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Russians boost hold over Grozny, hunt for militants

MOSCOW: Russian troops consolidated their hold over the Chechen capital Grozny and combed nearby country for militants on Sunday as allegations of atrocities by Moscow's forces emerged.

The New York Times quoted the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch as saying it had documented 22 cases in which Russian troops had killed Chechen civilians either to avenge losses in fighting with rebels or to loot Chechen property.

There was no immediate comment from Russian authorities. Western news coverage of the war has been impeded by the Russian military.

A senior Russian commander, Valery Manilov, has said the focus of the military campaign, now in its fifth month, is switching to the mountains of southern Chechnya where about 7,000 fighters were now estimated to be hiding.

But Manilov, first deputy chief of the General Staff, also said about 1,000 guerrillas were still lying low in Grozny and that Moscow could not yet claim full control of the city.

The troops killed about 150 militants on Saturday trying to escape Shaami-Yurt, a village southwest of Grozny, and a further 30 fighters in nearby Katyr-Yurt, Itar-Tass news agency said.

In Moscow, police said they had stepped up patrols after receiving information that bomb attacks were planned by supporters of the Chechen fighters.

Russia blamed the Chechen militants for a series of bomb blasts last autumn in Moscow and other Russian cities which claimed nearly 300 lives. The Chechens deny any involvement.

Interfax news agency reported from Grozny that two top Chechen field commanders, Shamil Basayev and Vakha Arsanov, had announced the start of "total military actions on the whole of Russian territory".

The two men, in a statement on Chechnya's separatist television channel, also claimed enough support and military hardware to wage their struggle against Moscow "for 50 years".

Interfax said representatives of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov had been trying in recent days to start negotiations with Moscow on the future of the region but had been rebuffed.

Interfax quoted sources in the Russian security forces as saying the Chechens must first unconditionally lay down their weapons. "Any talks with the leaders of the illegal bands are possible only on condition of their full capitulation and surrender of weapons," it quoted them saying.

Maskhadov, elected president in January 1997 after commanding rebel forces during the 1994-96 war, has kept a low profile during this conflict.

Russia says he has proven incapable of controlling warlords like Basayev and argues that he has forfeited the right to be considered the legitimate leader of Chechnya by declaring his region independent and introducing Islamic Sharia law there.

Interfax said another warlord, Arab-born Khattab, was coordinating plans to defend militant strongholds in the mountains. It said the fighters were also trying to overcome Russia's block of a key mountain route leading south into ex-Soviet Georgia.

Russia's NTV television has shown footage of fighters heading through snowbound forests onto higher ground. NTV said some of the fighters spoke languages other than Chechen, highlighting the role of foreign mercenaries in the war.

Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev has said the militants lost as many as 1,500 men trying to escape the Russian encirclement of Grozny over the past few days.

In Grozny itself, there were reports on Sunday of only scattered militant resistance as the Russians tightened their hold over the devastated, smouldering city where tens of thousands of hungry, cold civilians are still believed to reside.

On Sunday, EU Development Commissioner Poul Nielson was due to fly to the North Caucasus region to assess the humanitarian operation underway among the estimated 200,000 Chechen refugees.-Reuters