GROZNY. Feb 25 (Interfax-AVN) - About ten rebels laid down their arms and gave themselves up in Chechnya last weekend.
"In the past 24 hours alone, Mazayev, born in 1980, gave himself up in the Kurchaloi district, Khasarov, born in 1972, in Grozny's Zavodskoi district, Madayev, born in 1973, in the Shali district, and Iluptanov, born in 1979, in Shali. There were a total of about ten such rebels last weekend," a source with the regional headquarters for the counter-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
The source said the rebels gave the following explanation for their move: "We got sick and tired of hiding in the mountains and living in dugouts, being outlaws and committing terrorist attacks which harm our fellow-countrymen."
According to them, over 60 percent of rebels in the mountains are in need of medical aid. In particular, they suffer from respiratory diseases, tuberculosis, pneumonia and frostbites. "Only field commanders capable of paying huge sums of money are taken out of Russia for treatment, the rest are dying like flies in the mountains," one of the surrendered rebels said.