DATE=12/17/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=G-8 / BERLIN SUMMIT (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257251
BYLINE=JONATHAN BRAUDE
DATELINE=BERLIN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The world's leading industrialized nations
stepped up their pressure on Russia Friday to end the
war in Chechnya. The United States and its partners
in the Group of Eight, or G-8 - the major industrial
powers, plus Russia - called for an immediate cease-
fire in Chechnya. But as Jonathan Braude reports from
Berlin, U-S Secretary of State Madeleine Albright
admits there is little the West can do to force
Russia's hand.
TEXT: Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov knew ahead
of time he would face a barrage of criticism from his
G-8 colleagues over Chechnya. Moscow says it is
engaged in a war against bandits in the Caucasus
retgion; the West feels Russia is carrying out a
bloody offensive against Chechen civilians, as well as
rebels holed up in the ruins of the capital, Grozny.
Armed with a report on the situation in Chechnya by
Knud Vollebaek, chairman of the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe, who has just
returned from a fact-finding mission there, G-8
ministers presented Mr.Ivanov with a list of four
demands.
First, they said, there must be a cease-fire. Then
there must be formal contacts between the Chechens and
Moscow, with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov
included in the talks. There must also be a regional
peace conference with the neighboring regions of
Daghestan, Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and an
agreement on delivering humanitarian aid through
effectively-policed, safe corridors.
Mr. Ivanov was unmoved. He rejected a cease-fire, and
made it clear he does not want Western mediation.
But a cease-fire remained the West's key demand.
Without that, Mr. Vollebaek warned, disaster lies
ahead for civilians, who Russian Minister (for
Emergencies) Sergei Shoigu says are still in Grozny.
The O-S-C-E chairman says he will go on pressing for a
cease-fire until the Russians change their minds.
/// VOLLEBAEK ACT ///
I think this is my job, in my capacity as
Chairman of the O-S-C-E, to be insistent in this
good cause, both to save civilian lives --
which is a good cause in itself -- and, if it's
right like Minister Shoigu said that there are
45-thousand people left in Grozny, and the
Russians say they will take Grozny in a matter
of days, then I think we urgently need a cease-
fire. Otherwise, there will be a bloodbath, as
I see it, because there will be major fighting.
Grozny will not fall easily.
/// END ACT ///
The difficulty, as both the G-8 meeting's German
chairman (Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer) and
Secretary Albright agreed, is that the West has little
leverage over the Russians politically, and none
militarily. The only pressure is moral - when it
becomes apparent to the Russians themselves that they
are no longer in the mainstream of international
decision-making.
/// ALBRIGHT ACT ///
The Russians, through their actions, are self-
isolating from the rest of the international
community, and that was clear today ... that
they are losing credibility and international
standing, and as we look at policy options, I
think the important point here is to try to keep
explaining to the Russians what they could and
should be doing and at the same time making sure
in the case of the U-S that we continue to
pursue our national interest, which is to have a
functioning relationship with Russia.
/// END ACT ///
However, despite the joint demand for a cease-fire,
diplomatic sources say the lack of any concrete effort
to pressure Moscow left some delegations dissatisfied,
especially those who were calling for the United
States to halt its export credits to Russia through
the Export Import Bank.
Friday's G-8 meeting broke up without a final joint
communique. Chechnya will continue to dominate the
international agenda at least through Russia's
parliamentary elections at the weekend. (Signed)
NEB/JB/WTW
17-Dec-1999 11:11 AM EDT (17-Dec-1999 1611 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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