In a 21 July statement posted on chechenpress.com, Aslan Maskhadov argued that in the light of the brutality inflicted on Chechens by Russian troops over the past two years and Russia\'s categorical rejection of his repeated offers of peace talks, only the involvement of the international community can bring about an end to the ongoing fighting. Maskhadov explained that independence for Chechnya is not an end in itself, but the only way of ending the past four centuries\' standoff with Russia and of guaranteeing Chechnya\'s security. He said that the Chechen resistance is strong enough to win independence militarily if Russia continues to reject peace talks. Maskhadov said that Russian and European fears that an independent Chechnya would become a hotbed of Islamic terrorism are unfounded. He argued that the proposal drafted at his behest by Foreign Minister Ilyas Akhmadov for ending the war by granting Chechnya \"conditional independence\" under international jurisdiction would guarantee stable democratic development in Chechnya and, by extension, stabilize the entire North Caucasus. (RFE/RL)