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DATE=9/7/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / DAGESTAN (L)
NUMBER=2-253564
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Russian President Boris Yeltsin has lashed out 
at military leaders for failing to stop Islamic rebels 
from advancing into Dagestan.  Moscow correspondent 
Eve Conant reports that Mr. Yeltsin is calling for 
quick and tough measures to expel the militants from 
the southern Russian region.
TEXT:  President Boris Yeltsin, looking angry and 
resolute, personally chaired an emergency session of 
Russia's Security Council. He told his generals to act 
quickly to expel Islamic rebels from Dagestan. 
///Act Yeltsin in Russian in full and fade under///
"So far we have failed to root out this terrorist 
infection," he says. "What we must do now is cut off 
all lines of military, financial, and moral support 
they are receiving from abroad."
The Russian president said the militants could not be 
described as Islamic because they are fighting their 
own people.
///Second Act Yeltsin in Russian in full and fade 
under///
"These terrorists have  no  God and  no  faith," he 
says. "They are degenerates and murderers."
The insurgents are believed to be members of the 
strict Islamic "Wahhabi" sect, who wish to make 
Dagestan, which is predominantly Muslim, an 
independent Islamic state.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Yeltsin accused federal troops 
of "carelessness" for failing to stop hundreds of 
Chechen-led rebels from seizing villages in Dagestan, 
and for allowing a bomb attack at a military housing 
complex that killed more than 60 people.
///Third Act Yeltsin in Russian in full and fade 
under///
He asks, "How did we lose a whole region in Dagestan? 
Why do we have more terrorist attacks in a secure 
military base than in other places?"  Then, in answer 
to his own question, he says, "This is just the 
negligence of the military."
Russia's Defense Ministry has been ordered to capture 
positions on the outskirts of the Karamakhi region by 
the end of the day Tuesday.  The conflict in Dagestan 
is the heaviest fighting Russian troops have faced 
since the 1994 to 1996 civil war in Chechnya. (Signed)
NEB/EC/GE/KL 
07-Sep-1999 13:50 PM EDT (07-Sep-1999 1750 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.