HOSTAGES FREED, BUT ATTACKS CONTINUE IN NORTH CAUCASUS.

The Chechen command has released to Dagestani authorities five of the 17 elite OMON policemen from Novosibirsk who surrendered in Pervomaiskoye. The five were wounded during the Russian artillery bombardment of that village. In Chechnya to investigate the Pervomaiskoye affair, Russia’s prosecutor general Yuri Skuratov discovered the "shocking facts" that Russian troops there "do not receive enough food and are infested with lice." Skuratov said he would summon defense and internal affairs ministers Pavel Grachev and Anatoly Kulikov for a "serious talk" on the subject.

Earlier this week, Russian troops fired and damaged houses in two villages in the Novolakh district of Dagestan after Russian soldiers manning roadblocks were fired upon from the villages. Meanwhile, in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz, the city mosque was severely damaged by a firebombing. Local Russian authorities and the Moslem spiritual department both described the incident as one aimed at provoking interethnic and interconfessional conflict. (7)

Yeltsin Replaces Chairman of Citizenship Commission.