More Russian Soldiers Leaving Chechnya March 10, 2003 By ANNA MELNICHUK
MOSCOW (AP) - A train carrying Russian soldiers and military hardware pulled out of war-ravaged Chechnya Monday, the final contingent to leave as part of a planned troops reduction ahead of a constitutional referendum this month.
The small withdrawal is part of an intense Kremlin effort to show that security in Chechnya is improving, but fighting persists, as do allegations of abuses by federal troops.
Chechen officials said Monday that Russian forces in two armored personnel carriers opened fire on Chechen police in a village in the Grozny suburbs overnight, killing two police.
Rezvan Masayev, head of the village administration, said federal forces ignored police attempts to stop them at the entrance to Staraya Sunzha and opened fire when another Chechen police patrol set off alarm rockets. After wounding two police, the Russian soldiers got out of their vehicle and allegedly killed the wounded police, Masayev said.
Ilgan Samigulin, head of the local police department, said the soldiers came from Russia's main Khankala military base near the capital Grozny. ``The question is if they ever will be handed over to us,'' he said.
Russian officials have insisted that all troops who commit crimes against Chechen civilians will face punishment. But the process has been slow-moving and the abuses have alienated even Chechens who do not support the separatists.
Meanwhile, more than 700 soldiers and some ten pieces of military equipment left by train from the Khankala base, escorted by two armored trains, according to Russian news reports.
``A missile division and several military units were withdrawn today, as well as redundant military equipment and weapons,' the Interfax news agency cited Col. Yuri Kostrovets, deputy commander of the combined federal forces in the Northern Caucasus, as saying.
It was the third and final contingent of federal forces pulled out of Chechnya in recent days, part of the government's pledge last week to immediately withdraw 1,270 troops and 200 pieces of military hardware.
The withdrawal represents only a small part of the Russian forces currently deployed in Chechnya, which military officials say is 80,000, but some estimate at 100,000.
It comes ahead of a March 23 referendum on new constitution that will subordinate this small southern republic to Russian federal law. Russian officials have said the constitution will provide a legal framework for the Chechen government and pave the way to future elections.
Russia's 1994-96 war in Chechnya ended in a withdrawal and de facto independence for the separatist-led region. Russian troops return in 1999 after rebels launched an incursion into a neighboring region and after apartment-house bombing that Russia blamed on rebels.