DATE=11/5/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHECHNYA VICTIMS
NUMBER=5-44706
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=INGUSHETIA, SOUTHERN RUSSIA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The international community is speaking out in
condemnation of Russia's military offensive in
Chechnya, as news reaches the outside world of
widespread civilian casualties. No independent
figures are available, but reports from witnesses
suggest thousands have been killed since the bombing
began two months ago. Perhaps tens of thousands more
have been wounded. V-O-A Correspondent Peter Heinlein
reports from the neighboring republic of Ingushetia
that hospitals throughout the northern Caucasus
(region) are filled to overflowing with war victims.
TEXT: Russia calls it a war against terrorists. But
refugees pouring out of Chechnya say the massive air
and artillery attacks underway in the breakaway
republic are nothing less than a campaign to wipe out
the Chechen nation.
/// ABDULAYEVA ACT IN RUSSIAN--IN AND FADE UNDER ///
"Russia is just exterminating Chechens. It is
genocide." Thirty-year-old Malika Abdulayeva lies in
one of four beds crammed into a tiny cubicle at the
Sunzhensk district hospital [in Ingushetia]. Her back
and legs are covered with shrapnel wounds.
Ms. Abdulayeva, an elementary-school teacher, weeps as
she recalls the week-long Russian air attacks that
virtually destroyed her home village, Samashki, about
20 kilometers inside Chechnya.
Sunzhensk hospital is crammed with victims of the
attacks on Samashki, and on many other towns and
villages across Chechnya. The hallways and lobbies
have all been turned into wards for war victims.
Almost all tell similar stories of warplanes swooping
low overhead firing rockets at their homes.
And all scoff at Russian suggestions that the rocket
attacks were aimed at rebel fighters.
/// 1st SHAMILOVA ACT IN RUSSIAN--IN AND FADE UNDER ///
Twenty-seven-year-old Tunisha Shamilova says, "They do
not differentiate between children, women, or the
elderly. They just bomb everyone. There are no
terrorists there [in Chechnya]."
Ms. Shamilova's pretty face is dotted blue with
antiseptic from the shrapnel wounds that destroyed one
of her eyes and damaged the other.
She says, after hiding in a basement during days of
heavy bombing, she and her mother went out to gather
firewood -- just as jets roared in and dropped their
deadly load, scoring a direct hit on her mother. Her
two-year-old son was badly wounded.
It was nearly one week before Ms. Shamilova was able
to get through Russian checkpoints to seek medical
aid. She says guards at first refused to let her
pass, telling her, "All Chechens are bandits."
A researcher for Human Rights Watch, James Ron, has
interviewed scores of victims from Samashki. He says
there are strong indications of an indiscriminate and
disproportionate use of force by Russian troops in
Chechnya.
/// RON ACT ///
There are perhaps bandits in Chechnya, but you
can not designate an entire population as
bandits. That is utterly prohibited under the
conventions to which Russia is a signatory.
That is the indiscriminate designation of huge
numbers of people as enemy targets, which is
clearly wrong.
/// END ACT ///
A senior Russian general dismisses Western criticism
of his country's campaign in Chechnya. Deputy army
chief of staff Valery Manilov says foreign media are
exaggerating civilian suffering.
General Manilov told a news conference Friday that
western leaders are basing their impressions of the
war on unconfirmed news accounts.
With the road into Chechnya now controlled by Russian
troops, Western journalists are almost completely
barred from the war zone. Information from inside
Chechnya is based mostly on the accounts of witnesses
and victims.
But interviews with scores of refugees leave no doubt
their anger is real. From her hospital bed, Tunisha
Shamilova vows revenge for the attack that killed her
mother, even if it means that she too will die.
/// 2nd SHAMILOVA ACT IN RUSSIAN--IN AND FADE UNDER ///
She says, "I will myself become a terrorist, if I
manage to survive. If they want to kill all of us, I
would rather resist. It makes no difference how they
kill me. I would rather be dead."
In hospitals, at refugee camps or along the roads of
Ingushetia where tens of thousands of Chechens are
trying to survive, there is seething anger. Over and
over, journalists hear, "Please tell the world. We
are not terrorists and bandits."
As Russia carries out its anti-terrorist campaign in
Chechnya, there seems little doubt it is civilians who
are bearing the brunt of the attacks. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/JWH/WTW
05-Nov-1999 13:14 PM EDT (05-Nov-1999 1814 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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