18.04.2000 15:00ON THE SITUATION IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
SERGEI V. YASTRZHEMBSKY - assistant to the Russian Acting President for coordinating the information and analytical efforts of the federal executive agencies involved in the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus
YASTRZHEMBSKY: The place where the groups headed by Basayev and Khattab are now is part of the Vedensky and Nozhai-Yurtovsky districts neighbouring on the Kurchaloyevsky district. Militants continue the same tactics: they avoid direct clashes with the united group of forces, actively watch the movement of federal forces, and try to restore ties between themselves, to replenish their food, pharmaceuticals and ammunition reserves and carry out intelligence.
The units of federal forces react accordingly: search work is being carried out on a wide scale and reserve bases and storage facilities are discovered practically every day. The following is the far from complete list of such discoveries in the past twenty-four hours: two dug-outs with an anti-aircraft machine-gun, a "Shmel" flame-thrower and 40 grenades four kilometres from Maskheta; 40 mines for a 82mm mortar and over a thousand cartridges in the settlement of Vysokogornoye (do we have it on this map?); three dug-outs, one of which was full of food, 2.5 kilometres from Kharsenoi. There are many more such examples. I have written down only the three largest storage facilities, which have been discovered in the past twenty four hours.
When small groups of rebels are discovered, they are subjected to artillery and air strikes right away. There have been 28 combat sorties in the past twenty four hours.
Concerning the Interior Ministry: facts of shelling the points of temporary deployment and places of unit deployment are registered. Federal forces stationed in Grozny and the Shali, Urus-Martan and Naursky districts were shelled in the past 24 hours. The Interior Ministry has conducted operative-preventive measures in two dozens settlements. Four thousand people and more than 3,500 cars have been examined, 19 pieces of armaments, 2,000 cartridges and 2,500 litres of fuel and lubricants confiscated and upwards of 100 explosives rendered harmless in the past twenty four hours.
Concerning the Justice Ministry: Justice Ministry units have detained five people suspected of participation in illegal armed groups. One hundred and twenty four people are kept at Chernokozovo. All in all, over a thousand people - 1,006, to be more exact - have passed through this detention centre; 516 of them have been freed and 366 banished beyond the confines of the Chechen Republic.
Concerning the Emergency Situations Ministry, or MChS: People begin to return to their native parts in the Chechen Republic; 158,000 have already returned to their homes, and the number continues to grow from briefing to briefing. As many as 42,000 people receive hot meals in Grozny. The city is open. People freely return there. This concerns, first and foremost, those who have their residence permits. It is expected that the number of such people will grow considerably in a short while. Searches for the dead and burial of corpses continue in Grozny: 889 dead bodies have already been buried.
Concerning the office of the Russian government in the Chechen Republic: In connection with the forthcoming 55th anniversary of the victory in the Second World War an inventory list of the war monuments, memorials and obelisks which existed in Chechnya is being made. Almost all of them have suffered as a result of acts of vandalism in the years of the Maskhadov rule and as a result of the hostilities. One million and six hundred thousand roubles have been allocated for their restoration. About a thousand war veterans living in Chechnya will receive personal congratulatory messages from the President of the Russian Federation. Fifteen Chechen war veterans will take part in the military parade in Moscow's Red Square. They are also to attend the inauguration ceremony of the new Russian President.
A special government commission is to arrive in Chechnya from Moscow. It will study the possibility of rebuilding Grozny. The commission comprises specialists from different ministries and departments. They are to estimate the degree of destruction and determine the volume of work and the districts of the city, which are to be restored in the first place.
EKHO MOSKVY: You say that transition to the process of negotiations has begun in Chechnya. I mean the interview by Ivanov in which he said that talks with Maskhadov are possible. This is my first question. Second. How do you appraise the possibility of Maskhadov's meeting with such organisation as the unofficial independent national organisation to investigate the situation in Chechnya, which is headed by Krasheninnikov? Maskhadov does not exclude such a possibility.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I have the text of Ivanov's interview. There is not a word in it about the possibility of a meeting with Maskhadov, as Ekho Moskvy claims. I think reaction to Ivanov's interview is too emotional. He has not said anything new. The new probably is that the Foreign Minister has repeated in a slightly different interpretation what Defence Ministry spokesmen said and what I said at our briefings. This is what is new plus - let us give credit to smart alecks from CNN who strive to turn practically any exclusive material into nearly a world sensation.
Let us read carefully what Ivanov said. He said that the military operation in Chechnya is completed and there are no large-scale hostilities. I do not think it is any news to you; we all talk about this at practically every briefing. Indeed, there have been no large-scale hostilities in Chechnya a long time now. There is ample ground to support the Minister's words and say that the military operation for the liberation of the territory of the Chechen republic, which used to be under the control of illegitimate armed groups, is over. The political stage of the settlement, which has begun, develops in several directions, Ivanov says. We said a long time ago that the political process was on. The Russian leaders understand that the Chechen "problem" cannot be solved by military means. But it is impossible to solve it by political means without a military stage, either. That is why the actions by the group of forces and power ministries and departments are the prelude to a political process. These two stages are closely interwoven.
Nonetheless, the special operation continues as its aim is the further elimination of separated units of rebels, the discovery and liquidation of the leaders of bandit groups and neutralisation of the most odious terrorists who are known in Russia and elsewhere. Then Igor Ivanov said that there were contacts with Maskhadov's representatives. This is not a 100% news, either. You heard the same from Aushev, Dzasokhov and Yastrzhembsky. So, Ivanov actually repeated only what had been said in Moscow more than once already. Probably the place in which this interview was given attached it some new significance. By and large, all what Igor Ivanov said agrees with reality. Moscow has been placing precisely such accents a long time now.
