Chechen Rebels Warn Moscow Against Election
Russia’s rebel Chechnya region moved a step closer to a potentially explosive conflict when the Moscow-backed Parliament gave the go-ahead Saturday for elections that separatists have vowed to disrupt.
“The Supreme Soviet of Chechnya passed a resolution today on holding the republic’s leadership elections Dec. 17,” the Itar-Tass news agency said. The vote is scheduled for the same day as Russia’s parliamentary elections.
Chechen rebels, who view Russia as a foreign occupying power, immediately condemned the decision as illegal and provocative.
Rebel leader Gen. Dzhokar M. Dudayev said the conflict could spread beyond the boundaries of the southern region. “If Moscow decides to hold elections here, I fear the situation that develops will have an impact on elections in Moscow and Russia,” he told reporters in Urus-Martan, a town just south of the Chechen capital, Grozny.
“I would not recommend provoking developments that could assume monumental proportions in a matter of hours,” he said. “This tinderbox could explode at any moment.”
Russia sent troops into Chechnya almost a year ago to crush separatists loyal to Dudayev, who declared the southern region independent in 1991.
Tens of thousands of people have since been killed and many more have fled their homes.
Fighting subsided in June, when a fragile truce was agreed upon.
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