LONDON — A leading Chechen exile and the speaker of Chechnya’s parliament announced Wednesday the creation of a World Chechen Congress to draw up “a joint political platform on all crucial issues” to reconcile the republic.
“The objectives of my meetings and official dialogue with Akhmed Zakayev are to strengthen political stability with the ultimate goal of consolidating the Chechen nation,” Speaker Dukhvakha Abdurakhmanov said at a news conference with Zakayev, a former Chechen foreign minister now living in Britain who has been named prime minister of a government in exile. “As a result of our consultations in London, we are united in calling on the independent World Chechen Congress to take the process forward.”
Asked why the Chechen authorities were negotiating with Zakayev, who is wanted by federal prosecutors, Abdurakhmanov said the world was changing. Zakayev refused to be drawn about a possible return to Chechnya.
“The prospects for Chechen-Russian relations and the Chechen people are going in the right direction for the first time in 20 years,” said Ivar Amundsen, director of the Norwegian nonprofit group Chechnya Peace Forum that mediated the London talks and a first round July 24. (Comment, Page 8.)
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