The assassination of Moscow-appointed president Kadyrov in Grozny yesterday, once more shows that the situation in Chechnya is not ‘normalized’ as Moscow has claimed. The Akhmadov peace-plan for an UN interim administration in Chechnya is the only feasible way to resolve the Chechen situation.

The Chechen Foreign Minister, Ilyas Akhmadov launched a peace plan on March 18th 2003 aiming to transform Chechnya into a democratic and peaceful state via a transitional period of several years of an international administration.

Current situation in Chechnya

The second Chechen war broke out in September 1999 in the wake of the invasion of Dagestan and a series of bombings, attributed to Chechen separatist movements and “terrorists”. The Russians alleged that the Chechen government had ties to these groups and terrorists. Following a series of military provocations aimed at undermining the Chechen government elected in 1997 and led by Aslan Mashkadov, the Kremlin launched the second war.

In 2002 The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, former KGB) took over from the army as the main body heading up the operation in Chechnya. Russian government claimed that the situation was normalized.
In March 2003 Russian authorities organized a constitutional referendum, which approved a constitution establishing Chechnya as an autonomous Republic within the Russian Federation. International monitors have seriously doubted the legitimacy of this outcome.

Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-appointed Head of Administration, was declared the winner of the presidential election in October 2003. No international observers had taken part to his election and the independent Russian and Chechen human rights observers reported t of manipulating with the end results and with voter turnout numbers. Serious opposition candidates where denied participation in the elections on the accusation of being terrorists.

In addition to this Russian appointed government, the 1997 elected government is still in place, although not recognized by any other state.