Chechen rebels answer Russian amnesty with threats

MOSCOW, July 19 (Reuters) The leader of the Chechen rebels today dismissed a Russian amnesty offer, saying attacks outside his home region would be his rebels' answer to Moscow.

Last week, following the death of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, Russia offered Chechens still resisting its rule a fair trial if they surrendered by the end of the month.

Basayev, who masterminded the 2004 Beslan school siege in which 186 children perished, died last week in what the rebels say was a fatal accident but Russia said was a targeted raid.

Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia's FSB security service, said parliament would be summoned from its summer break to approve giving rebels ''a chance to return to peaceful life''.

But the response from Doku Umarov, head of a rebel movement which has united with Islamist rebels to stage attacks all across the North Caucasus, was swift and contemptuous.

''All Moscow's announcements about the 'end of the war' or this so-called 'amnesty' ... are yet more attempts by the Kremlin regime to hide the real situation behind lies,'' said a statement on a rebel Web site (www.kavkazcenter.com).

''The armed forces of the Chechen Republic are organised and motivated like never before. By presidential decree, two new fronts have been formed. That is the answer of the Chechen leadership and the Caucasus mujahideen to appeals to 'lay down our arms' and be 'amnestied'.'' The number of Chechen rebels, who defeated Russia in 1996 to win de facto independence but who have been on the run since Moscow sent its troops back into the region three years later, still resisting Russian rule is not clear.

Russia says Umarov's guerrillas are reduced to a few scattered groups, and are finished as a fighting force.

Despite that, the rebels stage regular hit and run attacks, which frequently kill police and troops.

Two policemen were killed in broad daylight in Grozny yesterday in an attack blatant even by Chechen standards.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the pro-Moscow warlord who runs the Chechen government on the Kremlin's behalf, said yesterday 13 of Umarov's rebels had contacted him about surrendering.

But Russian media were sceptical about the amnesty. Kommersant daily listed six previous amnesties that Russia has offered Chechnya since the war started there in 1994. Under the most recent, in 2003, a mere 171 rebels surrendered, it said.

Reuters SY DB1828