VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia, 9 June 2003 — Fighting persisted in Chechnya yesterday, while the Russian military said a man from the southern part of the region became the first to hand in his weapon since the Russian Parliament approved a limited amnesty for rebels who disarm.

At least nine Russian servicemen were killed and 18 others wounded in rebel attacks, firefights and mine explosions in the previous 24 hours, an official in Chechnya’s Moscow-backed government said on condition of anonymity.

Four of the deaths came in rebel attacks on Russian positions, three died in two separate clashes with rebels in southern Chechnya and two died when their military vehicle hit a land mine, also in the south, the official said.

The official said federal forces and Chechen police encircling the town of Argun were preventing people form entering or leaving after a fierce battle Friday and Saturday that the Russians said left at least 20 servicemen, rebels and civilians dead.

Authorities detained at least 200 people while conducting searches for suspected rebels in southern Chechnya and in and around the capital, Grozny, the official said. Human rights groups have said the search operations are rife with abuses of civilians in the region.

Also yesterday, a spokesman for the Russian military operation in the war-ravaged region said a man who handed in his Kalashnikov became the first Chechen to disarm since the Russian Parliament approved amnesty plan Friday as part of an efforts to bring peace to Chechnya.

Sultan Eskikhanov, a resident of the village of Serzhen-Yurt, in the Shali district southeast of Grozny, contacted authorities through his relatives and surrendered a Kalashnikov assault rifle, the Interfax quoted Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for the military campaign in Chechnya, as saying.

Eskikhanov is barred from leaving the region while authorities verify his claim that he was involved in armed rebel groups but did not take part in kidnappings or terrorist acts, Shabalkin said, according to Interfax. He said the process should take a few days.

The amnesty offers immunity from prosecution to rebels who give up their weapons by Sept. 1 and also applies to federal troops in Chechnya, who are accused by human rights groups of committing widespread abuses against civilians.

Critics say the amnesty will be ineffective because it denies clemency to anybody found to have tried to kill federal police and servicemen, an exception they say could be used broadly against former rebels.

It also does not apply to rebels or soldiers who have committed terrorist acts or particularly grave crimes or to foreigners.

Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya following a devastating 1994-1996 war that left separatists in charge, but they returned in 1999 after Chechnya-based militants invaded a neighboring region and the Kremlin blamed rebels for apartment-building bombings killed 300 people in Moscow and other cities.