UNCERTAINTIES MOUNTING IN CHECHNYA

According to the RussianMilitary Command, two soldiers were killed and six wounded inclashes with Chechen forces August 10; there was no figure availableon Chechen casualties. Russia’s chief negotiator Vyacheslav Mikhailovaccused the Chechen side of breaking the ceasefire agreement andendangering the entire peace process. Chechen chief negotiatorKhozh-Akhmed Yarikhanov retorted that it was Moscow who was breakingthe agreement by refusing to exchange prisoners on the "allfor all" principle. Russia’s prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdininstructed Mikhailov and internal affairs minister, Col. General Anatoly Kulikov, to determine the reasons behind "the delayin the implementation" of the military agreement, Russianmedia reported August 10.

Meanwhile the Chechen chief of staff and cochairman of the Russian-Chechenarmistice control commission, Aslan Maskhadov, was cited by Itar-TassAugust 11 as saying that he would act "independently of DzhokarDudayev" to ensure implementation of the military agreement.Maskhadov also warned against the risk of civil war which mayarise if pro-Dudayev forces return from their mountain bases toChechen localities and clash there with forces of the Moscow-installedChechen administration. To ward off this risk, Maskhadov said,Chechens should elect local administrative bodies not tied toeither of those two sides. Meanwhile Duma deputy Anatoly Shabad,who met with Dudayev earlier in the week, told Interfax August10 that the Chechen president understands "the hopelessnessof the situation and wants to come out of it, not wishing tocontinue a large-scale."

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