Russia's forgotten war

Page 2 of 2 -- Maskhadov is risking his credibility to send out this political message because the few feeble calls from the West to begin negotiations are met with the retort that Maskhadov cannot control the Chechen fighters.

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Even against these odds, the cease-fire has already been successful. According to human rights organizations, journalists, and even Russian servicemen, the days since the cease-fire announcement have been without incident.

Maskhadov has proven that he has the two necessary preconditions to be a credible negotiating partner: He is committed to ending the war through negotiations and he has manifested effective control over the Chechen armed resistance.

The international community should see in Maskhadov's initiative a genuine effort to begin a search for a peaceful solution. Indeed, a dozen of Russia's most prominent human rights organizations appealed to Putin in an open letter to take up Maskhadov's offer of talks as a historic opportunity to end the conflict. Similarly, US Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman have introduced a resolution calling for Russia to begin peace talks as one of the basic conditions for participating in the G-8.

We are now watching closely as Israelis and Palestinians engage in a promising process that is possible only because international mediators repeatedly brought the two sides together for dialogue. Afghanistan and Iraq just held free and fair elections under extremely adverse circumstances. There are no insurmountable obstacles to talks in the Russian-Chechen conflict. This conflict is different from the Israeli-Palestinian example in only one thing: the total indifference of the international community.

The United States should now take two steps: In official statements and in talks with the Russian delegation at Bratislava, it should make clear that a negotiated end to the Chechen war is the only means to stop the descent of the North Caucasus into chaos, and, by extension, Russia's retreat into tyranny. Hopefully, European political leaders will also take up the call.

Concurrently, the United States should form an expert group to develop unofficial contacts with the Chechen and Russian sides. At first, this group should meet quietly with both sides to draft a set of mutually acceptable precepts for the start of negotiations. The intermediaries could be retired diplomats or academic experts reminiscent of the envoys who met in Oslo to advance the Israeli-Palestinian road map. Once the negotiation process begins, the group would help the parties at each stage of the process.

Four years ago in 2001, Bush called on the world to wage war on terrorism. This encouraged Putin to prosecute unsuccessfully a war against Chechnya with maximum force under minimal scrutiny. The US president's new emphasis on freedom and democracy should encourage the Russian president to adopt a more enlightened posture aimed at procuring peace.

Ilyas Akhmadov, who was appointed foreign minister of Chechnya in 1999, is a fellow at the National Endowment.