on-don, Russia, Feb 7, SPA -- A Chechen rebel leader told a Russian newspaper that a unilateral cease-fire he had announced should help pave the way for peace talks with the Kremlin, and an official confirmed Monday that the truce had been holding since the beginning of February. Last month, a rebel Web site carried statements by former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and warlord Shamil Basayev ordering that all offensive actions be halted in February in Chechnya and bordering areas as "a display of good will." Maskhadov, president of Chechnya during its de-facto independence in the late 1990s, said in an interview published Monday that he hoped for an "adequate reaction" from the Russian authorities and added that he had named a spokesman abroad, Umar Khambiyev, head of a delegation for talks with Moscow. "If our Kremlin opponents display sober reason, the war will end at the negotiating table," Maskhadov told the business daily Kommersant.
