U.S. Puts a Low Profile on Meeting With Chechen Foreign Minister
- ️Fri Jan 14 2000
By JANE PERLEZ
ASHINGTON, Jan. 13 -- The State Department said today that several "working level" officials would meet with the foreign minister of Chechnya
after deciding that a session with senior administration officials would confer too much legitimacy on the breakaway Russian republic.
To set further distance, tonight's meeting with the Chechen minister, Ilyas Akhmadov, was to take place in a hotel lobby and not in the State Department building.
"These discussions do not constitute a change in policy or recognition of Chechnya in any way, shape or form," said James P. Rubin, the State Department spokesman. He said the United States did not recognize Mr. Akhmadov as the foreign minister of an independent Chechnya but as a private citizen of Russia.
An official from the Office of Russian Affairs and officials from bureaus dealing with refugees and human rights were designated to meet with Mr. Akhmadov.
The Russian government protested Mr. Akhmadov's plan for a visit and asked that he not be granted a visa, State Department officials said. After a background check showed that Mr. Akhmadov had not committed any offenses that would bar him, he was given a visa, they said.
In an interview today, Mr. Akhmadov said he had come to Washington to ask the Clinton administration to pressure Moscow to open negotiations to end the war in Chechnya.
"We are not asking for money or weapons," said Mr. Akhmadov, 39, who has a degree in philosophy from Rostov State University. "What we are asking for is some attention, consultations, advice, good will, and if that happens, we are convinced we can create a normal, civilized country."
He said that negotiations were necessary because neither side could win the war.
"In the last war, no one won," he said, referring to the 1994-96 conflict, in which he fought and which ended with Russian troops withdrawing from Chechnya. "We humiliated the Russian Army, but the peace we achieved was fragile. We don't really feel this war will bring victory to either side."
In the current war, now that the Russian Army has advanced into positions closer to the Chechen fighters, the Chechen forces are faring better, he said.
"The Russian Army resembles a wild boar being attacked by very vicious dogs," he said.
Because of the flexibility and the hit-and-run tactics of the Chechen forces, whose main weapon is an old Russian rocket-propelled grenade launcher, the loss of the Chechen capital, Grozny, would not be a big blow, he said.
"Grozny is a convenient place from where we can strike and retreat," Mr. Akhmadov said. "If we lose it, we can find someplace else to strike and retreat."