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

To: jbe who wrote (15036)	10/22/1999 9:59:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 17770

Washington Monitoring Chechnya, Stops Short Of Criticism MOSCOW, Oct 22, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) A senior US government official here said Friday that Washington was concerned about developments in Chechnya but only mildly reproached Moscow's operation to bring the rebel republic to heel. The administration of US President Bill Clinton, which has urged restraint, was keeping tabs on the human rights situation and encouraging Russia to seek a political solution to the conflict, he said. But stability remained the top US priority in the region, wracked by crime and a wave of kidnappings since the end of Russia's disastrous 1994-96 bid to crush Chechnya's independence drive, which cost an estimated 80,000 lives. The US official, who stressed Chechnya was part of the Russian Federation, said Chechen leaders also bore some responsibility for Moscow's decision to send ground troops into the republic on October 1 to crush "terrorist" bases. "I think the clear issue for us is that we do not want to see actions taken there that will destabilize this region or create conditions that are counter-productive to achieving a settlement there," the official said. "We don't want to see things down there that contradicts basic human rights and international obligations," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But when you blow up people in a market, what are you going to say? It's a bad thing to do," he said, referring to Russian missile attacks on the Chechen capital Grozny which have left 137 people dead and some 260 others wounded. Moscow has denied responsibility for the carnage. "They (the Russian government) are trying to make the case that they are not waging war against the Chechen people, but they've created 150,000 refugees," he said, commenting a Russian air campaign launched September 5 which triggered the exodus. Russian officials say 177,000 people have fled Chechnya. However, the US official signaled that Washington understood that Moscow was "not working in a benign environment," saying the Chechens had some "bad guys" who were not respecting international conventions. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)

To: jbe who wrote (15036)	10/22/1999 10:01:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 17770

Ingushetia Fears 300,000 Could Flee Chechnya GENEVA, Oct 22, 1999 -- (Reuters) Ingushetia has told the U.N. refugee agency that people fleeing fighting in Chechnya had increased to 160,000 and fears this could swell to 300,000 if Russia's military attack continues, the U.N. said on Friday. U.N. spokesman Kris Janowski said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was sending 12 trucks with relief goods to the region's capital Nazran, its fourth such convoy. "It is obviously causing more and more concern because the humanitarian situation is getting worse and worse," he said. But he told a news briefing the Geneva-based agency was confined to providing "remote-control assistance" due to the lack of security in the conflict zone. Scores were killed and wounded by a rocket strike on Thursday in the Chechen capital Grozny, where Russian forces are carrying out a month-long offensive against Moslem rebels. "The number of people displaced from Chechnya is growing fairly rapidly. The authorities in Ingushetia are now talking about 160,000 people plus who have fled the fighting and shelling in Chechnya," Janowski said. "The authorities are expecting up to 300,000 people if the Russian military crackdown continues," he added. Most of the displaced have been taken in by the local population, with just 12,000 staying in tents, dilapidated buildings or railway cars, according to Janowski. "At the same time there has been a small movement of mostly ethnic Russians back to Chechnya, to areas controlled by the Russians," he added. The UNHCR convoy, expected to leave from Stavropol on Friday evening, would carry 240 metric tons of goods including blankets, plastic sheeting and wood stoves. "If this continues, this is just a drop in the bucket in an ocean of need," Janowksi said. "These convoys are of course helpful... But they are extremely costly - $240,000." "We do what we can do. What we do at the moment is remote control assistance. We cannot do very much in the field of international protection because we don't have any international staff on the ground. Our ability to help there is very drastically limited by the security situation." (C)1999 Copyright Reuters Limited

To: jbe who wrote (15036)	10/22/1999 10:10:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 17770

> Some U.S. response on Grozny market/maternity clinic bombing. I would call this "fairly strong words" -- at least, compared to the sort of thing the Administration was saying during the last go-round. Sure they sound a little stronger but... I now believe the Russians sold out the Serbs in such a way that, not only they got more IMF billions but also the understanding that some of that money will go to annihilate the Chechnyans and the US will keep relatively silent...That was the only way that Clinton and Nato could be perceived as "winners". This will come out after 30 to 40 years probably. Now some examples of double speak >"We have raised our concerns repeatedly in the last months about the escalation and it is certainly troubling to see this kind of loss of life," So touching to see that it troubles them to see this kind of loss of life...if they were Serbs or Albanian civilians...tough...it was Milo's fault. >He called for an end to the fighting and said, "we will continue, regardless of this incident, to make clear to the Russians and to both parties that there is now way to find a purely military solution to this situation." Nato sure tried to find a purely military solution to the Kosovo matter...only to leave ruins behind, the Yugoslav Army power intact and a bunch of thugs running rampant. >Lockhart stressed the US policy line that Chechnya is part of the Russian Federation and that the rebels were equally responsible for halting the violence. Reread this statement...replace Chechnya with Kosovo, Russian Federation with Yugoslavia and rebels with KLA...yep sure. >"We believe that the spread of violence in the region and the escalation of violence is contrary to everyone's interest except those who rely on violence to meet their political ends, and that includes the separatists," he said. What???This is becoming ludicrous. >"They (the Russian government) are trying to make the case that they are not waging war against the Chechen people, but they've created 150,000 refugees," he said, commenting on a Russian air campaign launched September 5 which triggered the exodus. More Serb refugees don't count...and don't forget, nothing against them, it is all against the Serb leadership, indicted war criminals. >The US official also signalled, however, that Washington understood thatMoscow was "not working in a benign environment," saying the Chechens had some "bad guys" who were not respecting international conventions. bad guys...LOL...Thaci the saint is good enough to see christiane's hubby and lunatic Clark and have coffee with them.