DATE=4/26/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=RUSSIA / CHECHNYA (L-O)
NUMBER=2-261741
BYLINE=PETER HEINLEIN
DATELINE=MOSCOW
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Russia has rejected a U-N Human Rights
Commission resolution on Chechnya and intensified
bombing raids on the breakaway region. Moscow
Correspondent Peter Heinlein reports Russian officials
have flatly ruled out talks with Chechnya's president.
TEXT: A Foreign Ministry statement describes as -
unacceptable - a resolution accusing Russia of
widespread violations in Chechnya that was passed this
week by the top U-N human-rights body.
Russia's human-rights envoy to the region told the
Itar-Tass news agency that western critics have no
understanding of the problem in Chechnya.
But Amnesty International reached the opposite
conclusion. A statement by the London-based human-
rights group says the U-N Commission was not tough
enough on Russia. Amnesty says the world body should
have demanded an international investigation into
alleged Russian atrocities.
Meanwhile, Itar-Tass says Russian bombers and
helicopters flew 72-sorties over Chechnya, the largest
one-day total of combat missions in weeks. A rebel
Internet website reports ground fighting in the
region's southern mountains.
The Associated Press says five-thousand Chechens
staged a second day of demonstrations to demand the
release of 11-men detained by Russian troops earlier
this week. Witnesses say the men were rounded up in
the village of Kurchaloi after several soldiers were
killed in a rebel ambush nearby.
In another development, several Russian news agencies
are quoting intelligence sources as saying Chechen
President Aslan Maskhadov is ready to surrender and
apply for amnesty. Those reports came a day after
Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo ruled out
suggestions that the government might negotiate with
the rebel leader.
But the president of one of Chechnya's neighboring
republics, Ingushetia, which is home to 200-thousand
Chechens displaced by the war, ridiculed speculation
about a possible surrender. President Ruslan Aushev
told the Interfax news agency anyone who suggests Mr.
Maskhadov might give up - totally fails to understand
the mentality of the Chechens. (SIGNED)
NEB/PFH/GE/RAE
26-Apr-2000 11:30 AM EDT (26-Apr-2000 1530 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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