Russian, Chechen Leaders Sign Pact To End Their War But The Political Status Of Chechnya Remains Uncertain

Russian and Chechen leaders signed a peace pact Sunday proclaiming an end to the 7-month-old war that shattered both the breakaway southern republic and the democratic image of Russia’s post-Communist leaders.

Both sides hailed the military accord as a breakthrough in ending a bitter conflict that has left 20,000 people dead. But the agreement mostly reiterated terms for a ceasefire, exchange of prisoners and eventual disarmament and withdrawal of forces worked out by negotiators more than a month ago.

The decision finally to deliver a formal settlement after weeks of claiming that the war was virtually over appeared to be an acknowledgment by both Chechen and Russian negotiators that they have hit an impasse in talks aiming to define Chechnya’s political status, the issue at the heart of the deadly dispute.

Russian negotiators even insisted on a footnote being attached to the sheaf of detailed documents signed early Sunday stating that Moscow considers Chechnya’s 1991 proclamation of independence “unconstitutional,” said Sandor Meszaros, an official of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which mediated the peace talks in the ruined Chechen capital of Grozny.

President Boris N. Yeltsin sent federal troops and armor into Chechnya on Dec. 11 to crush the revolt by forces loyal to rebel leader Dzhokar M. Dudayev.

Separate negotiations on the outstanding political issues are to resume Thursday.

“We have now legally confirmed the end of the war in Chechnya,” Usman Imayev, the chief negotiator for Dudayev’s guerrillas, told journalists in Grozny after the two sides signed the peace pact.

Newly appointed Russian Interior Minister Anatoly S. Kulikov also cast the accord as a long-awaited settlement, although he acknowledged that in the absence of agreement on Chechnya’s political future there could be attempts by renegade elements to undermine it.

“These decisions will probably not be met with delight by everyone in Grozny and in the mountains and in Moscow,” Kulikov, who served as commander of Russian forces in Chechnya for much of the war, said during a news conference broadcast by state-run television. “But we participants in the talks are unanimous: Peace must be paramount.”

Chechen commander Gen. Aslan Maskhadov, seated beside Kulikov at the press conference, said, “In this war, there were no winners.” But he added that the truce would ensure that “in the future, disputes between Russia and Chechnya will not be resolved by use of force.”

The Russian government’s chief negotiator, Nationalities Minister Vyacheslav A. Mikhailov, described the agreement as “a very important step … along the way to peace.”

Referring to the two sides’ optimistic comments, political and military observers said that both were making a virtue of necessity.

“This result can hardly be called a success. It is rather an awkward face-saving conclusion of talks which both sides knew from the beginning couldn’t resolve some of the most important issues,” said Andrei V. Vasilevsky, vice president of the independent Panorama analytical center.

Even Yeltsin’s adviser on security matters, Yuri M. Baturin, acknowledged that the military accord was a fallback measure.

“If we don’t succeed in coming to an agreement on the entire complex of issues, both political and economic, then it is essential to begin with the block (of military issues) agreement has already been reached on,” Baturin told Russian Public Television.