| The Russian parliament has passed an Act of Amnesty
for Chechen rebels and
federal troops engaged in a nine-year conflict in Chechnya. President
Putin,
who introduced the bill, is hoping it will improve chances of a political
settlement of the conflict. But critics say the amnesty is severely
limited
in its scope. Only those Chechens who are not implicated in crimes
such as
murder, kidnap, or rape may be pardoned. But first they must surrender
and
wait for the outcome of an investigation of their past. Given the nature
of
the Chechen conflict questions are being asked if this amnesty will
have any
real impact on the Chechen settlement. From Moscow Nikolai Gorshkov
reports.
(Sound clip of TV News):
Reporter: Another TV bulletin, another grim
report about a suicide bombing in the Caucasus. This time it's not even
in Chechnya, but in neighbouring North Ossetia. The referendum held in
March on Chechen autonomy was meant to stop the bloodshed, but since then
a hundred people have been killed in suicide bombings, many of them civilians.
Now, the Kremlin is pinning its hopes on the amnesty. Alexander Machevsky,
from President Putin's information office on Chechnya explains who may
be able to take advantage of it:
"We have people who are fighting against federal forces and believe
in
independence for Chechnya, and those people who are simply taken by
the
force of religious beliefs and think that they are fighting for the
great
Islamic Caliphate: These two groups, those that didn't commit, for
example, kidnapping, those people who weren't cutting heads off people,
those who were not killing civilians, were not committing crimes against
the civilian population and those who do not represent international
terrorist organisations, those people have a chance".
Reporter: Critics say the amnesty's scope
is severely limited, as it does not cover the most hardened fighters whose
goodwill is essential if there is to be any reconciliation in Chechnya.
Gumki Gudiev was elected to the pre-war Chechen parliament in 1997 when
Chechnya was all but independent, with its own President Aslan Maskhadov,
now one of the rebel leaders. Mr Gudiev wants reconciliation, but is sceptical
of what the amnesty can achieve.
"We don't believe that an amnesty or any other isolated gesture
could solve
the Chechen conflict. We need a whole set of measures to address the
problem. Above all, we need peace talks with those rebels who are ready
and
willing to talk. We believe that first of all talks should be held
with the
Chechen president Maskhadov. Then an amnesty will make sense. Otherwise,
it
will have very limited impact, if at all."
Reporter: Although the Russian parliament
has approved the amnesty law overwhelmingly, there were deputies who did
not take part in the vote at all, among them the liberal Yabloko faction
of the Duma. I'm going to the Russian Parliament right now to ask one
of its members, Sergei Mitrokhin,
why he did not take part in the vote:
"The amnesty would be positive if it would mean to consolidate
their success
in negotiations or in other steps to stability but now a days we have
no
stability where amnesty is nonsence."
Reporter: Most Russian parliamentarians though
are upbeat about the likely impact of the amnesty. However they admit
it's just a step in the chain of measures to be taken. Pavel Krasheninnikov,
the chairman of the Duma's legislative committee says the government must
now make up for the lost opportunities of the past by negotiating the
division of powers between Moscow and Chechnya.
"Unfortunately we didn't do it earlier, we could have done it
before the
outbreak of hostilities, then many of the present-day problems could
have
been avoided"
Reporter: Quite a confession from a Russian
politician... Does it mean, though, that Moscow might soon be ready and
talk to those Chechen leaders who were elected before the war, and then
were forced into the mountains? The Kremlin rejects this possibility out
of hand. Moreover the rebels' leader Aslan Maskhadov, who had previously
had urged the Russian government to negotiate with him, has now said he
will no longer seek talks with Moscow, sending the ball back into the
Kremlin's court.
See also:
BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/default.stm
War
in Chechnya
|
