MOSCOW -- Twenty-eight guerrillas in Chechnya laid down their arms Wednesday in a move hailed by authorities as a sign that the situation in the war-stricken republic is improving. But the slaying of a pro-Russian party leader and the deaths of at least four Russians in 24 hours indicated that it has not.
In the capital, Grozny, unidentified gunmen shot and killed the head of a pro-Kremlin party, and two Russian policemen died in a clash with rebels in a nearby village, a Chechen government official said. Two more Russians died in other parts of the republic during a 24-hour period, spokesmen said.
Russian officials have been eager to show that rebel activity in Chechnya is on the decline. Officials said the surrender in Grozny involved members of rebel groups tied to Aslan Maskhadov, Chechnya's last elected president, who was ousted when the Russian army reinvaded in late 1999 to reassert Moscow's control over the breakaway republic in the northern Caucasus.
According to the Itar-Tass news agency, the new Moscow-appointed prime minister, Mikhail Babich, attended the surrender of the fighters outside the headquarters of the FSB security agency in Grozny.
The fighters, who appeared to include only lower-ranked rebels, turned over machine guns, assault rifles, three guided antitank missiles, grenade launchers and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, the news agency said. Authorities said the men would be allowed to go free because they were not accused of any crime.
Despite continued casualties among Russian forces and their local allies in Chechnya over the last three years, a senior official aligned with Moscow, Rudnik Dudayev of the republic's security council, declared that a turning point is in view.
"A considerable part of Chechen militants will lay down their arms and return to peaceful life by the spring," he predicted.
He said the surrender of the 28 fighters in Grozny meant that "both ordinary people and militants are tired of the war."
Since Russian forces returned to Chechnya in 1999, saying they wanted to stamp out terrorists and separatists, more than 4,700 Russian soldiers and police have been killed, according to official statistics.
The political leader reported slain was Sayed-Amin Adizov, a construction company chief who headed the Grozny chapter of the Kremlin-sponsored Unified Russia party. He was killed as he rode in his truck Tuesday night, authorities said.
In recent months, human rights groups have complained that Russia wants to force displaced Chechens, most of whom remain in camps in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, to go home.
But the displaced Chechens are resisting. They fear the ongoing war in Chechnya and the frequent reprisals and sweeps by Russian troops that have led to the "disappearances" of many young men inside the republic.
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has called for a referendum on a new constitution for the republic in order to formally end the state of war and bring Chechnya back to a normal status within the Russian Federation.
Officials said Wednesday that 1,000 signatures had been collected in the previous few days on petitions supporting such a referendum. About 12,000 signatures are needed.
Moscow claims that there are only about 1,000 rebel fighters in Chechnya, a figure that has not changed in spite of reports week after week of rebels being captured or killed. However large the rebel force is, it has managed to tie up between 80,000 and 100,000 Russian army troops and police.