MOSCOW, May 4 (UPI) -- A group of nearly 40 Chechen rebels voluntarily surrendered their weapons Saturday after receiving an amnesty agreement with
Russia that provides a first step toward reintegration into Chechnya's civil
society.
As the largest group by far to take advantage of the arrangement, the move could mark a significant turnaround in Chechnya's pro-Kremlin administration's effort to persuade rebels to abandon fighting for independence and return to peace.
The 37 Chechens turned in their arms in the village of Tsentoroi in the province's Kurchaloi district before the provincial chief Akhmad Kadyrov and
the Russian troops' commander, Gen. Vladimir Moltenskoi.
Last fall, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to the guerrillas to hand over their arms to Chechen authorities in exchange for a full, step-by-step reintegration into society.
The only condition required of the rebels is to be able to prove they had not committed any violent crimes while fighting in the separatists' ranks.
However, Putin's plea was largely ignored by the rebels who shyly established contacts with pro-Kremlin authorities, mostly through relatives living in areas controlled by federal troops.
With the greater part of the Chechen territory under Russian control, the rebels' tactics changed as they shifted from head-to-head clashes to bombings and ambushes, inflicting new casualties among Russian troops on a daily basis.
Saturday's surrender, however, may have been triggered by recent news reports of Russia's success in dealing with the most notorious gang leaders, whose deaths may have demoralized the fighters.
Last week, Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB, presented video footage depicting Jordanian-born mercenary Khattab lying motionless on the ground with his aides apparently performing a religious rite before burial.
A spokesman for the FSB claimed that Khattab was dead, though there was no actual corpse that could confirm the claim, and the videotape immediately sparked comments about its veracity. Earlier this week the Russian Prosecutor General's Office stated that as long as there was no body it would not close
a criminal investigation into the crimes Khattab was suspected of committing.
These included deadly ambushes on convoys of Russian troops that left hundreds of servicemen dead, as well as Khattab's video-taped executions of captured Russian soldiers.
Moreover, Khattab was considered to be the chief distributor of cash flowing
into Chechnya from generous donors in Arab countries who sponsored the region's separatist bid.
However, the news about Khattab's death was soon confirmed by his aides and on Wednesday, the rebel's family in Abu-Dhabi released a statement saying that Khattab had died of poisoning minutes after he opened a letter brought by an unidentified messenger in March.
The statement added that the warlord had been buried in Chechnya at an undisclosed location, confirming that the footage shown by the FSB was not a
fake.
Only days later, Russian Chief of General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin told reporters that another odious warlord Shamil Basayev had been killed, promising to submit evidence to support the claim.
No proof confirming Basayev's death has been shown yet, but analysts think that -- if proven -- it could undermine the morale of the majority of the remaining guerrillas for whom the two warlords epitomized endurance in the standoff with Russian troops.
Basayev has been one of the most sought-after Chechen rebels after his July 1995 raid on a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk when his
men killed 147 people and wounded 400 more.
He also has been known for his cruelty toward fellow Chechens who were loyal
to the Kremlin.
In recent months, he made rare appearances as news reports often spoke about
his failing health that kept deteriorating because of numerous wounds sustained in the fighting.
Some analysts argue that Basayev may have died of septicemia caused by an amputated foot.
In February 2000, Basayev stepped on a mine as his rebels were retreating from the Chechen capital Grozny's Zavodskoi district. Basayev's foot was injured in the blast and later amputated in a makeshift field hospital.
However, lack of appropriate medicine suggested that the infection may have spread further through the rebel's body causing eventually his death.