DATE=11/18/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L UPDATE)
NUMBER=2-256322
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian troops have captured a key town in
western Chechnya without firing a shot. V-O-A's Peter
Heinlein in Moscow also reports Russian jets are
keeping up a punishing aerial blitz on the Chechen
capital, Grozny.
TEXT: Even as the U-N High Commissioner for Refugees
toured squalid camps in Ingushetia, Russian warplanes
were pounding towns and villages just across the
border in Chechnya.
A spokesman Thursday said jets carried out 50 sorties
overnight, while helicopters made 30 more. Grozny has
been heavily bombed for days.
A Reuters news agency correspondent near the capital
says gunfire is becoming increasingly loud, indicating
ground troops are closing in.
Meanwhile, federal troops captured Achkoi-Martan, a
town on Chechnya's western border that was earlier a
target of artillery and rocket attacks.
Correspondents on the scene said no shots were fired,
and Russian television showed the commander of federal
troops in western Chechnya, General Vladimir Shamanov
addressing several hundred residents in a town square.
/// SHAMANOV ACT - IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER
///
He says, "Before you stands a general that is tired of
war. Why are we afraid of each other? Let us say
`enough,' and solve our differences quietly, in
peace."
The capture of Achkoi Martan follows by several days
the return to federal control of Chechnya's second
city, Gudermes.
Meanwhile, Russian officials kept up a steady stream
of information Thursday aimed at showing progress in
restoring normality to Russian-controlled parts of
Chechnya.
A senior Interior Ministry official told reporters
police forces loyal to Moscow are being organized in
the northern one-third of Chechnya that was captured
by federal forces in the early days of the offensive.
However, the general admitted it is difficult to allow
Chechens to join the police, because of the risk of
rebel fighters infiltrating the ranks.
With international condemnation of the war coming from
the O-S-C-E summit in Istanbul, a newly released
public opinion survey indicates two-thirds of Russians
solidly back the military offensive. The poll,
published by the state-run ITAR-Tass news agency, also
found nearly 50 percent of those questioned favor
continuing the war until the Chechen rebels are
completely crushed.
Tass did not say when the survey was taken, but said
the sample included two-thousand people from 41 of
Russia's 89 regions. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/JWH/JP
18-Nov-1999 11:53 AM EDT (18-Nov-1999 1653 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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