DATE=10/28/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L)
NUMBER=2-255579
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian forces have staged a second day of
intensive air raids in Chechnya, and vowed to encircle
the capital, Grozny, by early next month. V-O-A
Moscow Correspondent Peter Heinlein reports Chechnya's
president has appealed to the Pope to intervene in the
fighting.
TEXT: Officials say Russian warplanes flew nearly 100
missions over Chechnya Thursday, raining bombs and
rockets on suspected rebel targets. It was the second
day the bombing had reached that level.
Reports from Grozny indicate a city in panic.
Residents were fleeing to surrounding villages to
escape the steady stream of air attacks.
Russian ground forces are closing in on the capital,
and one general was quoted as saying 80-percent of the
escape routes have already been sealed.
A Reuters correspondent reported Russian tanks were
shelling the main road leading out to neighboring
Ingushetia. Most of the 180-thousand people who fled
Chechnya when the Russian invasion began used that
road.
Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev, during a visit to the
main Russian base in the region, said troops are
establishing permanent bases in Chechnya.
/// SERGEYEV ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER ///
He says, "We are serious, and nobody should doubt it.
We plan to stay here forever."
As the noose tightened around Grozny, Chechen
President Aslan Maskhadov sent a letter to Pope John
Paul, asking the Roman Catholic Church leader to use
his influence to stop the Russian offensive. He said
Muslim countries had failed to help.
The Chechen leader said more than three-thousand-200
civilians have been killed since Russian planes began
bombing raids in early September, adding "Grozny has
been transformed into ruins".
In a related development, two western reporters are
said to have been taken into custody by Russian
soldiers in the region. Reuters quotes a driver in
Ingushetia as saying his car was stopped Thursday as
he approached a Russian roadblock at the Chechen
border.
The report says the driver was allowed to go, but his
two passengers, British reporter Anthony Lloyd of the
Times newspaper of London and freelance U-S
photographer Tyler Hicks were detained. Western
diplomatic missions have strongly advised their
citizens not to travel to Chechnya. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/JWH/ltd/gm/
28-Oct-1999 14:17 PM EDT (28-Oct-1999 1817 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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