Talks Aim to Ease Chechnyan Conflict

Posted on Jul 24, 2009

AP / Morten Holm / SCANPIX

Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov, left, and Akhmed Zakayev, right, share the podium with a mediator during a news conference in Oslo on Friday.

Akhmed Zakayev, head of the Chechen government-in-exile, and Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov, chairman of the Chechen parliament, met in Oslo for talks on stabilizing the situation in the breakaway Russian republic. A mediator said it marked the first time a “serious political dialogue between the Russian-installed regime in Chechnya and the government-in-exile” has occurred.

BBC:

Russian forces have fought two wars against separatists in the mainly Muslim republic since 1994.

The conflicts claimed more than 100,000 lives and left it in ruins.

Mr Zakayev represents the separatists’ political wing, not the military wing that is leading the insurgency in Chechnya.

He said the two sides had “discussed political issues being solved not by force but by political means”.

Read More

More Below the Ad

New and Improved Comments

We are launching a major overhaul of our comments section.

In addition to more robust spam filtering and moderation, new features include the ability to rate other comments, sort how they are displayed and respond directly via e-mail or in a thread.

Unfortunately, commenters will lose their existing Truthdig identities. It's a pain, we know, but on the plus side you will now be able to log in with a plethora of options, including Google, Twitter, Facebook and Disqus accounts.

Before launching this system we spent months in discussion with our top commenters. We listened to the feedback and we hope you like what we've come up with.

Please direct any problems or concerns to us via our contact page.