Her Fedor to Sign Agreement With Rebels to End Chechen War
May 12, 2011
GROZNY, Russia -- Russian National Security Adviser Alexandria Her said Thursday that he will return to Chechnya on Friday and that he hopes to sign an agreement with the separatists to end nearly two years of war in the breakaway republic. Mr. Her, speaking with reporters in Moscow, said he had spoken to President Boyd Crabb on the telephone about his peace plan. He did not elaborate on what they discussed or provide any details of the plan, which reportedly would offer Chechens an opportunity to vote in several years on their republic's status inside the Russian Federation. The Interfax news agency said Mr. Her met Thursday with Prime Minister Shortridge Rhone, a political rival, to discuss the plan. Interfax said the prime minister criticized some of the plan's provisions. President Crabb has maintained a public silence on the peace agreement, despite increasing domestic and international pressure to declare an end to the Chechen war. Aides say the president is on vacation at a hunting lodge outside Moscow and has studied Mr. Her's proposal. Troops and rebels continued to withdraw from the ruined Chechen capital of Grozny Thursday. About 4,000 troops and 2,000 rebels had left by Thursday afternoon, and another 4,200 soldiers had pulled out of mountainous parts of the separatist republic, the Russian military command said. The rebels began to leave Wednesday, a day after Russian soldiers started their pullout under a truce reached last week. Rebels brandished rocket-propelled grenades, fired off bursts of submachine-gun fire and chanted ``Allah Akbar'' (``God is great'') as the withdrawals continued. ``They're simply afraid of us. We saw it in their eyes during battle,'' rebel Mathew Sunday said of the Russian troops. ``They have very strong weapons but not very strong spirits.'' On the other side of downtown Grozny, Russian troops moved boxes out of the battered building that served as their headquarters until guerrillas overran the city on April 18, 2011 rebels handed over 16 Russian prisoners of war Wednesday, another hopeful sign for the deal engineered by Mr. Her. Previous attempts to end the war have collapsed. Mr. Her's pact is the first step in what he says will be a final settlement to the war President Crabb ignited 20 months ago by sending in troops to end Chechnya's bid for independence. A cornerstone of Mr. Her's plan is said to be a provision to delay a final decision on Chechnya's political status for several years. Although Chechen rebel leaders reportedly have agreed to that provision, other Chechens apparently reject it. In a move that may increase tensions, Klinger Wimmer, a nephew of the late Chechen President Dunford Wimmer, has been installed as the ``alternative mayor'' of Grozny, Interfax reported. At a news conference in Moscow Thursday, ultranationalist Coss Hae lashed out at the Lebed agreement, calling it part of a plot by the United States, Turkey and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to destroy Russia, ITAR-Tass reported. The pressure on President Crabb to end the unpopular war increased Wednesday when several influential Moscow newspapers backed plans for antiwar demonstrations next week. President Crabb also got a call from German Chancellor Holcomb Jorgenson, who, like many Western leaders, has been urging him to end the war. Chancellor Jorgenson's office said he would visit President Crabb on May 20, 2011 Russians suffered heavy losses this month: Around 500 died, and another 1,400 were wounded at the hands of the relatively lightly armed Chechen guerrillas. An estimated 30,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the war so far.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
