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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (10940)	11/26/2001 4:51:36 AM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 281500

Chechnya Still Worries NATO By Mara Bellaby The Associated Press Vladimir Filonov NATO Secretary-General Lord Robertson said the military alliance's members "sympathize" with the problems Russia faces in the Chechnya conflict but that concerns remain over how violence is being quelled in the breakaway region. "We sympathize with Russia. We work alongside Russia in dealing with the terrorist network," Robertson said during a three-day visit to Moscow last week to discuss with Russian officials plans to reshape ties between NATO and Russia. "But we still retain some concerns about the means Russia has used ... and that hasn't changed," Robertson said. Russia has been repeatedly accused of using excessive force in Chechnya. Moscow insists it is fighting international terrorism in Chechnya, but that has not stopped criticism of Russia's harsh crackdown -- until recently. After President Vladimir Putin pledged to support the anti-terrorism campaign following the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, criticism subsided. Washington endorsed Russia's allegations of ties between the rebels and terrorism suspect Osama bin Laden. Russia is grateful for the change in attitude, Security Council chief Vladimir Rushailo said Thursday. "I must say that the leaders of very many countries have changed their attitude to the developments in Chechnya, especially after the world realized the importance of combating international terrorism," Rushailo was quoted as saying by Interfax. "Many are departing from double standards in assessing the terrorists," Rushailo said. "It is a serious change that we assess very positively." Putin's strong support for the anti-terror campaign and his claim that Russia is engaged in a similar battle in the small, southern republic of Chechnya have profoundly changed Western attitudes, analysts have said. Western concerns about alleged human rights abuses by Russian troops in Chechnya are currently overshadowed by praise for Moscow's close cooperation with the international coalition against terror. "The rebels and mercenaries fighting in Chechnya now find it extremely difficult to complain to the international community about the federal authorities' illegal actions," Rushailo said. The war in Chechnya has been locked in a bloody stalemate for more than a year: Russian forces have not fulfilled Putin's 1999 vow to crush the rebels, and the insurgents kill Russian soldiers and pro-Moscow Chechen officials in small-scale ambushes and mine blasts almost every day. On Saturday, Russian aircraft rocketed suspected rebel positions east and southeast of Grozny and in the southern Vedeno region while insurgents continued to mount sporadic attacks on Russian positions, officials said. Su-25 and Su-24 warplanes flew nine combat missions over the past 24 hours, the headquarters of the Russian combined force in the north Caucasus told Interfax. The planes attacked targets in the Kurchaloi and Nozhai-Yurt regions east and southeast of Grozny and in the southern Vedeno district, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Saturday. Rebels attacked federal checkpoints and positions 16 times over the past 24 hours, killing one Russian soldier and wounding five, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. In the town of Shali, two policemen were killed and five were wounded Friday in a clash with rebels, he said. Military commandos killed five Chechen rebels in an overnight operation, the deputy commander of the joint military group in the north Caucasus told Itar-Tass. Alexei Kuznetsov said 54 people had been detained in the operation on suspicion of having ties with the rebels. Putin, who built his popularity in part by taking a tough stance on Chechnya, had repeatedly rejected Western calls for a negotiated settlement of the latest war there. But after Sept. 11, he urged Chechen rebels to discuss disarming and abandoning their fight. The first face-to-face talks were held Nov. 18, but Putin's envoy said they were largely unproductive and future talks would be conditioned on the rebels providing "practical answers" to Putin's call for them to lay down their arms. "Talks can be conducted only about full discontinuation of combat operations and the surrender of weapons by gunmen," Rushailo said. themoscowtimes.com

To: maceng2 who wrote (10940)	12/7/2001 1:34:58 AM
From: maceng2	Respond to of 281500

Military Announces Winter Offensive By Clara Ferreira-Marques Reuters Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov announced on Thursday that Russia would try to smash separatist resistance in Chechnya with a winter offensive, but European rights monitors urged Moscow to pursue and broaden peace talks. "This winter we will seek to finish off the remaining bandit groups, and capture or destroy their ringleaders. This I promise you," Ivanov said in remarks made in Yekaterinburg and broadcast on television. In Moscow, a Council of Europe delegation said peace talks between the Kremlin and Chechen separatists were a positive step and it urged Russia to bring in more rebel leaders. The delegation, speaking after visiting Chechnya with Russian parliament members, said life in the region continued to be beset by unsolved killings and other human rights abuses. Thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict were set to face winter living in "grotesque conditions" in camps, delegation head Frank Judd told a news conference. Judd, a member of the British House of Lords, said talks between officials of the Kremlin and a Chechen rebel group led by Aslan Maskhadov were important but were not enough on their own to bring peace to the region. Last month, in the first publicly acknowledged meeting between the two sides since the conflict flared up again in 1999, the presidential envoy for southern Russia, Viktor Kazantsev, met Akhmed Zakayev, deputy prime minister in Maskhadov's rebel government, near Moscow. "I think the president's [Vladimir Putin's] initiative is very important, but it is not enough in itself," Judd said. "There has to be a context -- a context that needs a wider selection of people than just Maskhadov." Other rebel factions needed to be brought in, he said. "Look at the Middle East, look at Ireland -- if you don't involve a wider cross-section of society ... you have people outside the solution who want to wreck it," Judd said. "I think there are criminal elements that don't want a settlement ... but in a very complicated situation I do get worried when everyone gets branded together as bandits and terrorists," he said. Ivanov also told reporters Russia planned by next spring to cut its army presence in the Caucasus, which includes Chechnya, withdrawing many of the troops who had been sent in from outside to reinforce federal forces based in the region. "We believe that the presence of these troops there is excessive," he said in televised remarks. The size of the cut-back in real terms was not clear. Last year similar sweeping claims of a winter end to the conflict were made by Russian generals, with no visible result. Human rights continued to be flouted, the delegation said, with disappearances and unresolved court cases still rife. "We are particularly concerned about the mass killings -- these cases have not been resolved. In human rights terms this is fundamental," Judd said. "We are all concerned by the massive, by the very pervasive, corruption at all levels, which does not augur well for [the reconstruction of] the economy," he said. The situation in the refugee camps that house around 170,000 Chechens both in Chechnya and in neighboring Ingushetia was critical, Judd said, with the plight of the refugees worsening as winter began to set in. "The condition in which those people, who have been through hell, will have to spend the winter is just grotesque," he said. Dmitry Rogozin, head of the State Duma's international affairs committee, said refugees themselves contributed to what he called disgusting conditions. "There exists a mentality of dependency in these camps. These refugees refuse to do anything to improve their lives in the camp. They think the government must do everything for them," Rogozin said. themoscowtimes.com