Chechen rebels have snubbed an amnesty offer to lay down their arms.
| "Lay down our arms? Pshaw! Without our guns to wave around, we're nothin'! Nothin', I tell yez!" |
The move was the brainchild of Russian politicians who believed the amnesty, timed a month before the crucial elections in Chechnya, might erase anti-Russian sentiment in the region. However, few had handed over the weapons when the Monday deadline arrived. The end of the amnesty coincided with the handover of control over public order from the FSB security to the Interior Ministry. "September 1 marked the deadline for the guerrillas to give up weapons voluntarily," Deputy Prosecutor General, Sergei Fridinsky, told Interfax news agency.
| So are you going to kill the ones who still have them now? |
The State Duma lower house approved the amnesty after an April referendum in Chechnya — boycotted by the rebels and criticised by the usual suspects human rights groups — showed a big majority voting to stay within Russia. The poll, in which Chechens complained of being forced to vote through threats and intimidation, paved the way for Russia to organise 5 October election of a regional president. The upcoming election is a key step in President Vladimir Putin's Chechnya peace plan which he hopes will put an end to the region's three years of de-facto independence. Chechnya's Moscow-appointed administrator and a candidate in the October poll, Akhmad Kadyrov, has called for an extension of the amnesty. |