Rebel Zakayev May Return Home - Chechen Leader

MOSCOW (AFP)--Leading Chechen separatist Akhmed Zakayev, who has been granted asylum by U.K., can return to Chechnya, the Caucasian republic's pro-Russian leader Ramzan Kadyrov said in an interview published Tuesday.

"Zakayev himself once offered to return, he telephoned me and I talked to him... He must overcome himself and his fear, but if we want to end this war, we must be able to forgive and so must bring back people," Kadyrov told the state Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily.

"I have already brought back from Europe two (rebel) agents, and they came and saw that no one will stop them here from praying, building mosques and having a peaceful life," Kadyrov said, adding that he had a job in mind for Zakayev.

"Zakayev is nothing as a warrior, but he is a good actor and a well-educated man. We have a theater in Grozny, and he could act there again or be chief of Grozny's concert hall. So there is a job for him in the culture ministry, I confirm that," he explained.

Moscow claims Zakayev has been involved in mass terrorist acts during Chechnya's violent independence struggle, which broke out after the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse and still continues in a sporadic, low-level way.

Zakayev currently lives in the U.K., where he has political refugee status. U.K. authorities refuse to extradite him, citing lack of evidence and worries about the integrity of the Russian judicial system.