February 07, 2005
CLIMB UPON THE PEACE TRAIN:
Chechen rebel in call for peace talks as ceasefire holds (Jeremy Page, 2/08/05, Times of London)
ASLAN MASKHADOV, the Chechen rebel leader, urged the Kremlin yesterday to begin talks to end a decade of conflict as local officials revealed that a ceasefire he ordered last week had been effective.The Kremlin and pro-Moscow Chechen officials insisted, however, that they would not negotiate with a man they consider to be a terrorist, despite growing fears that the conflict is spreading to other regions in the North Caucasus.
In an interview with Kommersant, the Russian newspaper, Mr Maskhadov confirmed that he had ordered a ceasefire until February 22 as a “goodwill gesture” and said that he had appointed a top aide to conduct peace talks with Moscow. “If reason triumphs among our Kremlin opponents, we can end this war at the negotiating table,” he said. “If not, then most likely blood will be spilt for a long time to come — but we will not be morally responsible for the continuation of this madness.”
Mr Maskhadov, who is believed to be hiding in mountains in southern Chechnya, was elected President of the breakaway republic after Moscow sued for peace to end the first Chechen War in 1996, but he was deposed when Vladimir Putin sent troops back to Chechnya when he was Prime Minister in 1999.
They better hurry if they're going to beat Palestine to statehood.
MORE:
Russia Faces Chechen Cease-Fire Bid: Amid international pressure on the Kremlin to end the fighting, two fugitive rebel leaders offer to halt attacks and begin peace talks. (Kim Murphy, February 8, 2005, LA Times)
After years of war in the separatist republic of Chechnya, Russia faces an offer that politically is almost as difficult: an end to the fighting.Posted by Orrin Judd at February 7, 2005 11:08 PMRebel leader Aslan Maskhadov confirmed Monday that he had ordered a unilateral cease-fire and appointed an emissary to attend peace talks on the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands of people since 1994.
Another rebel leader, Shamil Basayev, who has claimed responsibility for the September assault on a school in the southern Russia town of Beslan that left 331 hostages dead, said last week that he would observe the cease-fire.
The two announcements significantly upped the ante for Russia, which faces growing international pressure for a political solution to the war.
Putin saber-rattled in the Ukraine and got humiliated, the PM of Georgia died under dubious circumstance, and the Russians are trying to form a strategic alliance with the PRC. Maskhadov knows that Putin needs a big victory somewhere and Chechnya is the likely candidate. So, he'll accept a state of affairs that was unacceptable to him because he knows that even the ragtag remnants of the once mighty Red Army could slaughter his rebels and that nobody in the world would really care about civilian casualties if they did.
Posted by: Bart at February 8, 2005 06:42 AMRussian soil is rich with the bones of men as ignorant about their prospects in Chechnya as you.
Posted by: oj at February 8, 2005 07:33 AM