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Chechen leader to keep power as long as Russian troops
remain
January 27, 2002
AFP
Aslan Maskhadov, whose mandate expires on Sunday, will remain the president of Chechnya as long as Russian troops are deployed in the breakaway republic, his spokesman said.
Maskhadov was elected for a five-year term on January 27, 1997 in between the two most recent wars the Kremlin has waged in Chechnya.
"If the armed forces of another state, in this case the Russian Federation, are on Chechen territory, no presidential or parliamentary elections can be held," the spokesman, Mayerbek Vachagayev, told Moscow Echo radio Saturday.
The Russian army swept into Chechnya in October 1999 on what Moscow called an anti-terrorist campaign that followed a series of bombings in Russia in which almost 300 people died.
The campaign played a large part in winning Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, the Russian presidency.
The head of Russia's central electoral commission said Saturday that the mandate of Maskhadov, whom Moscow now refuses to recognise, "expired long ago, he ended it himself by his own acts."
However Sergei Yushenkov, a liberal member of Russia's lower house of parliament said: "independently of the fact that the presidential mandate of Aslan Maskhadov is expiring, he remains the legitimate president."
Yushenkov said on Moscow Echo radio that no election could be held in a country at war.
In a statement sent to AFP in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, where thousands of Chechen civilians have taken refuge, several separatist leaders called on the West to help find a solution to end the war.
"You who are developed countries, where freedom is an essential element of the constitution, you should understand that Aslan Maskhadov is the only person who can actually speak in the name of the Chechen people," they said.
Talks have been held between Russian officials and representatives of the Chechen presidency, but the Kremlin has refused all contact with Maskhadov himself.
The head of the UNHCR refugee agency Ruud Lubbers, during a visit to the region, denied Maskhadov was a "terrorist", saying that he was a key figure in resolving the Chechen conflict.
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