NO PROGRESS AT CHECHNYA TALKS.

Russian and Chechen negotiatorscontinued to trade ideas about the political status of Chechnya,but made no progress on this central issue July 11, Russian mediareported. The talks continue July 12. In seeking to achieve Chechenagreement to the Russian position that the political status ofthe republic could be decided only after the November elections,the Russian negotiators offered to include at least some representativesof President Dzhokhar Dudayev in the transitional government andacknowledged that in Chechnya today there are two governments–theMoscow-backed one and Dudayev’s. The Chechens countered with theargument that Moscow should acknowledge Chechnya’s status as establishedby its 1991 declaration of independence now in order to protectall those who fought in the war from future prosecution. Bothsides issued a joint appeal denouncing mistreatment and expulsionof Chechens from Russian cities as a "severe violation ofhuman rights." Meanwhile, sporadic fighting continued bothin Grozny and near Dudayev’s headquarters in Bamut, with relativelysmall losses on both sides. Also on July 11, the Russian Fundfor the Defense of Glasnost said that it would launch a searchfor a Russian photojournalist who has been missing in Chechnyasince June 5, NTV reported, but again there was no new word onthe fate of Fred Cuny, the American aid specialist who has beenmissing in the region since April 9.

Moscow Denounces NATO Airstrike.