#9
Ahead of key vote, Russia admits rebels still run loose in Chechnya
January 30, 2003
AFP

A top aide to President Vladimir Putin admitted Thursday that Russia has failed to win the trust -- or guarantee security -- of Chechens before a controversial vote on the war-torn separatist republic's status which is blotting Moscow's relations with Europe.

Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo's unexpected concession came as Western concern about the referendum boiled over with the Council of Europe's Chechen rights representative's threat to resign should the vote go ahead.

Frank Judd's threat in Strasbourg however was given an acerbic welcome by the Kremlin. Amid the tussle with Europe, Rushailo asked a top Russian security meeting to admit that Chechnya was still in turmoil -- remarks that contradict repeated Kremlin assurances that a March 23 Chechen constitutional referendum need not be delayed because of security concerns.

And Rushailo conceded that most Chechens continue to eye federal authorities and troops with suspicion.

"Despite positive progress, we have to admit that the counter-terrorist operation has not normalized the situation in Chechnya," said Rushailo in comments reported by the Interfax news agency.

Russian officials repeatedly refer to the Chechen war as a counter-terror campaign following similar comments uttered by President Vladimir Putin when he launched the offensive in October 1999.

"We have not been able to fully dismantle the system by which the (rebel) formations are controlled" by separatist field commanders, Rushailo, who is seen as a close ally of Putin, conceded.

"For now, the majority (of Chechnya) continues to distrust efforts by the federal center to normalize the situation," he said.

Judd paid his ninth visit to Chechnya earlier this month in a trip that he later reported convinced him that it was impossible to hold a fair vote on the republic's status while it was still overflowing with armed guerrillas and federal troops.

"A valid referendum cannot take place by March 23. In the course of three years' work as the rapporteur on the conflict in Chechnya, I have never been so convinced about anything," said Judd.

But Moscow said his comments marked an interference in Russia's internal affairs and several top officials reacted with sarcasm to Judd's resignation threat.

"I believe that the main reason for Lord Judd's resignation (threat) is that the political times in Chechnya have moved foreward, whereas he has not," said top Kremlin spokesman on the Chechen conflict Sergei Yastrzhembsky.

Meanwhile Russia's top representative at the Council of Europe said Judd made his comments after "being pressured by the (Chechen) terrorists to try and undermine the referendum.

"He looked like a wound-up man who, without any real arguments of his own, was trying to push through a very tough resolution against Russia's interests," Dmitry Rogozin said in televised remarks for Strasbourg.

Before Rushailo's security council report, Russian authorities have been projecting an image of order in Chechnya, where a guerrilla war between federal troops and separatist rebels has claimed the lives of at least 4,000 Russian soldiers.

However despite admitting to violence and the rebels' reign over parts of Chechnya, Rushailo stressed that preparations for the referendum were continuing.

That vote is due to be followed by Chechen presidential elections either at the end of this year or in early 2004, a poll which has been dismissed by rebel leaders as illegitimate.

Preparations for the referendum were reaching the "home stretch," said Rushailo.

Restoring stability in Chechnya was a key theme to Putin's 2000 election campaign, and although Russia has been embarrassed by a steady streak of deadly rebel strikes against federal targets, Putin's popular support remains steady at around 80 percent.

BACK TO THE TOP    #242 CONTENTS    NEXT ARTICLE