27.01.2000 15:00
ON THE PROGRESS OF THE ANTI-TERRORIST OPERATION IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
SERGEI V. YASTERZHEMBSKY - Acting RF President assistant on informational-analytical work of federal executive organs engaged in the conducting of an anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Let's begin with the operational information provided by the Defence and Interior Ministries and other departments.
The Joint Grouping of federal forces is carrying out its combat tasks, above all, in Grozny. The troops and teams of the Chechen militia are moving into downtown Grozny and patrolling the liberated regions. The units deployed in the mountain part of the republic waged battles to occupy favourable lines. The settlement of Nizhni Kurchali was blockaded today, with over 80 bandits, a weapons and munitions depot and ten cross-country vehicles liquidated in the past day. The frontline aviation made 70 flights.
The illegal armed formations were mostly fighting for the part of Grozny still under their control and the entry to the Argun gorge, and waged defence battles in the Nozhai-Yurt and Sharoi districts. At the same time, the fighters are preparing for subversion and terrorist acts in the flat part of Chechnya. To lessen their losses the leaders of bandit groups blockaded in Grozny are constantly regrouping. In doing this, they use their knowledge of the city and underground communications.
Like the day before, the group of the Russian Interior Ministry deployed in the Chechen Republic continued to check passports in the liberated settlements. They detained 23 criminals, nine of them on the federal wanted list, confiscated nine firearms, 15,000 munitions and 10 kg of explosives, rendered harmless 14 explosive devices, liquidated 31 mini-factories producing fuel and lubricants, and checked over 5,000 cars and over 21,000 citizens.
Measures are being taken to ensure the operation of law-enforcement bodies in Chechnya. The provisional Interior Ministry departments, manned by the staff of the Main Department of the Interior Ministry and other ministry departments from Russia, are operating in 11 regions, including Nadterechny, Naursky, Shelkovskoi, Achkhoi-Martan, Gudermes, rural Grozny, Urus-Martan, Shali, Kurchaloi, Nozhai-Yurt and Argun regions.
Now for the information provided by the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russia. The prosecutor offices are being established in the liberated regions of Chechnya, and such offices have been already working in the Naursky, Nadterechny, Shelkovskoi, Gudermes, Achkhoi-Martan, Urus-Martan, Nozhai-Yurt, Vedeno and rural Grozny regions. These offices are being provided with more staff and technical equipment. The investigation group of the Main Department of the Prosecutor Office in the North Caucasus is investigating the case provisionally called "The War".
Over 500 people have been detained and arrested on suspicion of participation in the illegal armed formations and commitment of other grave crimes. The cases involving Aslan Lulayev, Musa Israilov and Andrei Puzankov have been completed and will be soon forwarded to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. Aslan Lulayev and Musa Israilov are accused of participation in illegal armed formations. The Interior Ministry staff in the Urus-Martan region confiscated Kalashnikov submachine guns, a grenade- thrower, and a considerable amount of munitions and special equipment, including silencers, from them. It was proved without doubt that Lulayev took part in fighting the federal forces in Abdulla's group outside the village of Duba-Yurt.
Privates Aleksei Alekseyev and Denis Lazarev were liberated during a special operation, held by the law-enforcement bodies of the Naursky Region with an active participation of regional Prosecutor Vitaly Tkachev.
This is the first time that we provide information about the operation of the Russian Ministry of Justice in the North Caucasus. The Ministry has a group of 1,362 in the region, who ensure the checkpoint regime, guard and defend temporary detention wards at military commandant offices. They also guard, defend and ensure the proper work of the temporary detention wards, convoy the detained, and join the mobile groups to check passports and guard administrative facilities.
This group independently confiscated some 100 firearms, about 2,000 munitions, 180 kg of explosives, and over 48 kg of drugs. There are 198 inmates in the temporary detention ward in the settlement of Chernokozovo. In all, 316 people had been held in this detention ward since the beginning of the counter-terrorist operation. Of these, 98 were released after a proper check, and 20 were convoyed out of Chechnya. Four staffers of the Russian Ministry of Justice died in Chechnya.
A few words about the operation of the Federal Frontier Service. The situation on the Russian-Georgian border was stable, and three Russian citizens, who were trying to cross the Russian-Azerbaijani border, were detained in the past day.
