MOSCOW - Prominent Russian human rights activists on Tuesday assailed a
Kremlin-proposed amnesty for Chechen rebels, saying it would fail to help
bring peace to the region because it makes all rebels who lay down arms potential
targets of prosecution.
Under a measure proposed by President Vladimir Putin that comes up for a parliamentary
vote on Wednesday, amnesty would apply to those rebels who had laid down their
weapons over the decade ending Aug. 1 this year, but would not cover foreigners
or Russian citizens who were guilty of murder, kidnapping, rape or other grave
crimes.
The amnesty also denies pardon to all those who made an attempt on the lives of
federal police and servicemen - the provision that makes it meaningless, according
to critics.
"It's obvious that all those who held arms made attempts on federal servicemen's
lives," said Oleg Orlov, the head of Memorial, a leading Russian human rights
group. Orlov said that any rebels who benefit from the amnesty could later be
persecuted by the authorities.
Ella Pamfilova, the head of the presidential human rights commission, said on
Echo of Moscow radio that the clause needs to be "clarified," but a hasty vote
on Putin's bill set for Wednesday leaves little room for debate.
Heeding Putin's call for priority attention to the amnesty, Russia's lower house,
the State Duma, decided Tuesday to schedule all required three readings of the
bill for the following day. Approval is almost assured because of a pro-Kremlin
majority in the Duma.
Some observers said that the Kremlin was rushing the vote in an apparent bid to
portray itself as peace-oriented at next week's summit with the European Union.
Calling it an act of humanism, Putin put the amnesty before lawmakers last week
days after two suicide attacks in Chechnya killed at least 78 people.
The attacks belied the Kremlin's often-stated position that normal life was returning
to Chechnya, claims that have increased after the claimed overwhelming Chechen
approval in March of a Kremlin-backed constitution. The constitution confirms
Chechnya's status as part of Russia, and Moscow portrayed the vote as a key step
toward peace.
Sergei Kovalyov, a prominent Soviet-era dissident, said that the referendum and
the amnesty to be followed by local elections in the fall were all part of the
Kremlin's effort to bring Chechnya into submission. "It has nothing to do with
peaceful settlement," he said.
Kovalyov said an amnesty must be preceded by peace talks and grant pardon to those
rebels who are accused of specific crimes.
Fighting continued to rage throughout Chechnya Tuesday, with rebels killing at
least four federal servicemen in the latest series of skirmishes and bombings,
an official with Chechnya's civilian administration said on condition he not be
named.
In one attack, the militants attacked bodyguards of Chechnya's Kremlin-appointed
chief administrator, Akhmad Kadyrov, wounding one of them.
The Interfax news agency also reported Tuesday that Rappani Khalilov, the suspected
organizer of last May's terror attack in Kaspiisk, Dagestan, that killed 43 people,
has died in combat with the federal troops. There was no official confirmation
of the report.