Chechen officials hold talks in Norway with exiled rebel leader

A top government official and exiled separatists from Russia's war-ravaged Chechnya region have met for the first time this week for peace talks, a participant said Wednesday.

"The talks have taken place this week. They will resume tomorrow," Ivar Amundsen, director of the Chechnya Peace Forum, a human rights organisation, told AFP.

Amundsen said the talks were happening in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, but declined to reveal the exact location of the meeting.

The chairman of the Chechen parliament, Dukhvakha Abdurakhmanov, was among those present.

Akhmed Zakayev, the self-declared prime minister of the unrecognized Chechen government in exile in London, and his foreign minister Osman Ferzaouli, also took part in the talks.

The aim of the talks is to bring about long-term stability in the volatile Caucasus republic, ravaged by two separatist conflicts in 1994-1996 and in 1999-2009, and where low-level insurgency continues.

"The tone of the meetings has been very positive, very constructive," said Amundsen, who declined to comment on specific issues discussed by the parties.

The idea of the talks was suggested by Amundsen six months ago, after Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov declared that long-term political stability in Chechnya could not be achieved without the involvement of Zakayev.

"This meeting is especially significant because Kadyrov approved it, which means Moscow has approved it," said Amundsen.

A press conference with all the parties attending the talks will take place in Oslo on Friday.

Meanwhile, Dukhvakha Abdurakhmanov refuted the reports in the media and said he was in Grozny, Chechnya, not in Oslo.

“I am chairing a parliamentary session right now, I haven’t left the republic and haven’t held talks with anyone,” he was quoted by Itar Tass as asying.