I would like to say a few words about some publications and reports in the mass media. Here is what NTV reported at 8 a.m.: "More troops are being dispatched to Chechnya. According to some estimates, 100,000 troops have been concentrated there. Like in the past few years, the Skalpel medical plane has landed at a military base in the North Caucasus. The appearance of this plane has always been a sign of heavy losses". Vladimir Shpak of the Vremya-MN newspaper reported that the federal group in Chechnya had been reinforced to 140,000. This is not true. There are only 57,000 troops of the Defence Ministry and 36,000 troops of the Interior Ministry in Chechnya.
As for the Skalpel plane, it is being used by the medical units of the armed forces on a regular basis, namely to deliver the ill and wounded from the hospitals of the Joint Grouping of forces and the North-Caucasian Military District. It makes regular flight there.
The BBC reported on January 24 that the concern of the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers over the health of those servicemen who take part in the operation in the North Caucasus was logical. The report said that virtually all Russian servicemen suffer from dysentery and hepatitis, but they are not hospitalised. This is not true. Indeed, some servicemen have colds and stomach diseases, and a few are down with hepatitis. Compared to the disease situation in the regular troops deployed in stationary conditions, the disease occurrence in Chechnya is lower.
Next I would like to say a few words about the article in Obshchaya Gazeta. I will not go into detail. I will just say that Major General Mikhail Malofeyev was recommended for the highest Russian military decoration, Hero of the Russian Federation (posthumously).
Some publications concern the first briefing of the main newsmakers of the Information Centre, held yesterday. One of them says that "Yastrzhembsky has been set the task of making censorship more strict and of filtering information provided by the journalists who visit Chechnya". I have never filtered, and will not filter, any information. My task is quite different: to streamline a scheme of visits to the liberated regions of Chechnya and to the positions of the federal troops. I must also deal with accreditation problems and create additional opportunities for getting information directly on the frontline. This is why we created a shift press centre, because the press service of the Joint Grouping of forces does not have any means of transportation of its own. Since there are up to 70 journalists in Mozdok, the press service cannot promptly fulfil all their requests. This is why we decided to create the shift press centre in Khankala, several metres away from the headquarters of Commander Kazantsev.
I was told today that the press centre in Mozdok was given the premises. I hope that we will provide requisite equipment to it next week, so that you will have the possibility to directly phone Moscow and other Russian cities, something that we could not ensure before.
A few words about censorship. Censorship is prohibited by the Russian legislation. I am a law-abiding citizen and hence will not censor your materials.
Here is one more NTV report, which quoted the APTN agency. It said that a new directive had been issued by the Russian authorities to limit the provision of foods and basic necessities to the migrant camps in Ingushetia. The agency believes this was done to make Chechen migrants return to the liberated regions as soon as possible. This is presented as an operation designed to push migrants back into Chechnya. The APTN and NTV are wrong: these rumours are completely untrue. The provision of humanitarian assistance has not been stopped or reduced. Here are the figures to prove my point: A total of 8,844 tonnes of humanitarian assistance was delivered to the region, including by the Ministry of Emergencies, on January 27, or roughly as much as in the previous weeks. For example, the figure for January 21 was 8,518 tonnes. Not only the Ministry of Emergencies delivers humanitarian aid, but also some other Russian departments, as well as foreign charity organisations. In particular, 130 tonnes of humanitarian cargoes will be delivered from a German charity organisation to the North Caucasus today, including foods, medicines and dressing materials. A convoy of 15 KamAZ trucks arrived in the capital of North Ossetia by midday, and will be sent to Ingushetia.
And the last commentary concerns references to the opinion of General Arkady Baskayev of the Interior Troops. I mean the information carried by Izvestia on January 24 and the general's appearance in the Vox Populi programme on NTV. I respect General Baskayev, but he is a nominal Commander of the Interior Troops. He has been on leave since August last year, when the Duma election campaign began in Russia. He sent the corresponding reports to the leaders of the Interior Ministry and has not commanded the troops since then. But no order was issued on his dismissal from the post. Naturally enough, if the General has not visited the troops since August last year, he can hardly be regarded as a major newsmaker, because he has no operational information.
RADIO LIBERTY: Do you know what happened to Andrei Babitsky? Do you have fresh information about him?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Regrettably, I have no fresh information yet.
TV-CENTRE: How many fighters are there in Grozny, and how many bandit chieftains are there in Grozny, Shatoi and the Argun Gorge?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: We think there are some 2,500-3,000 fighters in Grozny. Regrettably, I cannot tell you where each chieftain is fighting now. I think this is important information and will give a detailed answer next time.
