Russia Rejects Chechen Rebels' Offer to Resume Talks

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, June 26, 2002

Russia Rejects Chechen Rebels' Offer to Resume Talks

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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov on Tuesday rejected an offer of new talks by Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, and said Moscow had found new evidence linking the rebels to international terrorist organizations.

"Negotiations with Maskhadov are possible only if he comes withhis hands up and if the talks are conducted by a prosecutor," Ivanov told a news conference.

Ivanov said the military had obtained rebel documents proving the rebels were funded from abroad and were connected to "international extremists".

The documents show Maskhadov's goal is to establish his own state covering the entire North Caucasus region, where Chechnya islocated, Ivanov said.

Presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky said he saw no obstacle to contacts between Chechen rebels and the government if Maskhadovagrees to Putin's conditions set in his September speech that theyonly talk about the rebels' disarmament, but not the region's political status.

Yastrzhembsky criticized Maskhadov for bringing the Chechen issue into an international forum.

"International involvement is absolutely unacceptable for Moscow, because the Chechen problem is completely internal and should be resolved by our own means," he said.

Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov also rejected the possibility of such talks, saying this would have a negative impact on the situation in Chechnya.

Such talks would be used by the rebels for their propaganda andwould spread rumors among local residents that the rebels would soon return to power and the federal troops would withdraw, Kadyrov, who is visiting Germany, told the Interfax news agency ina telephone interview.

Last November, Putin's envoy in southern Russia, Viktor Kazantsev, met with Maskhadov's representative Akhmed Zakayev in Moscow, but the meeting ended with no progress, with the Kremlin blaming the rebels for rejecting its main conditions.

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