DATE=2/19/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA/CHECHNYA (L)
NUMBER=2-259340
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Chechen rebels have shot down a Russian
helicopter, killing 15 soldiers. V-O-A's Peter
Heinlein reports the incident occurred during a
massive Russian air assault on rebel positions in
Chechnya's southern mountains.
TEXT: Russia's interior minister, Vladimir Rushailo,
says the helicopter gunship went down in southern
Chechnya. The Chechen rebel (internet) website showed
a picture of a chopper in flames, and said the craft
was shot down in the Argun Gorge region, southeast of
the capital, Grozny.
Russian forces are concentrating their attacks on the
Argun and Vedeno gorges that lead south from the main
population centers of central Chechnya into the
Caucasus mountain foothills. Military spokesmen say
warplanes and helicopter gunships flew 150 missions in
the past 24 hours, making it one of the busiest days
since the bombing campaign began last September.
In Grozny, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry is
trying to establish basic services for civilians
emerging from basements now that hostilities there
have largely ended. A soup kitchen and a field
hospital are set up, and teams of emergency workers
are fanning out to try to locate survivors still too
frightened to come out.
An army spokesman says as many as 12-thousand
civilians may still be in Grozny, and more than 100-
thousand others in surrounding towns and villages.
Most are elderly. The majority are ethnic Russians
who had no way to escape during the months of
bombing.
Officials estimate about 300 rebel fighters may also
still be in Grozny, hiding during the day and coming
out at night. The sound of explosions and gunfire can
be heard echoing through the empty streets. The city
has been declared closed, and a dusk-to-dawn curfew is
in effect.
A senior Russian general says federal troops now
control most strategic points in Chechnya. Deputy
Chief of Staff Valery Manilov showed reporters a map
Friday illustrating how the territory under rebel
control is being steadily diminished.
International human rights groups, meanwhile, are
expressing increasing concern about evidence that
Russian forces are torturing and in some cases
summarily executing suspected rebel fighters at prison
camps in Chechnya.
Acting President Vladimir Putin has appointed the head
of Russia's Immigration Service as his special
representative to respond to complaints about human
rights abuses in Chechnya.
The British-based human rights group, Amnesty
International, Saturday called the appointment a
public relations exercise. An Amnesty statement
issued in London called on Russia to allow
international groups access to the prison camps to see
for themselves if atrocities are being committed.
(Signed)
NEB/PFH/DW/JP
19-Feb-2000 10:14 AM EDT (19-Feb-2000 1514 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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