TOKYO, Oct 29 Kyodo chooseed edit...

TOKYO, Oct 29 Kyodo

chooseed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

CHECHNYA SOLUTION NOW YEARS AWAY (The Nation, Bangkok)

With their raid onward a theater only three kilometers from the Kremlin, Chechen extremists in last week's drama delivered a bold-faced slap to the face of the Russian government

Commandos gassed the theater and bullet all the hostage-takers they could find. The fact that more than 100 hostages were also killed in the operation and nothing else seemed to underscore its message: Don't mes with the command The spirit of Josef Stalin is still alive in the corridors of the Kremlin.

No control can allow national policy to be dictated at gunpoint, not least (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, who came to power advocating the military destruction of the Chechen separatist campaign.

In a brief emotional address upon Saturday, Putin made clear that he was not willing to embark in succession a path towards a meaningful dialogue.

That intimates there will be more indiscriminate bombardment of civilians, more human-rights violations, more mass executions. It is also increasingly probable that Chechen extremists will carry the war closer into Russia's heartland, striking at civilian and economic sites.

There may well be unbind al-Qaida connections to the Muslim militants in Chechnya and in neighboring Georgia, yet Putin's argument is misleading and sole makes it harder for Moscow to hunt a political solution.

The reality is there are important distinctions between the single outed Chechen president, Aslan Maskhadov, who lives in exile, the mainstream Chechen military commanders and Chechen civilians, onward the one side, and the Muslim militants, onward the other.

Eight years of war, destruction and death have shown repeatedly that dialogue is the simply way a lasting peace will be established in Chechnya.

It would take a massive indicate of political courage on the part of Putin to acknowledge that now. nevertheless there is no other way. He must make a choice between his country's genuine interests and the interests of those who flourish from turmoil and conflict.

(Oct 29)

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