Russia continues to bombard Gronzy

Federal forces showed no signs of easing up raids on the breakaway republic of Chechnya even as a top international mediator held talks in Moscow to arrange a visit to the republic. The Kremlin has dismissed international criticism of its campaign in Chechnya as meddling in Russia's internal affairs.

The Russians have intensified their bombardment of Grozny in the past week, leaving hundreds dead or wounded and destroying scores of buildings and homes. Russian officials estimate 50,000 civilians remain in the city, many of whom are old, infirm or lack transportation to leave.

In brief intervals between the strikes yesterday, civilians crawled out of basement shelters to fetch water and try to find food.

''It's like an endless lottery, with death being the only stake. Every day brings new death,'' said Marzhan Khakimova, a 72-year-old woman living in a Grozny basement.

Yesterday's raids hit one of Grozny's main thoroughfares, Avtarkhanov Avenue, as well as residential neighborhoods and a car market. Witnesses said there were casualties, but no figures were immediately available.

In Moscow, Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Koshman, Russia's representative to Chechnya, said Moscow would rebuild Grozny when the war was over, but now was the time for civilians to flee.

''There is nothing to do in Grozny now, it is necessary to close it down and take the entire peaceful population away,'' Koshman said.

Russian warplanes have been dropping leaflets on Grozny offering civilians a safe corridor out of the city, but it was not immediately clear how the residents would be able to safely flee the steady strikes.

Fleeing Chechnya also was proving difficult. The border post with neighboring Ingushetia was closed during the first half of the day, and an estimated 3,000 civilians, many of them from Grozny, formed a line more than a half-mile long at the border.

The closure was due to electricity and computer problems that prevented authorities from properly registering the refugees. It was fixed and the border was opened in the afternoon, the military said.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek, chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, arrived in Moscow on Monday, seeking to arrange a trip to the North Caucasus region. Vollebaek met with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, who said Russia would ''consider'' such a trip, Russian news agencies said.

The international community is pressing Russia to halt the offensive, complaining of widespread civilian casualties and the plight of the more than 233,000 refugees who have fled the fighting.

Russia has insisted it does not want international mediation and says it wants to destroy the militants before beginning negotiations.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov said he wanted to meet with Vollebaek, and claimed that Chechen fighters had deliberately chosen not to launch a major counterattack against the Russians in order to leave open the possibility of peace talks.

''Sooner or later, Moscow will have to start talks,'' the embattled Maskhadov said on Chechen television Sunday evening. ''We have to wait for Moscow to realize that a political solution is needed.''

Russian warplanes and helicopter gunships flew about 50 sorties Monday, the military said in Moscow. Most of the attacks targeted Grozny and the mountains in southern Chechnya, where the rebels still have many fighters.

Heavy fighting also was reported in Urus-Martan, about 12 miles southwest of Grozny, where the Russians are trying to close off a major supply route and encircle the capital.

Russian forces have bombed Chechnya since August, saying they're aiming to wipe out Islamic rebels who twice invaded the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan this summer. Russia has also blamed the rebels for apartment bombings that killed 300 people in several Russian cities.

Despite the bombardment of Grozny, one Chechen fighter held a wedding Monday, complete with dances in a central street in between airstrikes. No one was hurt.

Castro opts not to go to WTO meeting

"I was certain that the State Department would not grant me the visa," Castro wrote in a letter to Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington. The government distributed a copy of the letter to foreign news agencies in Cuba yesterday afternoon.

"For that reason, I didn't even bother to apply," the communist leader continued. "I did not want to be submitted to that humiliation."

The six-page letter made it clear that Castro was interested in attending the meeting and, at one point, had been hopeful of going.

"I prepared feverishly," Castro wrote. "I wanted to do it and I had practically decided to make the trip, despite insurmountable difficulties."

Senior U.S. officials had said earlier that a visa would be granted Castro if he applied, because the United States, as host country for the 135-nation WTO meeting, was obligated to allow officials from member countries attend.

But Castro said in the letter that some American officials had been quoted in newspaper articles as saying that the gathering was for cabinet-level officials, and that his being there would not be "appropriate."

He also said officials from the State Department's Cuba desk had warned Dagoberto Rodriguez, director of North America for Cuba's Foreign Ministry of the possible consequences of the trip.

"The plot against my trip to Seattle, with the support of the State Department, was unquestionable," he said.

"That confirmed my perception about the opposition to, and even the political and moral terror of, my participation in the WTO meeting in Seattle," he said.

Castro's letter thanked McDermott, a Democrat, and the people of Seattle for their kindness and hospitality. The letter was distributed shortly after a plane carrying the Cuban delegation to the meeting took off from Havana without Castro aboard.

The delegation will be led, Castro wrote, by Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque "who is deeply familiar and fully shares my concepts and ideas about the current situation of the world and its possible evolution."

11-30-99