dialogue,” said Maskhadov.
Maskhadov
also firmly denied involvement in last month’s Moscow theater hostage
crisis, in which at least 128 civilians died, according to the latest
toll.
He
called the incident a “tragedy” and dismissed Russian suggestions
that he would support such tactics in a war.
“The
October 23-26 hostage-taking is a tragedy for the Russian and Chechen
people. In the name of the Chechen people, I offer condolences to all
those who suffered, to the relatives,” said Maskhadov.
“I
can say with full authority that terrorist acts aimed against peaceful
civilians are not related to the methods of the fight in our
resistance,” he said.
“The
Russian-Chechen conflict is not a conflict between the Russian and
Chechen people. The Chechen people are fighting for sovereignty and
against the irrational ... imperialist politics of the Russian
authorities.”
Moments
after Maskhadov’s statement was issued late Sunday, military officials
in Moscow said five Chechen fighters had been killed and another 30
“cornered” in the latest Russian military operation in the southern
mountains of the republic, where most of the fighters are based.
Officials
said more than 20 Chechens guerrillas had been killed in the region over
the past week.
The
reports, which could not be independently confirmed, came after Defense
Minister Sergei Ivanov vowed to intensify the Russian offensive against
Chechen separatists and halted a planned troop pullout from the republic
in reprisal for the hostage taking.
Russian
tanks rolled back into Chechnya in October 1999 and have been there ever
since, with almost daily casualties on both the Russian and Chechen
sides.
Maskhadov
was elected president of Chechnya in a January 1997 vote that was
confirmed as valid by international observers. But Moscow renounced his
right to rule shortly after the start of the second Chechen war.
