Russians Blast Grozny As Street Battles Rage In Chechen Capital
Farhan Siddiqui
MOSCOW, Dec 20, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) Russian warplanes and
artillery maintained a merciless barrage against Grozny overnight as
federal troops fought street battles in the Chechen capital in a bid to
cut off rebel fighters.
Forty rebel fighters were killed in air strikes and artillery fire in
the past 24 hours, the state-run ORT television said early Monday,
citing the Russian military command for the Chechnya operation.
Grozny remained completely surrounded and federal troops were
maintaining heavy pressure on the Pervomaiskaya and Oktyabrskoye
districts of Grozny and the Stariye Atagi settlement south of the
capital.
Up to 40,000 civilians are believed trapped by the fighting in the
besieged Chechen capital, whose defenders are coming under increasing
pressure from advancing Russian forces who invaded the rebel republic
on October 1.
Officials at the main Russian military headquarters base in Mozdok,
North Ossetia, told AFP on Sunday that heavy fighting was raging in
Grozny's southern Chernorechiye district, which is partially under
Russian control.
Clashes were also reported in the Staraya Sunzha area on the
northeastern edge of the city.
Chechen military sources told another AFP correspondent in Shali, just
southeast of the capital, that the loss of the two areas would be a
major setback as they adjoined wooded areas which provided cover for
escape.
Moscow has already moved into the northwestern Staropromylsovskaya
suburb and Khankala on the eastern edge of the city, although clashes
continued Sunday around the latter area.
Meanwhile in the former rebel bastion of Urus-Martan, 20 kilometers (12
miles) southwest of Grozny, pro-Moscow battalions of Chechen volunteers
were being recruited, the private NTV television station reported.
Russian troops were shown handing out assault rifles, documents and
uniforms to dozens of Chechen men.
"The Chechen problem cannot be solved without Chechens. Without Chechen
volunteer groups Grozny cannot be liberated," one volunteer said.
Russian Chief-of-Staff General Anatoly Kvashnin revealed that direct
peace talks had taken place with top members of Chechen President Aslan
Maskhadov's government.
"There have been contacts with representatives of (Maskhadov's)
cabinet, two deputy premiers and a few ministers," Kvashnin said after
returning overnight to the Moscow region from the northern Caucasus.
"We were blunt: they (the Chechens) must completely accept" the
conditions laid down by Moscow, ITAR-TASS quoted the general as saying
Sunday. There could be no negotiations, he added.
Russia insists that Chechnya accept Moscow's rule and hand
over "terrorists" it blames for a wave of apartment block blasts in
September in Russian cities that killed 292 people.
The patriotic fervor sparked in Russia by the Chechen campaign
propelled the pro-Kremlin Unity bloc to the top of Sunday's nationwide
elections to the Russian parliament, with a third of the vote counted.
The strong showing by a party barely two months old underscored Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin's position as the leading contender to replace
Boris Yeltsin in next June's presidential elections. Putin has won
unprecedented popularity thanks to his tough stance on Chechnya.
In the southern Chechen mountains, Russian warplanes and attack
helicopters pummeled rebel strongholds, including Itum-Kale in the far
south, and Vedeno, Tsa-Vedeno and Kharachoi in the southeast, Chechen
sources said.
The local population has had to flee their homes to take refuge in
neighboring forests, since their dwellings had no underground cellars
to use as bomb shelters, the sources said.
Most Chechen fighters have retreated south into the mountain region
that proved so inhospitable to Russian forces during the 1994-96 war,
when Moscow was defeated after rebels organized deadly counter-attacks.
Russia has captured all the lowlands in Chechnya apart from the
capital, and has seized a key road on the Chechen-Georgia border in a
bid to cut off the rebel bases.
Moscow does not control the entire 80-kilometer (50-mile) long
frontier, a key supply route for the rebels, but the remote mountain
paths are often impassable in winter. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
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