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‘Mopping up’ of administration to begin |
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July 19, 2000
NAZRAN, Russia (AP) - In a brash challenge to Russian military commanders and Chechnya's civilian administrator, a pro-Moscow Chechen leader ordered his men to search for rebels in the republic's temporary capital and in the civilian administration itself. Bislan Gantamirov, the deputy head of the administration, directed militiamen to fan out across the northern city of Gudermes and "clean out" suspected rebels, his spokesman Andrei Rubanov said, according to Russian news agencies. Gantamirov said that "as a beginning, the provisional administration of the Chechen Republic will be mopped up," the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted Rubanov as saying. "Mopping up" is a term used by Russian forces to mean searching out and destroying rebels. Rubanov added that "the city will be cleared of terrorists, separatists and nationalists," and that volunteers had been called up in villages and cities across Chechnya. The announcement amounted to an accusation of collusion against the newly appointed head of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration, Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov, and a threat to split armed forces supporting the administration. Kadyrov and Gantamirov have long vied for favor in Moscow and Chechnya. The Interfax news agency quoted Gantamirov as saying that he objected to Kadyrov's firing of several local administration and police heads in Chechnya. Kadyrov removed them after they challenged his appointment in June. Gantamirov said he would not "surrender" his allies, who he said had helped seize control of Grozny with Russian forces, "to Kadyrov and his band," Interfax said. "We have the forces and resources for this," he said. Then he added, inexplicably, that he had no differences with Kadyrov, Interfax reported. Lt. Gen. Ivan Babichev, the military commandant of Chechnya, said Gantamirov's orders were illegal. "If any home guard (militia) not formed in accordance with the law is going to act in Gudermes, it will be regarded as a rebel formation with all the ensuing consequences," he said, according to Interfax. Russian military officials met with Kadyrov and Gantamirov to try to defuse the conflict, and they were scheduled to resume talks on Wednesday, said Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky. Gantamirov has had a shaky relationship with the Russian authorities. Formerly the mayor of Grozny and a separatist, he was jailed in Moscow on charges of embezzlement. Former President Boris Yeltsin amnestied him last autumn and sent him to Chechnya as the head of a pro-Russian militia. That group was broken up earlier this year amid accusations that its members had cooperated with the rebels, and Gantamirov himself was dismissed from his official post. But earlier this month he was appointed Kadyrov's deputy. As Russian military officials scrambled to calm the tensions in Gudermes, Russian airplanes and artillery continued pounding targets in the south and east of Chechnya. Interfax said that the Russians shelled the Vedeno Gorge for about an hour early Tuesday. The military said that planes and helicopter gunships had flown about 40 combat missions over the past 24 hours, striking suspected rebel positions in the Argun Gorge as well as in the Vedeno Gorge. On Monday, two men in a Russian military truck carrying water in the capital Grozny were shot and killed in a rebel ambush, ITAR-Tass reported. It said that a vehicle carrying troops that were to have protected the truck had broken down. Rebels have intensified ambushes against federal forces in Russian-held areas of the republic over recent weeks and inflicted almost daily casualties. Russian troops were driven out of Chechnya in a 1994-96 war. They returned in September, after Islamic militants raided several villages in Dagestan and after about 300 people died in apartment bombings the government blames on Chechens. |