MOSCOW, January 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – The Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) top human rights envoy for Chechnya Lord Frank Judd on Friday, January 24, called on Russian authorities to postpone a referendum on a new constitution in Chechnya and to open talks with Chechen independence seekers.

"There is a lot of hard work to be done before a referendum can convincingly take place," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Judd as saying.

The European envoy warned 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, he said.

The March 23 poll has been touted by Moscow as proof that its war with the Chechen independence fighters is coming to an end, but has been criticized by observers as coming too soon in a republic where clashes happen almost daily.

Judd, in Moscow after a three-day fact-finding mission in Chechnya and neighboring Ingushetia, is set to deliver a report on the referendum and draft constitution to the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly next week.

The pro-Russian Chechen administration water downed the criticism and said the referendum would go ahead as planned.

"People want peace, and the referendum and elections that will follow are real steps in that direction -- that's why the referendum will go ahead as planned," Akhmad Kadyrov, head of the administration, was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as claiming.

Judd said he would recommend the poll be postponed because of the continuing violence and the fact that thousands of refugees from the Chechen war living in Ingushetia had not been informed of the referendum.

"I do not believe that the security situation is such that people can be participating freely across Chechnya," he said.

Judd condemned the "daily and nightly violence, abuse of human rights, the intimidation, beatings, harassment," by Russian troops of Chechen peoplel.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and human rights body has already called the March 23 referendum premature.

On Thursday, January 23, OSCE slammed Russian for refusing to extend the mandate of the OSCE mission in Chechnya.

European Envoy Urges Russia to Talks with Chechens

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

"There have to be discussions with the main players in the dispute," Judd said, adding he thought it was "unhealthy" that Russia has been seeking the extradition from Britain of Akhmad Zakayev, top envoy to Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov.

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

Moscow has refused to open negotiations with the Chechen leadership headed by Maskhadov, who was elected president of the northern Caucasus republic in a 1997 poll held after the end of the first war (1994-96).

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.

Chechens Refugees in the Dark About Referendum

Chechen refugees crammed into camps in neighboring Ingushetia said they have been told nothing about and have little faith in the new constitution promoted by the Kremlin as the first step to peace in the war-torn republic.

"Nobody official came to us" to explain the March 23 constitutional referendum that could cement Chechnya's status as a Russian republic, said Movsar, 48, who has been living in the Karabulak camp for nearly four years.

"I don't see what good could come of the referendum," he said. "As long as there is no peace, no guarantees of security, I will not vote."

Nearly 4,000 people live in the crowded tent camp at Karabulak, sharing the muddy grounds with chickens and stray dogs, often living without gas and running water.

"They don't tell us anything here," said Kyury, a 38-year-old Chechen who fled his homeland soon after Russian forces invaded Chechnya in October 1999.

While most refugees here said they had heard news of the referendum on television, Kyury said he learned about the vote from a friend who had visited Grozny, Chechnya's crumbling capital.

Several refugees scorned the Kremlin proposal, calling it a fig leaf aimed at hiding Russia's futile military campaign.

"We need order there, they still kill people there," said a Chechen man.

"That's what (President Vladimir) Putin and the leadership should think about, instead of showing the world this pretty picture," he said.