Rebels heeded ceasefire order
2005-02-23 13:43
Moscow - A temporary ceasefire called by Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov expired on Wednesday, the 61st anniversary of the Stalin-era deportation of Chechens to the barren steppes of then-Soviet Central Asia.
A rebel envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, said that the ceasefire had held and that it had disproved Russian accusations that he does not control the militants.
"I think it's evident that today Maskhadov can control the situation in the republic and can control peace," Zakayev told Ekho Moskvy radio from London, where he is living in exile. "Despite all the provocations on the part of puppet structures and occupational structures, we managed to demonstrate that the (rebel) supreme commander's orders are executed."
Maskhadov had ordered his fighters, including radical warlord Shamil Basayev, to observe a ceasefire through Tuesday, the eve of the anniversary, and renewed his repeated call for talks with the Russian leadership, which has consistently turned them down.
"We have proposed and again are proposing peace to Russia, because we consider that it's up to the strong side to propose peace," Maskhadov said in a statement posted on Wednesday on the Kavkaz Centre website, a mouthpiece for the rebels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials reject Maskhadov as an international terrorist and doubt that he maintains much authority among the insurgents. Though Basayev is formally Maskhadov's subordinate, he is believed to command far greater authority among the militants.
Russian officials dismissed the ceasefire call as a publicity stunt and maintained that rebels kept up their attacks. Nine servicemen were killed in a rebel attack on Monday night, the Russian military said.
The Kremlin sent troops into Chechnya in 1994 in a bid to crush its separatist leadership, but they withdrew after a devastating 20-month war that left the southern Russian region de facto independent. Russian forces returned in 1999 following a rebel incursion into a neighboring province and apartment building explosions blamed on rebels.
- AP