Page 14 • Wednesday, October 13, 1999
w
ORLD
ie Batt;
Chechnya’s war growing
Russian artillery pounds positions north of Grozny as both sides fortify
fixed positions. More than 150,000 Chechens have fled since the fighting
began, with most heading to Ingushetia.
STAVROPOL KRAY
RUSSIA
Russian shelling Kamyshev Kargalinskaya
, Population center J k
F P re ® t , Russian occupied Chechnya
^ Marshland
i Kalinovskaya
CHECHNYA ^
INGUSHETIA
25 km
CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS
Army seizes
Coup in Pakistan
Chervlyonnaya-Uzlovaya
Grozny^
Argun
Urus-Martan
^ •
*
Gudermes
Nazmai-Yurt
Shall
^Vedeno
AP/Wm. J. Gastello
Russia nearing finish
government
in Pakistan
Pakistani troops loyal to dismissed army chief Gen. PervaizItejj
have taken over government buildings and airports in Islamabac
government of Prime Minister Sharif has been ousted.
Prime
Minister’s
house
National
Broadcasting •
House
Parliament
[]
Islamabad i
Airport T
ISLAMABAD
Rswal
Laic
of military perimeter
GROZNY, Russia (AP) — A mili
tary security zone to separate Russia
from the breakaway republic of
Chechnya is nearly complete, but
rebel forces were resisting with
heavy fighting in some areas, Rus
sia’s defense minister said yesterday.
Russian artillery pounded
Chechen positions on several
fronts, and Russian authorities
said they suspected Chechen mil
itants would soon launch terror
ist attacks.
“Clashes with militants contin
ue, especially in western Chech
nya,” Defense Minister Igor
Sergeyev said in the Ukrainian
town of Feodosia, where
Ukraine’s forces were staging mil
itary maneuvers.
He said the Russian aim of es
tablishing a security zone in
Chechnya was “close to comple
tion,” the Interfax news agency re
ported. The Russians said they
wanted to create the buffer to pre
vent Chechen rebels from invading
other Russian regions.
“The ultimate objective is not
only to form the security zone, but
also to destroy armed gangs,”
Sergeyev said.
Both sides have been fortify
ing their positions in recent
days, and neither has launched a
major offensive.
The Russians, who have relied
mostly on large artillery guns,
hammered two areas north of
Chechnya’s capital, Grozny, yes
terday. The echo of the exploding
shells could be heard throughout
the city.
Russian soldiers also were
shelling near the western town of
Bamut, which they have been at
tacking for several days.
For now, the front line is de
fined by the Terek River, which
flows across the northern third of
Chechnya, forming a natural de
fense barrier. Chechen forces con
trol most of the more populated
regions south of the river, while
the Russians have most of the
plains north of the river.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) —
In an apparent coup, Pakistani
troops took over state-run media
yesterday, closed airports and an
nounced the democratically elect
ed government had been removed
after the prime minister tried to fire
the powerful army chief.
A message that scrolled across
the television screen said Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif’s govern
ment had been ousted.
It said army chief of staff Gen.
Pervaiz Musharraf, who had
been fired hours before by Sharif,
would address the nation in a
broadcast speech.
TVoops cordoned off the prime
minister in his residence in Islam
abad, took over the houses of sev
eral other top ministers and seized
other government buildings.
Sharif fired Musharraf while the
military leader was on a visit to Sri
Lanka. Musharraf flew back to Pak
istan and was met by a large con
tingent of soldiers at the airport in
the southern city of Karachi.
Musharraf seized television
building in preparation to deliver
his speech, the army information
office said.
As troops moved through the
main cities, many Pakistanis
danced in the streets and waved
flags, celebrating the apparent
ouster of a government that had be
come increasingly unpopular.
Instability in Pakistan would
heighten tensions in South Asia,
home of the world’s two newest
nuclear powers, India and Pak
istan, which clashed earlier this
year in a dispute over the divided
Himalayan region of Kashmir.
India’s army went on a state of
high alert along the border, a senior
officer in India’s northern com
mand in Kashmir said on condition
of anonymity.
6 miles
RAWALPINDI
Airport
6 km
\v
mr
“If there has been a coup we
would obviously seek the earliest
possible restoration of democracy
in Pakistan,” U.S. State Department
spokesperson James Rubin said be
fore the army announcement.
Asked if the situation in Islam
abad had raised concerns about
control of nuclear-weapons tech
nologies in Pakistan, White House
spokesperson Joe Lockhart said:
“No concern like that has been
raised to me. ”
In New Delhi, Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee held a crisis
meeting with his top security and
ort uni'
foreign policy advisers.Hi:'
from Pakistan "are causir:
concern,” Vajpayee’s spcs
son, Ashok Tandon, said.
Earlier in the day inlskflat it w
Sharif announced Musha;
moval and appeared on
television shaking the hat;
replacement, Gen. ZiaUddi
of the country’s secret sen
Within hours, the army
ning out in the capital an:
cities. Soldiers leaped m Because
|raw fui
fence around the centralTi
ing in Islamabad and seize:: l>nsive
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World population reaches six billio
bncelec
New
ight to
hstitutn
mould 1
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A population
clock at U.N. headquarters hit 6 billion yesterday
and started racing toward seven billion as an anx
ious world pondered what the new millennium
holds for an increasingly crowded planet.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wel
comed the symbolic Baby Six Billion in Saraje
vo, Bosnia-Herzegovina — a boy born to
refugee parents in a region returning to life af
ter a decade of war.
Adnan Nevic’s birth “should light a path of
tolerance and understanding for all people,”
Annan said.
But the tens of thousands of children born
on the Day of 6 Billion are far more likely to face
lives of poverty and illiteracy in developing
countries. UNICEF head Carol Bellamy said 1 in
3 children in the world’s poorest countries will
not live beyond age 5.
U.N. demographers had determined the
population would hit six billion yesterday,
doubling the Earth’s inhabitants in less than
40 years.
The population clock in the visitors’ lobby at
U.N. headquarters was racing so fast yesterday
morning it skipped from 5,999,999,998 to
6,000,000,001.
“Somebody had triplets," one U.N. official
present joked.
The clock was inside a display set up by the
U.N. Population Fund, which has advs
people’s right to determine the size ana
ing of their families.
It is campaigning to fulfill the g
1994 U.N. population conference —
basic education for all children, especial j
by 2015, since research shows educated*'
have fewer children.
With more than one billion peoples:
to 24 just entering their reproductive yen:
next population milestone will depend
decisions they make about family size
“Their choices will determine lion-
people will be on the planet by2050an
yond,” the Population Fund displayread.
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