DATE=2/9/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHECHNYA SCENE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-258994
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=ON THE CHECHNYA-INGUSHETIA BORDER
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russian forces in Chechnya are shifting their
focus to the South, where rebel fighters fled after
abandoning the capital, Grozny. From the Chechen
border, V-O-A's Peter Heinlein reports recently-
arrived refugees are telling of Russian troops
systematically destroying villages as they pursue the
rebels into the mountain.
TEXT: Everyday truckloads of Chechyen villagers
escaping the war arrive at Kavkaz-1 checkpoint on
Chechnya's border with [the] neighboring [Russian
republic of] Ingushetia.
The latest arrivals are mostly from three farming
villages in the southern lowlands, just a few
kilometers from the frontier, which have been a target
of fierce Russian air and artillery attacks in recent
days.
The villages -- Katyr-Yurt, Shalazhi and Gekhi-Chu --
lie along a main road leading out of Grozny toward the
rebel-held [Caucasus] mountains to the south. They
all have been under Russian control since early in the
war, and special police units were stationed there to
keep order.
But, 32-year-old Alikhan Dzunidovich of Katyr-Yurt
says when a group of several hundred rebels fleeing
Grozny arrived in the village last week, police
abruptly jumped into their vehicles and fled. He
says, within 15 minutes Russian forces launched a
massive air and artillery attack that lasted 24 hours
and killed more than 100 villagers.
/// 1ST DZUNIDOVICH RUSSIAN ACT-IN & FADE UNDER ///
He says, "30 or 40 Chechen fighters were also killed
in the attack," but he adds, "that does not give them
[the Russian forces] justification to kill innocent
women and children."
Mr. Dzunidovich also noted something he thought was
strange. When the bombing stopped, the rebels were
mysteriously allowed safe passage to the next village
along the road and the bombing began there shortly
afterwards.
A researcher for Human Rights Watch who has
interviewed hundreds of refugees says a disturbing
pattern is coming into focus, suggesting federal
forces are allowing the rebels to move from village to
village, then bombing each one.
Twenty-nine-year-old Amina Khazhgiriyeva was away from
her home in Katyr-Yurt visiting wounded relatives when
the bombs hit. She went back Monday and found a scene
of absolute devastation.
/// KHAZHGIRIYEVA RUSSIAN ACT-IN & FADE UNDER ///
She says, "It was only ruins there, and dead bodies
just lying all around." She said she found "not a
single home intact, and corpses everywhere."
Alikhan Dzunidovich says the constant ferocious
bombing and shelling created such fright among
villagers that panicky parents abandoned their
children and tried to flee.
/// 2ND DZUNIDOVICH RUSSIAN ACT-IN & UNDER ///
He says: "What a horrible thing it must have been, if
a mother runs from her children trying to save
herself. But people were leaving their kids. They
had no idea what they were doing." He said "many
survivors simply went mad."
/// 3RD DZUNIDOVICH RUSSIAN ACT-IN & UNDER ///
He says: "One woman was walking with us carrying a
one-year-old baby. The baby was dead, but she didn't
seem to understand. When we got to the nearest town
to safety we had to take the child away from the
mother."
Stories like this are heard regularly at the Kavkaz-1
checkpoint. Human-rights workers stand along the road
every day, gathering evidence of what they describe as
horrible war crimes going on just a few kilometers
away. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/LTD-T/WTW
09-Feb-2000 15:43 PM EDT (09-Feb-2000 2043 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
