DATE=12/14/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHECHNYA OPERATIONS
NUMBER=5-44987
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=NEAR GROZNY, CHECHNYA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian ground forces are said to be meeting
stiff resistance from rebel fighters as they advance
into the Chechen capital, Grozny. Moscow's troops
have had Grozny surrounded for weeks, but have held
back, saying they want to give civilians a chance to
escape. V-O-A's Peter Heinlein has just returned from
a trip to the northern edge of Grozny, where he saw
Russian soldiers poised to strike.
TEXT:
/// SFX OF TANK RUMBLING, THEN UNDER TO... ///
Nineteen-year-old Russian soldier Andrei Borisenko
flashes a toothy grin as he navigates his armored
personnel carrier through fields of mud to what is
known as "the front." Just across the railroad
tracks, a few hundred meters away, lies the northern
Grozny suburb of Tsentora-Yurt, which is ominously
quiet. The streets are deserted.
But the commander of the Russian unit dug in outside
Tsentora-Yurt says he is in no hurry to move into the
town. Colonel Sergei Skiba says Russian soldiers
learned a terrible lesson during the last Chechen war,
suffering heavy casualties when they rolled into the
capital and were caught by local fighters in a deadly
ambush. Colonel Skiba says his boys will not make
the same mistake this time.
/// SKIBA ACT IN RUSSIAN, THEN FADE TO...///
He points toward the houses and says, "In the city
there are gunmen. But we are not attacking, because
we want to avoid unnecessary casualties."
A few kilometers back from the front, Russian General
Vladimir Kavrov expresses confidence that every
precaution is being taken to avoid civilian casualties
as federal troops move to take control of the capital.
/// 1st KAVROV ACT IN RUSSIAN, THEN FADE TO... ///
He says, "Regarding tactics, the troops come up to a
neighborhood, surround it, send in reconnaissance,
then we clear it."
General Kavrov predicts the current war will be far
shorter than the previous one, which lasted 21 months
and cost 80-thousand lives. He says one reason is
that after three years of independence from Moscow,
the Chechen people are disillusioned, and are
welcoming the return of Russian troops.
/// 2ND KAVROV ACT IN RUSSIAN, THEN FADE TO... ///
He says, "People are tired of this lack of order.
Ninety-nine-point-nine percent don't want a war. I am
100-percent sure they want to live in peace."
But refugees from Grozny, standing idle at a
marketplace in the Russian-controlled region of
Chechnya, tell another side of the story. Thirty-
year-old Saipi Magomadov says the order being provided
by Russian troops is no better than the chaos that
prevailed under Chechen rule.
/// MAGOMADOV ACT IN RUSSIAN, THEN FADE TO... ///
He says, "There is no order. That is an insult to
us. It is like the order in a prison. If you do
something wrong, they shoot you."
Zura Taranova, a 41-year-old Grozny resident says she
has been trying to return home for days to check on
loved ones still inside the city. But she has been
kept away by the constant shelling around the city.
/// Taranova act in Russian, then fade to... ///
She says, "Every day they shoot and bomb. I don't
know who is alive there. They don't let anybody in.
They say there is a safe corridor, but in fact there
is no corridor, only words."
It is impossible to know how many civilians remain in
Grozny. General Kavrov estimates the number at four-
thousand. Other Russian sources say there could be as
many as 40-thousand. Whatever the number, the troops
gathered on the outskirts suggest the bombing and
shelling of the city may soon give way to a slow,
neighborhood-by-neighborhood ground invasion.
(Signed)
NEB/PFH/GE/WTW
14-Dec-1999 14:58 PM EDT (14-Dec-1999 1958 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
