Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma lower house of parliament on Thursday that would offer an amnesty to rebels in Russia’s war-torn republic of Chechnya, the Kremlin said.
”A humanitarian gesture, the amnesty is principally aimed at creating further conditions for peaceful life in the Chechen republic,” said a letter sent to Duma speaker Gennady Seleznyov, according to a Kremlin statement.
The amnesty would pardon all Chechen guerrillas who hand in their weapons and stop their rebel activity before August 1, but those guilty of murder, kidnapping and other serious crimes as well as foreigners would not qualify.
A number of foreign mercenaries, mainly Arabs, are fighting in the ranks of the rebel forces, which have been battling with Russian troops since they re-entered the breakaway southern republic in October 1999.
Chechnya had enjoyed de facto independence for three years after an earlier 1994-96 war that ended in Russian defeat.
The amnesty offer follows two suicide bombings in Chechnya that killed over 70 people in the space of three days. Suicide bombers on Monday drove a truck packed with a ton of explosives into a government building in northern Chechnya, killing at least 59 people.
Then on Wednesday, at least 14 people were reported killed when a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded religious event in a village east of the capital Grozny.
The Kremlin said the amnesty was linked to the ”important historical event” in March when Chechens adopted a new pro-Moscow constitution that sealed the republic’s status as part of the Russian Federation.
Observers have said the continuing separatist violence has punctured the myth presented by the authorities that life is returning to normal in Chechnya after the constitutional vote.
But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov insisted on Wednesday there would be no change in Moscow’s strategy, which rules out any peace talks with the rebels. – Sapa-AFP