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Web site: Chechen rebels seek ceasefire
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-03 10:03

A Web site linked to Chechnya's separatist rebels has reported that top leaders of the insurgency have called for a unilateral cease-fire to be observed in February.

The Kavkaz Tstentr site said Wednesday that Aslan Maskhadov, who was president of Chechnya in its period of de-facto independence in the late 1990s, signed on order on Jan. 14 for all offensive actions to be halted in February in Chechnya and bordering areas "as a sign of a display of good will." It cited an unnamed aide to Shamil Basayev, another Chechen warlord, as the source.

Undated file picture shows Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov. Maskhadov has ordered all rebel fighters to observe a ceasefire for the month of February in their fight against Russian troops, a separatist web site reported, quoting an aide to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev. [AFP/File]

The report also said that Basayev had issued an order that all rebels under his command halt offensive actions in Chechnya and all of Russia until Feb. 22.

It was not immediately clear why the two rebel leaders would issue similar-but-different instructions, but Maskhadov is believed to command a relatively small portion of Chechen separatist fighters.

Basayev, who leads a group called the Riyadus Salikhin Martyrs' Brigade, has claimed responsibility for some of Russia's most shocking terrorist acts, including last year's seizure of more than 1,000 hostages at a school in the town of Beslan, which ended with the deaths of more than 330 people, and for well-coordinated attacks on police facilities in June in the republic of Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya.

The Web site published what it said was a text of his order, which included a ban on "all forms of diversionary actions," but it was not clear if that included terrorist-type attacks. There was no way to immediately confirm the authenticity of the statements.

Telephone calls to the North Caucasus Military District, which oversees Russian forces' activities in Chechnya, were not answered early Thursday.

Chechnya has been shattered by two separatist conflicts over the past decade. The first 20-month war ended in 1996 with the withdrawal of Russian troops after rebels fought them to a standstill. That was followed by a period of de-facto independence, during which Maskhadov was elected Chechen president, in which law an order and economic conditions deteriorated precipitously.

In 1999, after Chechnya-based rebels made an incursion into neighboring Dagestan, Russian forces returned to Chechnya, taking firm control of the northern part of the republic.

The Kremlin has firmly rejected international calls for Russia to negotiate with the Chechen rebels.

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