Article

2006-07-20 Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Chairman of the National Antiterrorist Committee Nikolay Patrushev announced yesterday that the committee was drafting a resolution on amnesty for participants in illegal armed formations in Chechnya. The draft resolution will soon be sent simultaneously to the presidential administration and State Duma for approval. Duma members are being called in from summer vacation for it. The Kremlin thinks that, after the death of Shamil Basaev, the most authoritative rebel leader, there is a unique opportunity to end the war in Chechnya.

The amnesty of persons who have committed socially dangerous acts in the course of antiterrorist operations in the North Caucasus was discussed by the committee yesterday in a meeting closed to the press. Those citizens of Russia who were deceived by the leaders of armed gangs and lured into criminal activities have a real chance to return to a peaceful life, Patrushev told journalists before the meeting. And those who continue their criminal activities will receive the punishment they deserve. Last Saturday, Patrushev offered the militants to give themselves up by August 1. Gennady Gudkov, member of the State Duma Security Committee, told Kommersant that the amnesty would most likely not apply to members of law enforcement or militants who committed premeditated murder, terrorist acts, kidnapping or violence against members of law enforcement agencies. Deputy speaker of the Duma Alexander Torshin excluded foreigners (that is, suspected mercenaries) and recidivists from the amnesty and noted that this amnesty will probably not differ greatly from previous ones. The authors of the resolution are targeting mainly young rebels who have not been involved in serious crimes.

However, this amnesty may be extended to those who commit especially serous crimes and their accomplices. Prosecutor of Chechnya Valery Kuznetsov told Kommersant that it was possible that the amnesty would apply under certain conditions to those involved in serious crimes according to our information, serious additions have been made to the articles [of the law], which previously were not subject to amnesty.

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This is the seventh amnesty in Chechnya, and the third since the second Chechen campaign began in 1999. The last amnesty was declared by the Duma three years ago, times to the adoption of the Chechen Constitution. This time, the amnesty is timed to the deaths of terrorist Basaev and Ichkerian president Abdul-Khalim Saidulaev and the disorganization that has consequently ensued. In the summer of 2003, about 200 militants handed in their weapons. Special services think that there will be more this time.

Separatists living abroad will also be liable to the amnesty. Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov intends to send Magomed Khambiev, minister of defense in the government of Aslan Maskhadov who receive amnesty himself and is now a member of the Chechen parliament, to Europe for negotiations with them. Seventeen militants directly subordinate to Doku Umarov [the last influential rebel field commander left alive] have expressed their intentions to lay down their arms and give themselves up to the authorities, Kadyrov said.

Selim Beshaev, deputy speaker of the parliament of Ichkeria was skeptical of the amnesty. For six years, Russian security forces have done so much evil to the residents of evil that no promises can make the Chechens believe in the sincerity of Moscow's intentions, he told Kommersant. He added that Chechens do not enjoy equality before the law or in rights guaranteed by the Russian Constitution. It is obvious, however, since the killings of prominent militants, especially Maskhadov, that there is no one left among the rebels to negotiate with. The Kremlin therefore has to do more to lure the rebels out of the forests. Kadyrov has enrolled former rebels in special law enforcement structures, since the rebels are unlikely to become construction workers or traders in the open-air markets. It is likely that, if there is mass acceptance of an amnesty, Russia will be faced with a sharp increase in crime, as happened in the early 1990s.

Posted by Fred 2006-07-20 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11 views since 2007-05-07] Top

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