Chechnya to vote amid continuing bloodshed

Moscow (dpa) - With the call to Chechnya's voters to go to the polls again Sunday to elect a parliament, Russia hopes to seal the fraught peace process in its war-shattered North Caucasus republic.
Chechnya will then theoretically have the attributes needed to run itself as a restored part of the Russian Federation after more than a decade of war and chaos: A constitution, president and parliament.

All that is missing is peace itself - attacks by Islamic militants and retribution by Russian or Moscow-loyal Chechen forces occur almost daily and an atmosphere of terror prevails.

Pre-election tensions were fuelled by the murder last week of three Chechen civilians by drunken Russian soldiers who were extorting money and goods on a road by the capital Grozny.

Charges were brought against three servicemen amid an outcry at the barbaric behaviour by Moscow's troops - one of many incidents that only strengthen the resolve of Chechen rebels to keep fighting.

Meanwhile, the conflict has spread to neighbouring areas of the North Caucasus, where a volatile ethnic and religious mix is increasingly erupting in violence.

The stance of Russian President Vladimir Putin remains firm: The clashes are the work of international terrorists and a harsh response by security forces is essential, above all in Chechnya.

"If we allow terrorism to raise its head in one region, the same will happen in other regions of the world," Putin said recently in Holland in response to criticism of Russia's hard line.

But factors that help the spread of extremism - violence, poverty, unemployment, corruption, persecution of devout Moslems - are often glossed over in the picture of "stabilization" painted by the Kremlin.

As a result, the republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Kabardino-Balkaria are emerging as new fronts of an escalating armed conflict across the region.

But Chechnya still remains the key for the powers in Moscow. When the republic went to the polls in 2003 to vote on its new constitution, residents came under massive pressure from the Kremlin to back the document as a foundation for stability, which drew criticism from rights groups.

The parliamentary elections have been equally well orchestrated from above, despite the apparent diversity of candidates: Three former militants are even running for seats in the legislature.

The most prominent is Magomed Khambiyev, 43, who in 1999 served as defence minister of the separatist Chechen government under the late Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov.

In 2004 Khambiyev laid down arms and agreed to cooperate with Moscow-loyal Chechen authorities. According to unconfirmed media reports, his decision was hastened by the abduction of some of his relatives as hostages by the Chechen leadership in Grozny.

He is now listed as the number two candidate for the local branch of the liberal Union of Right Forces party.

Again, Chechen authorities under the ill-reputed First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov allegedly pressured the party to accept such a controversial figure as a candidate.

Lists of other parties were also said to have been drawn up with interference by the republican government.

The branch of the Republican Party refused to comply and was blocked from taking part in the polls, according to its chairman in Moscow, prominent Russian parliamentarian Vladimir Ryzhkov.

Kadyrov, the 29-year-old son of former president Akhmat Kadyrov, who was assassinated in 2004, is the strong man in Chechnya, entrusted by Moscow to keep order at any cost.

Formally ranking number three after Chechen President Alu Alkhanov and Prime Minister Sergei Abramov, Kadyrov has the personal support of Putin, who has received him in the Kremlin and awarded him the Hero of Russia medal, the country's highest honour.

But the personal force of several thousand men he commands has been accused of organizing abductions, extortion and torture, and its activities only deepen the spiral of hatred and call into doubt the ability of institutions like a parliament to normalize life.

The new parliament in Grozny will comprise the Republican Council upper house with 21 members and the People's Assembly lower house with 40 members.

Officially, 353 candidates are running in the elections, during which 24,000 police and interior troops will be deployed to keep order.

In view of the continuing violence, most European organizations have declined to send observers.

However, a delegation from the Council of Europe will attend to appraise the overall situation. dpa fk na ds