Russia takes Chechnya towns
By Yuri Bagrov
The Associated Press
KURCHALOI, Russia — Feder
al forces bombarded roads and
footpaths in Chechnya’s southern
mountains on Monday, trying to
prevent rebel raids into Russian
controlled villages, while acting
President Vladimir Putin ap
pealed to European human rights
leaders to see Russia’s side in the
war.
Russian airplanes and artillery
pummeled the region of Vedeno,
a rebel stronghold deep in the
mountains, about 35 miles south
of the capital Grozny. Troops also
took three settlements in the re
gion, the Interfax news agency
said, citing military sources.
According to Russian recon
naissance reports, rebels are ac
tive in the region and are plan
ning to storm Russian-held
villages. The federal forces want
to prevent any repeat of the raids
on three Russian-controlled
towns earlier this month, which
cast doubts on the military’s re
ports of success in Chechnya.
Russian troops in the region
were jumpy.
“If the Chechens come today,
we’ll be easily defeated,” said
Alexei Migulin, a Russian soldier
in the village of Kurchaloi. He
said that the 150 troops in the vil
lage had enough ammunition to
last only 10 minutes.
Russia sent troops into Chech
nya in September to crush Islam
ic rebels who had staged armed
incursions into neighboring
Dagestan and are blamed for
apartment house bombings that
killed about 300 people.
In Moscow, Putin and other se
nior Russian officials met for
more than three hours with a del
egation from the 41-nation Coun
cil of Europe, the continent’s
highest human rights body. He
urged that it “base its position not
on propaganda materials but on
the real situation, facts and trust
worthy information.”
The delegation was setting out
on a fact-finding mission in
preparation for a special debate
on Jan. 27 over the war in Chech
nya. Some council members have
suggested that Russia’s member
ship should be suspended.
The leader of the delegation,
Lord Russel-Johnston, said he
had expressed the council’s op
position to the war to Putin.
"We want a cease-fire, we want
negotiations, we want the intoler
able situation with refugees to be
stopped,” he said.
Putin said that he wanted to
see a quick end to the war, but
that the Russians had no serious
negotiating partners from the
Chechen side, Russel-Johnston
told reporters.
Putin also agreed in principle
that international human rights
observers should be allowed to
operate in Chechnya, and that
Russia would be willing to accept
such observers in Ingushetia, a re
gion bordering on the breakaway
republic, Russel-Johnston said.
The military reported Monday
there had been more than 110 air
raids on Chechnya in the past 24
hours, and that more than 80
rebels had been killed. The De
fense Ministry said that over the
same period, two soldiers had
been killed and five wounded.
Jets strafed several villages at
the entrance to the strategic Ar
gun gorge, which leads through
the rebel-held mountains to Geor
gia. The military said that the
raids had hit five rebel bases in
the mountains and created
avalanches to block mountain
passes.
Federal aircraft also targeted
the Chechen capital Grozny,
where ground troops have ad
vanced cautiously to avoid the
heavy losses suffered in the 1994
96 Chechen campaign.
Russian forces prevented at
least six rebel attempts to break
out of the city, Interfax reported.
In the southwestern Urus-Mar
tan region, Russian troops opened
fire Monday on a bus carrying
refugees, killing the driver and
three passengers, eyewitnesses
said. It was not known what had
prompted the shooting, but Niko
lai Koshman, the Kremlin’s top
political representative in Chech
nya, vowed the perpetrators
would be punished.
“As soon as we find out who
did this, they will be shot and
killed in public,” Koshman said.
Milosevic aide denies
links to homicide case
By Dusan Stojanovic
The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia — The
government was not behind the
death of a notorious paramilitary
leader, an aide to President Slo
bodan Milosevic said Monday,
despite reports suggesting the vic
tim may have been killed to pre
vent him from testifying against
Yugoslav leaders.
Former Serb Police Chief Rad
milo Bogdanovic, a senior official
in Milosevic’s Socialist Party, dis
missed claims that the govern
ment was behind the gangland
style slaying of Zeljko
Raznatovic, known as Arkan.
Bogdanovic told independent
radio station B2-92 that it was
“impossible to connect” Arkan’s
death with “state terrorism” and
that “only a serious police and ju
dicial investigation” could shed
light on the killing.
Raznatovic, who had been in
dicted by the international war
crimes tribunal for alleged atroci
ties committed during wars in
Croatia and Bosnia, was believed
to have close ties to Milosevic’s
security services.
That fueled widespread specu
lation in Serbia that Arkan was
killed Saturday because he could
implicate Milosevic and other
Serbian leaders in atrocities com
mitted during the bloody breakup
of the former Yugoslavia.
At The Hague, Paul Risley,
spokesperson for the war crimes
tribunal, said two lawyers claim
ing to represent Arkan contacted
the court separately last week and
said the paramilitary leader was
interested in negotiating a deal.
Risley said it was never clear
whether the two lawyers actually
represented Raznatovic.
Police have not issued a state
ment on the attack, which oc
curred Saturday night in the lob
by of a luxury hotel.
With no official police account
of the killing, Belgrade’s newspa
pers were full of conflicting ac
counts, which further encouraged
speculation of high-level involve
ment.
The government-run Politika
daily said Raznatovic’s assassin
approached . from behind and
shot him in the head as he sat in
the hotel lobby.
This conflicted with other in
dependent media reports that
said several masked assailants
staged the attack while Arkan
was walking through the lobby.
The independent Glas newspaper
claimed Arkan knew one of the
assassins and greeted him mo
ments before the shooting started.
“If we don’t get a precise police
statement soon on who is behind
the assassination, the question
should be asked on whether the
police are hiding the facts about
the murder, or perhaps they are
behind it,” Budimir Babovic, a
former Interpol official, told Bel
grade’s Beta news agency.
Arkan, 47, led a paramilitary
group known as the “Tigers,” that
was purportedly organized in the
early 1990s by Milosevic’s secret
police to fight alongside Serb-led
troops.
That enabled Milosevic’s gov
ernment to try to disassociate it
self with some atrocities commit
ted in Bosnia and Croatia.
Arkan’s Serbian Unity Party
said a memorial service for Raz
natovic will be held Wednesday
at the Union Hall in Belgrade
while* the funeral was scheduled
for Thursday.
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