RUSSIAN MILITARY DISRUPTS CHECHNYA CEASEFIRE.
RUSSIAN MILITARY DISRUPTS CHECHNYA CEASEFIRE.
On May 31, the eve of the effective date of the ceasefire, the Russian army ordered the Chechen detachment in Shali to disarm by 8:00 AM on June 1, or else face a "special operation" (meaning bombardment followed by storming) against the town. In an ensuing clash, the military killed a local resistance commander and took 14 prisoners. Chechen fighters retaliated June 1 by capturing 26 Russian soldiers in Nozhay Yurt district — supposedly controlled by Russian forces — and offering to exchange them for those captured in Shali. In Grozny yesterday, at least four Russian soldiers were killed and others wounded when their APC was blown up by a mine.
Negotiations to devise a mechanism for implementing the May 27 Moscow armistice agreement were scheduled to open Saturday in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala, but were postponed after the Russian side objected to the size — 30 men — of the Chechen delegation’s security detail. The meeting has tentatively been rescheduled to open June 4 or 5 in Ingushetia’s capital Nazran, with Ingush president Ruslan Aushev acting as host. The choice of Nazran, should it hold, represents a significant success for Ingushetia and Aushev who have criticized Moscow’s conduct of the war and maintained contacts with Chechen resistance. A session of the Chechen Defense Committee — the highest decision-making body of the resistance — reaffirmed its adherence to the Moscow agreement and expressed concern over military attempts to undermine it. (Russian and Western agencies, May 31, June 1 and 2)
Yeltsin: A More Assertive Russia…
