DATE=11/24/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHEN REFUGEES
NUMBER=5-44831
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=CHECHEN-INGUSH BORDER
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian military officials say they control
nearly half of Chechnya and want refugees to return to
live in Russian-controlled zones. But reports of
indiscriminate attacks on civilians and widespread
looting of homes is strengthening Chechen resistance
to Russian rule. Correspondent Eve Conant reports the
truth is elusive, as there is no independent
confirmation of stories making their way out of
Cehchnya.
TEXT: Chechen refugee Mariana Zamayevo looks
disgusted when asked if she's heard of a radio program
called "Radio Free Chechnya." She says she will not
listen to Russian propaganda, she will only listen to
the man Moscow calls a terrorist warlord.
/// Act Zamayevo in Russian in full and fade under ///
She says I do not believe any of it -- I believe
Shamil Basayev, and those who are truly fighting for
our people."
Radio Free Chechnya is one of the techniques Russian
officials seem to be using to entice refugees to
populate Russian controlled areas of Chechnya.
/// NAT sound up and under Radio Free Chechnya -
classical music, then "Commentary" ///
Calming music broadcast by Radio Free Chechnya, and
then commentary sympathetic to Russia's war effort.
Moscow's point of view can also be heard on the
streets of Ingushetia, where Russian soldiers mill
about outside their tanks waiting for orders to enter
Chechnya. A Russian Lieutenant Colonel - who would
not give his name - says it is the West that is guilty
of propaganda.
/// Act Vassily in Russian in full and fade under ///
He says there is a lot of talk in the West. The West
does not like what we are doing, but no one is killing
civilians.
But refugees fleeing the barrage of artillery and
shells say thousands of civilians have already died.
Twenty-five-year old Rumisa Zuhairayova says Russian
soldiers are killing Chechens point blank, looting
their homes, and detaining Chechen men of fighting
age.
/// ACT ZUHAIRAYOVA IN RUSSIAN IN FULL - FADE UNDER///
She says they are taking away the men and we do not
know where - we are afraid to go back to our homes in
the so-called `liberated territories' - the soldiers
are taking away the men and raping the girls.
An old woman who calls herself Baba Zoya, or
grandmother Zoya says support is growing for the
Chechen fighters that Moscow calls terrorists. She
grabs a little boy and makes him stand in front of
her. She says the boy would give up his life for the
men Moscow wants dead.
/// ACT ZOYA IN RUSSIAN IN FULL AND FADE UNDER ///
She says this child is already shouting `Allah Akhbar'
- God is Great and long live Chechen fighters `Shamil
Basayev,' `Salman Raduyev'". She says -- see what we
have come to? Now when we see the Russian uniform we
can not stand to look at it.
Baba Zoya stands in the middle of a muddy street
wearing black rubber boots and a green headscarf. She
says this is the third time she has been labeled an
enemy of Russia, the first being in 1944 when Joseph
Stalin accused Chechens of collaborating with the
Nazis and deported the entire nation to Kazakhstan.
/// SECOND ACT ZOYA IN RUSSIAN IN FULL - FADE ///
She says when I was a little girl they called me a
traitor, and now as an old woman I am supposedly a
terrorist? She says Russia just wants to take our
small nation and destroy it.
But the old man standing by her side is more
optimistic about the conflict. In a shaky voice he
explains the war will end with what he calls -- the
full victory of the Chechen people in our homeland.
(SIGNED)
NEB/EC/GE/RAE
24-Nov-1999 11:17 AM EDT (24-Nov-1999 1617 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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