MAYAK RADIO STATION: What is happening in Strasbourg?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov delivered a speech there, and other delegates and MPs addressed the PACE session, too. Opinions differ, which is logical. The Russian delegation reaffirms Russia's stand on all key issues of fundamental significance. We are waiting for the decision now. I think it will be a balanced decision.
VOICE OF RUSSIA: Lord Judd called on the conflict parties to cease fire and to launch full-scale negotiations, proceeding from the assumption that the problem cannot be resolved in the military way. Will you comment, please?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Igor Ivanov reaffirmed Russia's stand on the problem. The developments in Chechnya cannot be described as a conflict; this is a wrong legal definition. Russia is waging an operation to liquidate an enclave of international terrorism and illegal bandit terrorist formations there, which threaten not Russia alone. This is why the goals and tasks set by the political leadership of the country to the Joint Grouping of forces will be achieved and carried out in full. There are no leaders on the other side with whom Russia could negotiate.
SPANISH NEWSPAPER EL CORREO: Will you describe the system of accreditation of foreign correspondents in Mozdok and Khankala?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Journalists will be accredited not in Mozdok or Khankala, but in Moscow, for those who are working in Mozdok and Khankala have no technical facilities or possibilities for establishing a quality and prompt accreditation system. They should fulfil the decisions made here. So, journalists will be accredited in Moscow, and their accreditation will be only reaffirmed in the on-line regime in Mozdok and Khankala.
NEWSWEEK: Can you guarantee us, foreign journalists, that we will have a chance to work on a par with Russian journalists there? You probably know that the military divide Russian and foreign journalists now. I would like to know why, and when will this injustice be stopped?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Of course, we want the Russian mass media to have the greatest possible access to developments in Chechnya, because the opinion of above all Russian people is very important to us. We will try to increase foreign representation there too, especially in those journalists' pools and groups, which will go to Chechnya under different programmes and will travel by different routes there. I am aware of your concern. We will try to open wide the window of possibilities. But I cannot guarantee you anything now.
RADIO LIBERTY: You said yesterday that Maskhadov was not a legitimate president. But Yeltsin and Maskhadov signed a document in May 1997. Isn't there a contradiction between your words and that historical fact?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: No, I don't see any contradiction in this, because there is not just a legal, but also a political logic. From the viewpoint of legal logic, the legitimacy of Maskhadov as the president of Chechnya was highly questionable from the very beginning. Chechnya is a part of the Russian Federation and the head of that subject of the Russian Federation should have been elected in accordance with the Russian Constitution and the existing election laws. Chechnya ignored this condition from the very beginning.
In a manner, there was a striving to ensure, after a long period of confrontation, the solution of these problems with political methods. We still hoped then that Maskhadov, a more moderate and reasonable of the then Chechen leaders, a man with whom one could talk, would dissolve the illegal armed formations with the assistance of the federal centre and launch the gradual economic revival of Chechnya as a member of the Russian Federation.
The Khasavyurt Agreement provided additional legitimacy to Maskhadov, but he ignored that political will of Moscow. One of the glaring examples was the introduction of Shariah norms as the fundamental law in Chechnya. This contradicted the Khasavyurt Agreement, which stipulated the inadmissibility of limiting [the rights of] republican citizens on national, ethnic, religious and other grounds. The adoption of Shariah as the legal base of "the republic of Ichkeria" exploded the Khasavyurt Agreement. Maskhadov made the final step towards losing his legitimacy in August last year, when he allowed the illegal armed formations to invade Daghestan.
OBSHCHAYA GAZETA: It appears that the [presidential] elections will be held in Chechnya. Why should this be done? Who will vote there?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I think [the elections will be organised] for the citizens of the Russian Federation, be they Russians or Chechens, who live in the liberated territories, the safe zones of Chechnya.
NEWSWEEK: A group of my colleagues were arrested in Chechnya on December 30. They were told there were certain rules regulating the movement and presence of foreigners in Chechnya. Regrettably, nobody could show them the rules, which they allegedly must not violate. Do they really exist?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Yes, they do. I can fax them to you. The journalists who come to Mozdok and work under the auspices of the temporary press centre, which is responsible for all correctly accredited journalists, are shown these rules. Moreover, they sign them, thus sealing the fact that they have been informed about these rules. I can admit that those journalists who have not been to Mozdok do not know about these rules. Those journalists who individually came to Chechnya did not know about these rules either. We will make the necessary conclusions from this case and will provide you with these rules here [in Moscow].
NEWSWEEK: Are these rules for foreigners or for everyone?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: For everyone, of course. We make no distinction in this case.
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