Thousands ee Russian bombings in rogue province

"I wish I were dead," mourned Tamara Aliyeva, whose house in Grozny was destroyed by Russian bombs. "I don't know what to do or where to go."

Aliyeva joined tens of thousands of Chechens who headed for the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia in hopes of finding refuge - only to find the border closed.

In Grozny, Russian airplanes were raining bombs and missiles for the fifth straight day. Witnesses said oil refineries in Grozny were ablaze, blanketing the capital in black smoke.

Russian jets also struck other cities and villages throughout Chechnya, targeting suspected militant bases along with oil derricks and other industrial facilities.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov claimed yesterday that 300 people had been killed in Grozny alone. Many Chechen refugees trapped on the Russian border were in a state of shock.

"Where is my Mama?" 8-year-old Liza Temirsultanova kept asking between sobs.

Her grandfather, Ayup Temirsultanov, said that Liza's mother, baby sister and two brother had all been killed by Russian bombs in Grozny yesterday.

The bombing is aimed at weakening Islamic militants, who have twice invaded the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan in recent weeks from their main bases in Chechnya. They also are blamed for a series of terrorist bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities that have claimed 300 lives.

Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev said yesterday that the bombing of Chechnya would continue "until the last bandit is destroyed," according to the Interfax news agency. The strikes have rekindled fears about the possible introduction of ground troops into Chechnya, despite a disastrous 1994-96 war in which Russian troops were clobbered by a much smaller guerrilla force. Chechnya has run its own affairs since winning de facto independence, but Moscow claims it is still part of Russia.

Russia will rely on air raids to knock out infrastructure and "patiently, methodically destroy (the militants) from the air," Putin said. If any Russian troops were deployed, they would be highly trained and used only for ''cleanup operations.

Maskhadov, who says his government is not connected to the militants, said in a televised address Sunday that he would exert all his efforts to avoid full-scale war and called for a political dialogue with Moscow.

Putin said the Kremlin was planning on a meeting between President Boris Yetsin and Maskhadov, but it wouldn't take place until the Chechen leader had denounced terrorism in his republic and Moscow was sure the militants couldn't use a meeting to their advantage.

"We're going to back away from meetings for the sake of meetings, from meetings for the sake of giving militants time to lick their wounds and carry out strikes on us from another side," Putin said after meeting with Yeltsin in the Kremlin.

In a meeting Monday with Col. Gen. Konstantin Totsky, head of the Russian border service, Yeltsin said Russia's borders must be strengthened so that weapons or militants cannot enter the North Caucuses. The Border Guards are patrolling both Russia's external borders and the internal border separating Chechnya from other Russian regions.

Meanwhile, fleeing Chechens headed mostly for Ingushetia. After 50,000 people had arrived, Ingushetian authorities closed the border Sunday. They allowed some refugees to enter on Monday after extensive identity document checks, Russia's N<B>V television reported.

Despite that, refugees continued poring out of Grozny and other Chechen towns yesterday, camping out in an open field near the border village of Sleptsovskaya, 30 miles west of Grozny. Some were taken in by local residents, but most had to stay in tents.

Local authorities were delivering food, medicine, firewood and other emergency supplies. Sergei Shoigu, Russia's minister for emergency situations, said he would fly to the region Tuesday to assess needs.

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