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Muslim states urged to recognise Chechnya

PESHAWAR: The Adviser to the Chechen president, Zelimkhan Inderbaiev, on Sunday urged Muslim countries, especially Pakistan, to recognise Chechnya as an independent state.

Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, the Chechen leader said the role of the OIC on the Chechnya issue was confined to "mere rhetoric".

No practical step has been taken by any Muslim country except Afghanistan, said Zelimkhan.

Zelimkhan said that Russia had accepted Chechnya as an independent state as former Russian president Boris Yeltsin had signed a few peace agreements with Chechen President Aslam Maskhadov.

In this regard he also read the contents of a peace agreement in which Chechnya was written as 'Chechen Republic Iehkeriya'. The agreement inked on May 12, 1997, bore the signatures of the presidents of both the countries.

After these agreements, the Russian government through its diplomatic channels conveyed messages to different countries not to recognise Chechnya, he said.

Zelimkhan was all praise for the Afghanistan government for recognising Chechnya.

Giving details of war in Chechnya, Zelimkhan said 22,000 people have been martyred out of which 1,000 were freedom fighters. Similarly, he said more than 40,000 people have been injured in the war and 60 percent of the houses have been destroyed.

Russians have deployed all sorts of army in Chechnya and except nuclear bombs all type of lethal weapons have been used against Chechen fighters. In some attacks, strategic missiles having the capability to carry nuclear war-head were also used, he added. APP