Attacks on Chechen rebels continue

The continued pounding of the rebel republic came as thousands of refugees were blocked at a key border crossing for another day. Russia closed the Ingushetia crossing last week and yesterday allowed just 300 people across.

Russian troops and local police scuffled briefly at the Ingushetia crossing yesterday when police demanded that refugees be let out of Chechnya, according to eyewitnesses.

"The Russian military is just mocking civilians, what they do is an act of lawlessness," Ingushetia President Ruslan Aushev told reporters.

Since Russia began bombing Chechnya on Sept. 5, saying it aimed to wipe out Islamic militants, some 200,000 people have fled to neighboring Russian republics.

The humanitarian crisis plus the severe damage wreaked on Chechnya by Russian bombs and artillery are increasingly worrying and angering the West.

President Clinton met Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in Oslo, Norway, told him there was no military solution to Chechnya and urged him to seek a political solution.

Russia has consistently rejected calls for negotiations, saying the militants must be eliminated first.

Yesterday, Russian troops surrounded Gudermes, Chechnya's second-largest city, toward which they have been slowly advancing for weeks, the news agency Interfax cited Gen. Gennady Troshev as saying.

Russian troops claimed they had seized full control of the Tersky and Bragunsky ridges, two strategic heights that rise hundreds of feet overlooking the capital Grozny from the north, the ITAR-Tass news agency said, citing regional commander Col. Gen. Viktor Kazantsev.

Russian warplanes also pounded the town of Argun, about midway between Grozny and Gudermes, and hit several southern villages, Chechen officials said.

Bombing in Grozny destroyed an arms depot, while rocket attacks killed 50 militants in a convoy, the Russian headquarters claimed.

Kazantsev was quoted as saying the ridges were taken with practically no losses, but the military is widely believed to give misleading casualty figures.

The respected Soldiers' Mothers Committee said yesterday that a recent inspection tour of the region indicated Russian troop losses were more than four times higher than the 133 deaths officially acknowledged.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov has said more than 3,600 Chechens have died in the fighting, mostly civilians. Russia says it is targeting only rebel positions and that it is does not intend to hurt civilians.

Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said from Oslo that pressure from Washington or anywhere else would not persuade Russia to stop its campaign against the militants.

"The campaign of pressure on Russia wasn't successful earlier and doesn't have any chance of success now," Ivanov said after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

11-03-99