DATE=11/10/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L)
NUMBER=2-256013
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Chechnya's leader has made an urgent plea for
peace talks -- as Russian air and artillery forces
continue to pound targets throughout the breakaway
republic. Moscow Correspondent Eve Conant also
reports a European security mission is in neighboring
Ingushetia to assess the growing crisis of refugees
from Chechnya.
TEXT: Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov issued an
appeal urging the world community to prevent what he
called the -- elimination of Chechnya's people. But
Russian forces show no intention of halting intensive
bombing raids.
Russian military sources say they unleashed a fresh
wave of rocket attacks against rebel positions outside
the capital, Grozny, as well as in Chechnya's southern
regions.
A delegation from the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (O-S-C-E) is visiting
neighboring Ingushetia to assess the condition of
almost 200-thousand refugees. Many of them are living
in makeshift refugee camps as freezing temperatures
and snow set in.
Russia says it can cope with the refugee influx. But
aid organizations say the region is on the verge of a
humanitarian catastrophe. Eyewitness news reports
said the sound of shelling could be heard as the O-S-
C-E team toured one refugee camp.
There is little sign the tens-of-thousands of refugees
will be able to return home soon. In a newspaper
interview Wednesday, a leading Russian commander,
Viktor Kazantsev, said refugee figures were
exaggerated to embarrass Russia, and civilians are not
suffering from the bombing raids.
General Kazantsev said if he were allowed to use
massive force he could -- flatten Chechnya with bombs
-- within one week. Instead he said, what he called -
- Moscow's anti-terrorist operation -- could take one
to three-years to complete. (SIGNED)
NEB/EC/JWH/RAE
10-Nov-1999 11:22 AM EDT (10-Nov-1999 1622 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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