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| Caucasus |
| 28 Chechen warlords surrender to Federal Forces |
| 2002-12-25 |
| At least 28 rebel commanders have laid down their arms in Grozny. Chechen Prime Minister Mikhail Babich, his deputy Mousar Khamidov and senior law enforcement officials attended the ceremony on Wednesday. "Today's events were preceded by long and consistent efforts and talks conducted with militant commanders who were not involved in bloodshed, in keeping with Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov's instructions. They expressed a desire to cease military actions," Babich pointed out. The event will have a huge impact on Chechnya's future, he added. Criminal cases will not be launched against those commanders who did not participate in abductions, murders or terrorist attacks. Moreover, 10 members of Ruslan Gelayev's armed formation recently laid down their arms, officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Department for Chechnya said. That's a nice little progress report. It's nice that the small to medium fry are surrendering, but it would be better if they took out Maskhadov and his Arabs. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |