DATE=2/7/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA SITREP (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258907
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian officials say federal troops have
killed hundreds of rebel fighters trying to flee to
the mountains of southern Chechnya as government
forces consolidate control of the capital, Grozny.
Correspondent Peter Heinlein in Moscow reports
Chechnya's president is vowing to eventually retake
the ruined capital.
TEXT: Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov was quoted
(Monday) as saying rebel fighters have temporarily
given up Grozny, but would be back. In an interview
with the Spanish newspaper "La Vanguardia", the former
Soviet army colonel turned political leader said his
troops were entering what he called - the phase of
guerrilla war.
Mr. Maskhadov admitted Chechen fighters suffered
casualties during the withdrawal from Grozny when one
of two groups ran into a minefield. He said most of
the fighters had made it safely to Chechnya's
mountainous south, which is still under rebel control.
Russian troops, meanwhile, are in firm control of
Grozny. Acting President Vladimir Putin earlier
announced the city had been taken. Television
pictures showed soldiers roaming the streets of the
capital, which has been reduced to rubble after months
of bombing and shelling.
News reports told of battles in which hundreds of
Chechen fighters were killed during the past couple
days. A correspondent for the privately-owned N-T-V
television channel says 147 Chechen bodies were found
on a battlefield southwest of the capital, and local
residents buried the bodies of 160 others.
The reports could not be independently confirmed, and
there was no mention of Russian casualties.
One of the few consistent sources of independent
information on the war, Radio Liberty journalist
Andrei Babitsky remains missing, and concerns for his
safety are mounting.
Mr. Babitsky was arrested while on a reporting trip
inside the war zone last month. But last week,
Russian authorities said they had traded the
journalist to a Chechen warlord in exchange for three
captured Russian soldiers.
A videotape made of the swap by Russia's security
services shows a grim-faced Mr. Babitsky being handed
over to a masked man.
But Peter Bouckaert, an investigator for Human Rights
Watch in the Chechnya region, says he finds the
Russian version of events hard to believe.
/// BOUCKAERT ACT ///
It seems more and more inconsistencies about the
Russian story about what happened to Babitsky
are coming out every day, and we are deeply
concerned about the fate of Babitsky. He seems
to have disappeared at the hands of Russian
authorities.
/// END ACT ///
A Federal Security Service spokesman Monday said he
could confirm that Mr. Babitsky is alive, but said he
had no information on the reporter's whereabouts.
Russia's Justice Minister said an investigation into
the Babitsky case had been opened, but said as far as
he was able to determine, the journalist's arrest and
detention were legal.
Russia has severely limited journalists' coverage of
the Chechen conflict by withholding accreditation for
the war zone, then detaining reporters found there.
Western journalists have been taken into custody and
warned about violating government rules. But Mr.
Babitsky, whose reports for the U-S government-funded
radio station angered authorities, was among the first
Russian citizens to be arrested for his journalistic
activities. (SIGNED)
NEB/PFH/JWH/RAE
07-Feb-2000 11:28 AM EDT (07-Feb-2000 1628 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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