YANDARBIEV REPORTED ALIVE AND WELL.

Chechen resistance representatives yesterday and this morning dismissed claims in Moscow and Grozny that Djohar Dudaev’s successor Zelimkhan Yandarbiev had been killed yesterday in Urus-Martan district. They also dismissed claims about internecine fighting among Chechen field commanders and about Shamil Basaev being appointed commander in chief in place of the civilian acting president, Yandarbiev. Several resistance representatives said that they had seen Yandarbiev alive and well after the alleged assassination. They said that Yandarbiev yesterday chaired a session of the resistance leadership, attended by all prominent field commanders, which reaffirmed the decision to rule out talks with Russian officials implicated in Dudaev’s slaying. (Western agencies, Interfax, April 29 & 30)

Yeltsin Orders Heightened Security.