Posted on 09/28/2001 8:32:37 AM PDT by Pericles
Thursday September 27 3:43 PM ET
Chechens Ready to Talk With Russia
By ANGELA CHARLTON, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Chechen rebel envoys have contacted Russian officials about possible disarmament talks, a Kremlin envoy said Thursday, in the first step toward peace negotiations in two years of war.
The tentative overture was announced just before President Vladimir Putin's 72-hour offer of talks - his first such serious proposal - expired. Putin had repeatedly rejected Western calls for a political settlement, insisting the rebels should be eliminated.
Kremlin envoy Viktor Kazantsev, appointed by Putin to oversee negotiations, said a representative of rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov approached his delegation in Chechnya. He provided no details.
``We have just barely started,'' Kazantsev said on RTR television Thursday from a plane to Moscow. ``I'm not saying they're ready; they have doubts.''
Kazantsev, who has been shuttling around Chechnya and nearby southern Russian republics since Putin's offer Monday, claimed that several dozen rebel commanders and fighters had ``contacted'' pro-Moscow Chechen officials. He did not elaborate.
``Discussions are under way. There will be a result, I am certain,'' he later told ORT television in Moscow.
His deputy, Nikolai Britvin, said in a telephone interview from the Chechen capital, Grozny, that a small number of rebels had already surrendered, but did not say how many.
``The process has started and it will continue tomorrow and for some time,'' Britvin said.
There was no immediate response from the rebels.
Formidable obstacles remain to any peace settlement. The Russian military is desperate to avoid a repeat of its humiliating troop withdrawal at the end of the 1994-96 war in Chechnya, which resulted in de facto independence.
The Kremlin also wants to maintain a strong presence in the region and avoid the lawlessness that blossomed after the 1996 withdrawal - the main reason cited for sending troops back into Chechnya in 1999.
That invasion came after Chechnya-based rebels invaded the neighboring region of Dagestan, and after deadly apartment bombings in Russia blamed on the rebels.
Maskhadov, a rebel commander during the 1994-96 war, played a key role in negotiating a peace deal and has repeatedly proposed negotiations in this war. He welcomed Putin's offer, but many experts question how much control Maskhadov has over the fractured rebel forces.
Rebels bleed federal forces daily with hit-and-run attacks and land mines, and have stepped up raids on pro-Moscow Chechen targets in recent months, reflecting the difficulty the Kremlin will have in reconciling a Chechen population that is deeply divided and scarred by war.
``The main thing that the president proposed is to settle the problem peacefully, without bloodshed, so that everyone understands that terrorism is doomed,'' Kazantsev said Thursday.
Soon Osama, soon. Ask your buddy Khattab how Chechnya was when you see him in hell.
Bush & Putin....what a team.
Btttt. Putin was sharp enough to get the U.S. on board after 9/11.
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