4 Dec 1999
RUSSIANS ENCIRCLE GROZNY, MASSACRE REPORTED
By Peter Graff
MOSCOW, Dec 4 (Reuters)
Russia said on
Saturday the Chechen capital Grozny was fully
under blockade, but Moscow's triumph was
overshadowed by a report that Russian troops
had massacred a column of refugees fleeing the
city.
"The city of Grozny is fully under blockade. Yes,
today on December 4,- I can officially say this,"
General Viktor Kazantsev told NTV commercial
television in a report from Russian headquarters
in Mozdok outside Chechnya.
His comments came just hours after U.S.-
sponsored Radio Liberty said 40 refugees had
been slaughtered at point blank range on the
outskirts of Grozny.
Russia's Defence Ministry labelled the report and
accounts of the incident in other media as
"disinformation", Itar-Tass news agency said.
A wounded survivor told the Russian language
Radio Liberty that masked Russian troops had
opened fire on a column of civilians fleeing the
city.
"They came up themselves. Their cannon was a
bit further away, and they shot from their rifles
right at point blank," refugee Tatyana Aidamirova
told Radio Liberty.
"They checked the cars. They saw that dead
people were lying there. They did not explain
anything. They were all in masks, and so
satisfied, as if that was the way it should be. I do
not know such cruel people, that everyone had to
die."
In a conflict that has seen large numbers of
civilian casualties from artillery and air strikes,
the report, if confirmed, would be the first such
large-scale massacre by troops on the ground.
Radio Liberty's correspondent Andrei Babitsky
said the convoy contained seven cars and a bus.
Aidamirova, whom he found lightly wounded at a
hospital in Sleptsovsk in nearby Ingushetia
province, was in the only car with survivors.
Babitsky said a bullet had struck the petrol tank
of the bus, causing an explosion. Aidamirova's
car, riddled with bullet holes and broken glass,
was the only vehicle allowed to leave Chechnya
on Friday.
Defence ministry officials said they could not be
blamed for the attack because their forces had
not yet taken the stretch of road where it was
reported to have taken place.
REBELS ACKNOWLEDGE RETREAT
Chechen rebels acknowledged that Russian
forces were scoring important gains on the
battlefield.
The Chechen rebel Internet web site Kavkaz.org
said guerrillas had been forced to withdraw from
the town of Argun to the east of Grozny and the
village of Alkhan-Yurt to the west, both of which
guard key approaches to the capital.
It acknowledged 28 fighters had died fighting for
the two settlements, more than rebels have
conceded in past battles.
The acknowledgement lent weight to a report on
Interfax news agency late on Friday that
Chechens had conceded the capital was
encircled.
Russian troops were moving toward the main
highway heading into the south from Grozny and
had exchanged heavy fire with Chechen
guerrillas overnight, Kavkaz.org said.
Russian warplanes bombed Grozny and
Urus-Martan, a town 15 km (10 miles) to the
south, where rebels are still making a stand.
Russian commanders say the town is their next
target.
"For these gangs, Urus-Martan is the link for
mounting prolonged resistance in Grozny," First
Deputy Chief of Staff Valery Manilov said in
televised remarks on Friday. "In the coming days,
the task of blockading Urus-Martan and other
towns and clearing them of bandits will be
resolved."
Until last week, the 100,000-strong Russian force
had met relatively little resistance from Chechens
as they swept into the province, but as the
Russians have come closer to Grozny, the
Chechens have begun putting up more of a fight.
Russia said a week ago it was launching a new
phase of its operation and would now pursue
Chechen guerrillas into the mountains to the
south. That announcement was accompanied by
new blanket artillery and rocket attacks on
Grozny.
Russian commanders hope to avoid having to
storm Grozny, where thousands of Russian
troops died in a botched assault during the
1994-96 war in Chechnya.
Source:
http://www.alertnet.org/alertnet.nsf/a508d7319b8f83e38525648200010703/8525679b0071141c8525683d00611694?OpenDocument
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