ACPC Welcomes Maskhadov Offer of Ceasefire

On February 2, 2005, it was announced that Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov ordered a ceasefire of all Chechen armed forces. The American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) welcomes this initiative as yet another offer by President Maskhadov to end violence and renew dialogue toward a political resolution of the decade-long conflict. Likewise, the ACPC calls on the Russian authorities to consider Maskhadov's call for peace and begin talks on a negotiated settlement.

According to a rebel website, the ceasefire was signed by Maskhadov on 14 January and is in effect from 1 February through 22 February, one day before the 60th anniversary of Stalin's deportation of the Chechen people to Central Asia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Maskhadov government has announced that the ceasefire "prohibits all offensive military operations for one month" and "is intended to demonstrate to the Russian side and the international community the will of the Chechen leadership to resolve the Russian-Chechen conflict by peaceful means."

In an important statement, Chechen militant Shamil Basayev announced that he would support Maskhadov's appeal for a ceasefire and that he would order units subordinate to him to stop offensive operations on the entire territory of Chechnya and Russia until 22 February. ACPC Executive Director Glen Howard commented, "Basayev's nod of support toward Maskhadov is not insignificant as it is the first time since the second war began in 1999 that Basayev has openly supported a peace initiative by Maskhadov." Shamil Basayev's prestige among the Chechen population has deteriorated significantly as a result of his involvement and support for the tragedy in Beslan, which Maskhadov himself publicly denounced on 23 September of last year.

Howard continued, "To many Chechens, President Maskhadov remains a legitimate authority and Chechnya's only democratically elected leader. Basayev's offer to subordinate his units to Maskhadov's order is an attempt by the resistance movement to uniformly create an environment for political negotiations."

Howard noted, moreover, that "Maskhadov's ceasefire announcement is a signal of support for Russia's growing anti-war movement which has recently increased its activity, as evidenced by the work of the Russian Soldiers' Mother's Committee." In a recent poll by the independent Levada Center, 64% of percent of Russian respondents stated that they supported the position of the Soldiers' Mothers on fostering negotiations with the Chechen separatists while only 27 percent said that they were opposed.

The ACPC calls on the international community to entreat the Russian authorities to use the ceasefire offer as an opportunity to begin dialogue on a negotiated resolution of the conflict.

Founded in 1999, the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya (ACPC) is a bipartisan coalition of distinguished Americans dedicated to promoting a peaceful end to the war in Chechnya.