YELTSIN’S CHECHNYA SETTLEMENT PLAN GOING UP IN FLAMES.

The Russian command admitted today to having lost overnight at least 30 killed, 67 wounded, and 15 missing, all in just one battle in which Chechen resistance recaptured Goyskoe from the Russian forces. A Russian Su-25 fighter-bomber was also shot down during the battle. The disaster confirmed the Russian forces’ vulnerability in nighttime fighting in the absence of proper equipment and in unfamiliar terrain. Also in the southwest, Chechen resistance recaptured Orekhovo yesterday. But Russian forces continued using a scorched-earth strategy through large parts of southern Chechnya. Collaborationist Chechen leader Doku Zavgaev told Russian officials he was "shocked" by such tactics.

In remarks on the campaign trail in southwestern Russia and an interview in the official Rossisskie vesti, both yesterday, Yeltsin branded Djohar Dudaev a terrorist and criminal and urged that he be treated like one of the world’s worst terrorists. The remarks, underscoring Yeltsin’s unpredictability, clash head on with Yeltsin’s own offer of mediated talks with Dudaev, who had agreed in principle and made suggestions for appointing mediators. The Russian government’s plenipotentiary representative in Chechnya, Nikolai Fedosov today outlined a comprehensive plan for basing Russian army and MVD forces in Chechnya after resistance forces are "eliminated". (Interfax, Itar-Tass, NTV, Western agencies, April 4 & 5)

Duma Wins Battle in War Against Privatization.