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Curfew
in Chechnya: shooting without warning |
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July 5, 2000 GUDERMES, Russia (AP) - Russian forces imposed a curfew in Chechnya, threatening on Tuesday that soldiers would fire without warning on any vehicles that violated it.
The move followed a deadly series of suicide truck-bombings against Russian forces in the breakaway republic. The coordinated attacks Sunday night contradicted Russian claims that the 10-month-old military campaign had broken organized resistance by the rebels.
Col. Gen. Valery Manilov, first deputy chief of the general staff, gave the official military toll on Tuesday. He said that 33 soldiers had been killed, 84 were wounded, and six had gone missing in the attacks.
But a government spokesman in Gudermes, the seat of pro-Moscow Chechen authorities, said on condition of anonymity that the real toll among soldiers was no fewer than 50.
At least 11 civilians were killed in the explosions, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. And no fewer than six rebels die when the trucks blew up.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky said that 37 soldiers had died and four soldiers had gone missing. There was no explanation for the disparity between his and Manilov's figures.
Federal forces beefed up defenses around checkpoints on Chechnya's main roads, bringing in additional troops and armored vehicles. Security was also tightened around barracks.
The curfew started Monday night, and it will be in effect from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m., the joint military and police command said. Moving vehicles will be fired on without warning, the command said.
Civilians were trying to leave Argun, site of the biggest blast, in which 26 soldiers were killed. Russian troops began searching the city for rebels on Monday, and civilians feared mistreatment by soldiers looking for revenge.
The ITAR-Tass news agency, citing local residents, said that Russian helicopters and artillery pounded the southwestern town of Urus-Martan, targeted in one of the explosions, for about three hours on Tuesday. There were civilian casualties, it said.
The report could not immediately be confirmed.
Rebels attacked Russian posts in the Nozhai-Yurt and Novolaksky regions of eastern Chechnya overnight, the government spokesman said. He said an unspecified number of Russian soldiers had been wounded in the shootouts.
Beginning early Tuesday morning, Russian aircraft and artillery bombarded the Argun and Vedeno gorges, which are key rebel refuges, and the southern regions of Itum-Kale and Shali. The Russians' main goal was to prevent dispersed groups of rebels from joining up, the spokesman said.
Rebel land mines continued to take their toll. Two Russian soldiers were killed on Monday when their armored personnel carrier hit a mine near the village of Tolstoy-Yurt, north of the capital Grozny, ITAR-Tass reported.
Russian troops on Monday barred all non-military traffic in Grozny and the four towns that were targeted in the explosions, and sent reinforcement troops, citing reports of more expected attacks.
"What happened demands that we should become more vigilant and use measures that will prevent bandits from fulfilling their vicious designs," Manilov, the general staff deputy, said.
As the military tried to recover from the bombings, work continued on restoring Chechnya's civilian institutions. Russian news agencies reported that 15 candidates had been registered for the Aug. 20 election to choose a Chechen deputy in the lower house of the Russian parliament, the State Duma. The best-known candidate is Bislan Gantamirov, a former mayor of Grozny who led a pro-Russian militia in Chechnya for several months.
Russian troops were driven out of Chechnya in a 1994-96 war. They returned in September, after Islamic militants raided several villages in the neighboring Russian region of Dagestan, and after about 300 people died in apartment bombings the government blames on Chechens.
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