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Chechen peace fragile after rebels seize building

ARGUN(Russia): Fighters loyal to rebel Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev have seized a police station in the separatist region, dealing a fresh blow to the already shaky peace process, officials said on Monday.

Interfax news agency said an unspecified number of people were killed when a group of around 250 men stormed the police station in the town of Argun, just to the east of the regional capital Grozny, on Sunday night and seized four hostages.

Russian forces surrounded the station and helicopter gunships hovered over the area which the rebels reinforced on Monday by setting up machine-guns on adjacent buildings.

The Russian forces' press office in Chechnya said the fighters were armed with grenade launchers, a flame-thrower and automatic weapons, and were holding four members of the local militia.

Rebel field commander Alaugi Khamzatov, in charge of the group that took the building, said he was doing nothing wrong.

"I've been appointed military commander of Argun by Dzhokhar Dudayev and I'm doing my duty," he told Reuters. "I have came home and I am not going to leave."

Russian officials said the seizure violated a July 30 military accord aimed at ending the fighting which has killed thousands of people and torn apart the southern region since Moscow sent in troops in December to crush an independence bid.

Khamzatov warned the Russians not to use force.

"We are ready to die. A man who has lost everything is afraid of nothing," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Dudayev, who had earlier poured scorn on the accord from his mountain hideaway, was quoted on Sunday as saying he wanted a peaceful solution to the conflict.

The Russians called in Sandor Meszaros, head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Chechnya, to try to diffuse tensions.

On his way out of the police station after brief consultations with the rebels, Tass asked him if he thought the capture infringed the OSCE-brokered military agreement.

"I must think about it, I cannot answer unequivocally right now," Tass quoted him as replying.

Russian officials said Khamzatov was an associate of Chechen commander Shamil Basayev, whose men stormed a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk in June and took hundreds of hostages. More than 120 people died in the stand-off.

As part of an agreement to end the crisis, the two sides started the peace talks which resulted in the July 30 deal.

Under the agreement, the Chechens agreed to disarm in return for the partial withdrawal of Russian troops. But the process has been hampered by mutual distrust and continued clashes.

The accord was meant to pave the way for a political settlement to the conflict, including the tricky issue of the future status of the region which declared independence in 1991.

Moscow has ruled out letting the region secede, saying it would threaten the integrity of the Russian Federation, but the rebels are insisting on independence.-Reuter