Chechen rebels ask Secretary Powell to intervene

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia -- Rebel leaders in breakaway Chechnya on Saturday asked U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to try to get Russia to end military operations in the village of Mesker-Yurt.\nThe rebels' foreign ministry said in a statement that Russian forces had sealed off Mesker-Yurt for several days to look for rebels and their sympathizers, detaining hundreds of residents and taking them to undisclosed locations in Chechnya.\nHuman rights groups say the security operations often result in torture, beatings and killings. The foreign ministry said 21 people had been shot dead by Russian forces in the Mesker-Yurt operation, but there was no independent confirmation of the claim.\n"Due to the gravity of the situation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria calls on U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to intervene personally to end the atrocities in the town," the ministry said in a statement.\nThe statement urged Powell to contact Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov demand they halt actions in Mesker-Yurt.\nAn official in the Russia-backed administration in Chechnya said a clash Friday left one Russian serviceman and one rebel dead. Six other Russian servicemen were killed in rebel attacks on federal positions and checkpoints and land-mine explosions over the past 24 hours, the official said Saturday on condition of anonymity.\nFederal authorities insist that all military abuses are investigated and punished. On Saturday, the Prosecutor General's office again dismissed allegations that violations against civilians in Chechnya pass without action.\nDeputy Prosecutor General Sergei Frindinsky said there had been 395 investigations opened of crimes against civilians since Russian forces moved into the region, Interfax news agency reported.\nThe rebel statement asking Powell to intervene was in sharp contrast to one issued Thursday condemning remarks by Powell agreeing with Russia's charge that the rebels are terrorists.\nAlso Saturday, a 28-member rebel group surrendered to authorities in the presence of the head of the Moscow-backed administration, khmad Kadyrov. They were given security guarantees in exchange for handing in their weapons.\nRussian forces withdrew from Chechnya after losing the 1994-96 war, leaving the region with de-facto independence. They returned in fall 1999, after rebels raided Dagestan and after a series of apartment house bombings blamed on the rebels killed some 300 people in three Russian cities.