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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Yaacov who wrote (14748)	10/2/1999 10:24:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Keep it here...Kosovo-Chechnia, Russia-NATO-paralell more and more closely International Concern As Russian Army Invades Breakaway Chechnya GROZNY, Russia, Oct 2, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The escalation of hostilities in Chechnya following the influx of thousands of Russian soldiers, backed by tanks, into the breakaway republic, has provoked international concern. Russian forces backed by more than 1,000 armored personnel carriers and tanks swept in on Friday, taking control of at least five villages some 15 kilometers (nine miles) inside Chechnya, the first such drive into the republic since a brutal 1994-1996 war that left 80,000 dead. Chechen sources said 10 Russian soldiers were killed in the first clash between the two sides late Friday. A 30-minute battle erupted at around 6:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) near the northwestern Chechen town of Rubezhnoye, some 10 kilometers (six miles) from the Russian-Chechen border, said Taus Bagurayev, a regional prefect in the local Naursky district. Chechens said they suffered no casualties in the clash, while Moscow authorities were not immediately available to confirm the report. While the invasion forces moved in, Russia said it no longer recognized the breakaway Chechen presidency. "All other organs of power in Chechnya are, to say the least, only partially legitimate, since they were elected outside of the Russian law," announced Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. He said Russia now only recognized the legitimacy of a little-known group of former Chechen parliamentarians currently exiled in Moscow. Maskhadov replied Friday by calling Putin's remarks "politically short-sighted." Russia's actions provoked immediate concern from the international community. US officials voiced increasing concern, even though Washington sympathizes with Moscow's position as it moves to wipe out suspected terrorists. "We feel a lot of sympathy for what they're going through in Moscow," a senior State Department official said. However, the official said Washington was worried that Russia was "placing obstacles" in the way of a peaceful resolution to the situation by its military offensive. Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy expressed his own concern and demanded a broader humanitarian presence for the region. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said his government was "watching with great concern the deteriorating situation in the northern Caucasus". More than 90,000 Chechens were reported by Russian authorities to have fled their separatist state, which has been ravaged by a weeks-old bombing campaign that has seen 1,500 sorties by Russian warplanes. But Moscow has now fortified that assault with the first mass ground invasion of Chechnya since the Russian army got bogged down in the 1994-1996 war that resulted in de facto independence for the mountainous territory. A Russian unit stretching some 80 kilometers (50 miles) across moved into Chechnya's northern Naursky and Sholkovsky regions late Thursday, Naursky regional prefect Taus Bagurayev told AFP. Russian helicopters flying over the Naurskaya district in northwest Chechnya on Friday dropped messages over the area calling on the population not to support the "bandits". "Brothers and sister, don?t be fooled by the bandits again... don't support the fighters," the message, seen by AFP read. The north of Chechnya is covered in a steppe and is sparsely populated, in part explaining why Russian troops progressed so quickly and have met no reported resistance. A separate column briefly crossed from Ingushetia to Chechnya's west and was moving towards the town of Bamut about 30 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of the capital Grozny before retreating back into Russia, Grozny officials told AFP. The defense ministry in Moscow refused all day Friday to confirm the troop movements. But a Russian officer contacted by AFP on the ground said the operation was well under way. Talking tough in Moscow, Putin said that Russia refuses to recognize Chechnya's independence and so reserves the right to station its troops in any part of the republic as it hunts for suspected Islamic rebels. Russia on September 5 launched an air assault against Chechnya aimed at wiping out suspected terrorists that Moscow holds responsible for organizing incursions into neighboring Dagestan and a wave of Russian apartment bombings. Chechen officials said 590 people have been killed in air and artillery strikes. Maskhadov had denied that his government sponsored either the Dagestani incursions or the bombing attacks which left nearly 300 dead. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)