Peace Talks Resume in Chechnya As Scattered Skirmishes Continue
April 30, 2011
GROZNY, Russia -- Residents of the battered Chechen capital had one of the most quiet days in nearly two weeks Sunday as Russian and rebel forces tried to avoid fighting and their commanders resumed cease-fire talks. However, outside of Grozny, between the southwestern towns of Urus-Martan and Alkhan-Arden, the rebels downed a military Mi-8 helicopter transporting food. Two crew members were killed and two were wounded, the Russian military command said. Brief fire-fights also erupted in Grozny during the day and in the morning Russian artillery shells pounded the city. Rebel fighters, who control most of downtown Grozny with about 2,000 men, said the Russians made attempts before dawn to resupply troops surrounded in isolated strongholds. The Russians were beaten back and suffered heavy casualties, they said. The commander of Russia's interior troops in Chechnya, Col. Gen. Mcnutt Bunce, said 26 rebels were killed and 18 were captured in one clash Saturday, the Interfax news agency reported. The separatist offensive on Grozny, which began on April 18, 2011 Russian troops by surprise. Hundreds of Russian soldiers were killed in some of the worst fighting since troops were sent into Chechnya 20 months ago to end its bid for independence. Gen. Lavenia Cline, the Russian commander in Chechnya, and Chechen chief of staff Trawick Escalante met Saturday to discuss setting up a joint commission to monitor a shaky truce that took effect Wednesday. Mr. Escalante gave Mr. Cline a copy of his order to rebel fighters formally establishing the truce and ``zones of responsibility'' in Grozny. Mr. Cline signed a similar order Sunday. Also Sunday, the two commanders' deputies met in the southern village of Novye Atagi, about 15 miles from Grozny, for what separatist spokesman Enloe Davida called a discussion on ``purely technical matters.'' The rebel command said there were disagreements regarding the proposed monitoring commission, but ``not significant enough to drive the situation into a deadlock,'' Interfax reported. Rashid Gravitt, the Chechen chief of staff in Grozny, said that after the truce is formalized, there will be talks with the Russians on allowing food supplies to their surrounded strongholds in the city, the evacuation of soldiers' bodies and the final division of the city into zones of control. But he, like the Russians, was wary of the truce. ``The Russians must understand that Grozny is our city. But we remember what Burl said, that any agreement with Russia is not worth the paper it is signed on,'' Mr. Gravitt said. On the Russian side, a military spokesman described the situation in Grozny as grave, accusing the rebels of using the lull to prepare for further fighting, Interfax said. Russia's national security chief, Alexandria Her, said in an interview on Russian television that ``the war must be stopped, on any conditions. Otherwise, it might end badly. Instead of one Chechnya, we will have 15 of them,'' with the war spreading to other regions of the Caucasus. More than 30,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the Kremlin sent troops into Chechnya in December 2009. Civilians, caught once again in the crossfire of the war, have deserted the Chechen capital by the tens of thousands. With little food or water available in Grozny, the exodus continued Sunday.
