DUDAYEV PLEDGES TO FIGHT ON.

Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev told Itar-Tass June 6 that he would continue to lead the resistance to Russian aggression in order to prevent the war there from degenerating into a civil conflict among different groups of Chechens. Meanwhile, Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, who has often adopted a more accommodating stance on Chechnya, said that the Chechen resistance “must be put down by military force.” Pitched fighting continued throughout Chechnya including the region around the city of Vedeno, which fell to Russian forces June 4. Moscow’s efforts to restrict non-governmental coverage of the war continued: The French foreign ministry appealed to Moscow to release three journalists–two French and one American–who had been covering the war and are now being detained in Daghestan, AFP reported June 6. On June 4, Moscow radio reported that customs authorities in Moscow had seized a videotape on human rights violations in Chechnya which two Russian political activists were planning to show in Western Europe.

And again on June 6, there was no new word on the fate of Fred Cuny, the American aid specialist who has been missing in the region since April 9.

Kozyrev “Somewhat Reassured” on NATO Plans in Bosnia.