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DATE=3/9/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L)
NUMBER=2-260024
BYLINE=EVE CONANT
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO:  Russia's military says its troops are 
advancing into Komsomolskoye, a village seized by 
Chechen rebels earlier this week.  V-O-A Moscow 
Correspondent Eve Conant reports Russia's military 
also says it is trying to block rebels from 
infiltrating into the Russian-occupied lowlands of 
Chechnya.
TEXT:  Russian television showed pictures of federal 
troops under heavy artillery cover storming the 
village of Komsomolskoye.  The Chechen internet 
website confirmed there was heavy fighting in the 
region and said dozens of Russian soldiers had been 
killed in the past 24 hours around the villages of 
Komsomolskoye and Goiskoye.
/// OPT ///  Russian soldiers told the French news 
agency that attempts by federal troops to enter the 
village were repelled by the rebels and that losses 
were high.  /// OPT ///
Russian commander Mikhail Labunets says the rebels 
inside Komsomolskoye are surrounded.
            /// LABUNETS ACT IN RUSSIAN - FADE UNDER 
///
He says Russian troops control the village from the 
north and the south, and -- in his words - "the gunmen 
are trapped in a circle."  He said the rebel's leader 
had asked to hold negotiations, but that Russian 
forces would  not  agree to talks.
Russia's military says troops now control a strategic 
part of the Argun gorge, a canyon that cuts through 
Chechnya's southern mountains to the Georgian border.  
The report could  not  be independently confirmed.
Both Russian and Chechen sources report heavy fighting 
near the mountain villages of Ulus-Kert and 
Selmentausen.  Russia's military says it is trying to 
stop the rebels from fleeing their mountain bases and 
fanning out into the Russian-occupied lowlands.
The rebels say they are splitting their forces in 
order to stage attacks on Russian troops throughout 
Chechnya.  The rebel internet website says rebels had 
reached the villages of Samashki and Stariye Atagi as 
well as the capital, Grozny.
A delegation from the parliamentary assembly of the 
Council of Europe is in Moscow and plans to visit 
Chechnya in the coming days to investigate allegations 
of human rights abuses in the breakaway republic. 
(Signed)
NEB/EC/JWH/JP
09-Mar-2000 11:16 AM EDT (09-Mar-2000 1616 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.