FRANCE PRESSE: What about Maskhadov's visit to Ingushetia? There has been such information.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: It is the first time that I hear this. There was another question. The commission has been created. I do not know how successful its activities will be but I wish it success. It is a perfectly normal thing when commissions are formed in society and society strives to get maximum information about what is happening during complicated conflicts. The question is how effective the activities of such a commission will be. The future will show. Inasmuch as it is an independent commission, it should work independently from the state line - taking this line into consideration but independently from it. If there is the possibility to meet with the person about whom you are talking, this will be to the commission's credit.
VREMYA NOVOSTEI newspaper: Sergei Vladimirovich, could you be more explicit? Interpretations are slightly different. Ivanov said yesterday that the troop operation was over, but Gennady Troshev said that it was not over yet. The same was confirmed by Gantamirov who said that the troop operation continued. Don't you see any difference between the interpretations given by the Foreign Ministry and the military department?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I know Troshev's interview very well. He does not say that the troop operation is not over. He put it differently. It is probably quite normal when the military and diplomats use different terminology when explaining the events in the Chechen Republic. I do not see any drama or contradiction in this - each side fulfils its part of common work and each side's accents do not contradict those of the other side. I have talked of the main things. We have been repeating it for several weeks now at each briefing. Regardless of the information activity of Maskhadov, who has been clearly thriving in the sphere of information lately, regardless of the number of interviews he gives, the counter-terrorist operation is to continue till its logical end and solve, in principle, several tasks. These principled tasks remain the same, and I have already named them today. It is only natural that we take into consideration all of the statements made by Maskhadov. It is possible that by subjecting them to thorough scrutiny we could see some positive shifts at the level of verbal declarations. But in politics, you see, words have any value for a certain period but then comes the time when only deeds really matter. As a matter of fact, he repeats the same positions in all his interviews, thereby self-devaluating them, because they are not followed by any concrete deeds.
A few days ago the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe received a return message from Maskhadov. If I am not mistaken, Lord Russel Johnston had a statement to Maskhadov's address. I think the British newspaper Independent made public this gentleman's position. Lord Johnston believes that if Maskhadov counts that he will be taken as a serious interlocutor, he should resolutely dissociate himself from all the excesses (that is, outrages committed over the OMON men who had been taken prisoner). According to my information, Strasbourg received a reply from Maskhadov who claims that he allegedly does not know anything about such outrages, and so on, and so forth. As far as I know, they in Strasbourg were sorry to state that Maskhadov for the umpteenth time demonstrated that he does not control the situation and is unable to control the actions of different groups of rebels. We have said so many a time: Maskhadov's verbal declarations look quite impressive, but it turns out that he practically controls nothing and no one.
Yesterday I very attentively watched interviews by Ivanov and Troshev. Each of them fulfils his tasks. It is natural that Troshev as the effective head of the united group of forces should always be on the alert. Under no circumstances can representatives of the federal forces lax vigilance, because this is punishable.
VREMYA NOVOSTEI: Apropos of Maskhadov. Have I understood you correctly that any official negotiations of Russian leaders with Maskhadov are not only impossible but inexpedient because of his insolvency?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Why? We say that [such negotiations] are possible given the fulfilment of those conditions, which are also the tasks of the counter-terrorist operation. That is: disarmament of militants, termination of resistance and giving in to federal authorities those bandits for whom a federal and Interpol search has been declared and on whose conscience are hundreds of deaths. Negotiations are possible, but this requires not only words but some action, and he does not do anything.
TV-CENTRE TV company: I want to ask a question about the commission, which has arrived in Grozny. Does it mean that it has been decided to restore Grozny? What are the plans about Grozny? What is its future?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: No one, at least in this hall, has ever said that Grozny will not be restored. I have never told you when and within which time scale this will happen. I want to recall that when naming the sum of federal means, which will probably be used this year for the restoration of Chechnya, I specified that this sum did not include funds for the rebuilding of Grozny. Such estimates have not been made yet. There has been no estimate of the scope of destruction and the scale of restoration; no stages of recovery and no priorities have been determined yet. It has been decided that first specialists will come to make the cost analysis and only then the final decision will be adopted and made public. The status of Grozny as the capital of Chechnya has never been called in question. This commission is now to arrive in Grozny.
THE SAME: Won't Grozny once again become a financial hole because how can it be restored?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: It is a very complicated question. But if you come to Grozny, you will see that there are two different cities, I would say. That part of the city where mostly high-risers were has been badly damaged. At least, I have not seen a single whole building. The part of Grozny with one- and two-story houses, small houses and mansions, that is, its private sector, has suffered much less. I cannot say which part of the population lived in this part of the city before the hostilities, but I think it was rather considerable. It can be restored and sufficiently quickly at that. The most important task is to solve the building materials problem. One- and two-story houses have not been damaged too heavily. Given a certain concentration of efforts, I suppose, this part of the city can be restored by winter. The multi-storied part of the city is a much more serious problem. Though, I am not a specialist, and I do not dare to make any judgements. It is easier to completely clear up a considerable part of Grozny, haul down semi-damaged houses and build new houses. But I think we should wait and see what the experts from the commission will have to say.
QUESTION: Could you specify who heads this commission? For how long will they work? And will the final conclusions be drawn this time?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I do not have such information with me. If you come to our briefing tomorrow, I will try to collect this information and give it to you. As for now, I'll take a pause: I have nothing to say now.
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