DATE=3/15/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260221
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russia has banned journalists from
broadcasting interviews with senior Chechen rebel
leaders, including President Aslan Maskhadov. V-O-A's
Peter Heinlein in Moscow reports the warning came as a
Russian general declared all of Chechnya under federal
control.
TEXT: Russia's Deputy Information Minister Mikhail
Seslavinsky says broadcasting comments by Chechen
leaders amounts to spreading terrorist propaganda, and
is therefore prohibited.
Speaking on the Echo of Moscow radio station, Mr.
Seslavinsky said President Aslan Maskhadov and other
Chechen officials are wanted on terrorism charges. He
said to broadcast their statements would be the same
as spreading terrorist propaganda.
But he denied the ban was a move toward censorship.
Echo of Moscow has broadcast past interviews with
President Maskhadov, who came to power in an
internationally-supervised election in 1997. But the
station's chief editor Alexei Benediktov told V-O-A
the station would refrain from such broadcasts in the
future, not because of the government ban, but
because they consider the practice unethical.
Mr. Benediktov said, however, that the station would
revoice selected statements by Chechen officials,
using voices of their own journalists.
In another development, Russia's army chief of staff,
General Anatoly Kvashnin, says all of Chechnya is now
under federal control.
/// KVASHNIN RUSSIAN ACT FADES UNDER ///
He says Russian troops have completed the defeat of
what he calls "the rebel formations." He says the
Chechens no longer hold any territory.
The general admitted it is impossible to hold all 400
or so Chechen villages, but said Russian troops can go
into them at any moment if fighting breaks out.
/// REST OPT ///
News agencies say Russian troops are searching the
ruins of the newly-captured town of Komsomolskoye, in
the southern mountains. The town, which is home to a
senior Chechen field commander, was taken after 10
days of heavy bombing and shelling.
But soldiers are quoted as saying the force of several
hundred rebel fighters believed to have been holed up
in the town appears to have vanished into the hills.
Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev says he wants
the entire military operation in Chechnya completed by
the time the winter snow melts in the mountain passes,
probably some time next month. The spring thaw would
allow the rebels to move about more freely, making it
almost impossible for Russian forces to effectively
control the region. (Signed)
NEB/PFH/JWH/ENE/gm
15-Mar-2000 13:16 PM EDT (15-Mar-2000 1816 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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