GUDERMES, August 29 (RIA Novosti) - Fifty militants have turned themselves in to authorities in Chechnya's second largest city, law enforcement agencies said Tuesday.
After the July 10 death of Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the Beslan school massacre and other atrocities, the Kremlin declared an amnesty until August 1 for militants across the North Caucasus to lay down their arms in return for an objective investigation. The deadline was later extended until September 30.
The 50 militants surrendered in Gudermes after receiving guarantees provided by the republic's prime minister, Ramzan Kadyrov. He said the group included Arbi Khabayev, head of the criminal investigation department of the so-called Republic of Ichkeria, the separatist name for Chechnya.
Other militants who laid down their arms included Ruslan Israpilov, who once was thought to command 100 gunmen, and Ali Suleimanov, commander of a battalion previously under separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov's command. Maskhadov was killed in an operation in March 2005.
Kadyrov, the son of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed president of Chechnya who was assassinated in 2004, said there were 50 to 60 militants still at large who could not be amnestied because they had been involved in killing women and children.
Sporadic fighting in Chechnya - although the active phase of the anti-terrorism campaign has been declared over - has hampered efforts to rebuild housing and infrastructure, create jobs and incite separatists to return to peaceful life in the republic after a decade of warfare.
