WORLD
Page 12
THE BATTALION
Thursday, February 21,
lursday, Feb
Russian troops and rebels battle over last command po|M;
frii
MESKER-YURT, Russia (AP) — Deep in
the rugged mountains of southern Chech
nya, rebels battled intensely Wednesday
against Russian troops trying to close in
on the fighters’ last major command post.
But Russia managed to tighten the cir
cle around some 2,700 militants concen
trated around the town of Shatoi, said Col.
Gen. Gennady Troshev, the deputy mili
tary commander in Chechnya.
The troops are backed by warplanes
and helicopters, which flew about 125
combat missions over the mountains
over the past 24 hours, the military said
Wednesday.
Shatoi, about 30 miles south of the
Chechen capital, Grozny, has consider
able strategic value for both sides.
Russian officials have estimated that as
many as 8,000 rebels are in the mountains,
so taking Shatoi likely would not bring an
end to the five-month-old war. But the loss
of such a major command center could se
riously damage the rebels’ campaign.
“1 think in the nearest future we’ll be
able to close the book on what we’re doing
here,” TVoshev said.
TYoshev confirmed reports that a Russ
ian helicopter was shot down by the
rebels over Shatoi on Tuesday, but said its
crew members had escaped and were
now safe. Three other helicopters re-
“/ think in the nearest
future we'll be able to
close the book on
what we're doing
here.”
— Col. Gen. Gennady Troshev
Deputy Military Commander
in Chechnya
turned to their bases badly damaged, mil
itary officials said.
The army command, meanwhile,
said about 100 rebels were killed and 24
were captured during three failed at
tempts to break through the Russian
lines near Shatoi on Tuesday. Three
Russian border guards were killed and
two were wounded, it said.
Thirty more militants were killed when
soldiers seized key heights around
Maskhety, a village east of Shatoi, the mil
itary said. The claims could not be inde
pendently confirmed, and each side in the
war tends to exaggerate enemy losses
while understating its own.
Elsewhere in Chechnya, soldiers
roads and banned all civilian mova
between settlements over fears
lence linked to Wednesday’s annivea
of the 1944 mass deportation of Checs
to Central Asia.
The anniversary coincides witt
annual Russian holiday honorin'
military, and Russian strategists was
that the rebels were planning tern
attacks.
The news agency ITAR-Tass repc:
that federal forces in Grozny on Wed
day found and defused three mines
two remote-controlled bombs placed!
railroad bridge.
Flood-torn Mozambique
asks for international aid
MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) —
Mozambique appealed Wednesday
for international aid after a cyclone
and two weeks of torrential rains
■left much of the country under wa
ter and in danger of epidemics.
Aid workers flying over some of
the worst-hit areas on Wednesday
saw huge swaths of low-lying areas
submerged. Much of southern Gaza
and central Inhambane provinces
was accessible only by air.
The toll inflicted on this im
poverished southeast African
country by two weeks of rains and
Cyclone Eline, which churned
through the country Thesday be
fore dissipating into a tropical
storm, was staggering.
Foreign Minister Leonardo
Simao, launching the aid appeal to
diplomats here, said more than
70,000 acres of crops had been de
stroyed and an estimated 300,000
people lost their homes. About
30,000 cattle drowned.
The World Health Organization
warned that more than 800,000
people were at risk from epidemics
— particularly cholera and malaria.
Scores of roads and bridges
were washed out, hindering de
livery of emergency supplies. On
Wednesday, yet another bridge —
one linking the capital Maputo to
the town of Xai-Xai in neighbor
ing Gaza province — collapsed.
Simao put the preliminary
death toll from the two weeks of
flooding and the cyclone at 70.
The government said $65 million
dollars in aid was needed. The Unit
ed Nations on Wednesday issued an
appeal for $13.63 million to be used
by eight agencies covering food,
shelter, health, water, sanitation,
education, communication and co
ordination, said the U.N.’s Office for
ZAMBIA
TANZANIA
Lake
Malawi
MALAWI
MOZAMBIQUE
Spaniards protest bombing deat
ZIMBABWE
Indian
Ocean
Bein
SOUTH
AFRICA
AFRICA
Maputo
150 miles
SWAZILAND ' M '
, • 150 km
AP
the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs in Geneva.
The heightened risk of malaria
was evident at a food aid depot
north of Maputo where thousands
of mosquitoes — which carry the
disease and thrive in stagnant wa
ter — coated the walls.
VITORIA, Spain (AP) — Thou
sands of Spaniards nationwide ob
served five minutes of silence
Wednesday to protest the latest
deadly car bombing blamed on the
Basque separatist group ETA.
In Vitoria, the Basque cap
ital where a Socialist politician
and his bodyguard were killed
by the blast Tliesday, several
thousand huddled under um
brellas in Spain Square as a
steady rain fell.
Their solemn protest was
mirrored all over Spain as peo
ple gathered outside town
halls in silent condemnation
of ETA, state radio said.
The explosion occurred
There was no claim of respon
sibility, but government officials
immediately blamed ETA, which
announced in December an end to
a 14-month-old cease-fire. ETA is
“This is something that
cannot ever be accepted
by people committed to
peace and democracy”
— Tony Blair
Prime Minister of Great Britain
Thesday just 200 yards from the
headquarters of the president of the
Basque government. It killed Fer
nando Buesa, the 53-year-old
leader of the Alava provincial chap
ter of the Socialist Party, and his 27-
year-old bodyguard, Jorge Diez
Elorza, authorities said.
blamed for a similar bombing
that killed an army colonel in
Madrid last month.
British Prime Minister Tony
Blair joined European Union offi
cials today in expressing outrage
over the bombing.
“Terrorism has no place in a
democratic society,” Blairtoli
porters on a visit to EU headqi
ters in Brussels, Belgium. “It!
something that cannot everbe;
cepted by people committee
peace and democracy.”
In a separate statemi
Nicole Fontaine, presides:
the European Parliaue
called the bombing “all
baric act unworthy of i
civilized society."
The blast came in 2
runup to Spain’s generales
tions on March 12, andaipi
ties suspended campaigns
Prime Minister Jose Marial
nar is promising to conbi
his hardline stance again
Basque independence. TheSooi
ists also oppose concessions toElj
Earlier at the Basque Pariij
ment, hundreds of people filedpi
Buesa’s coffin, which wasdrap
with the red, white and gra
Basque flag, and the crimsonoa
of the Socialists.
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Out To Beet
Thursdays Uv The, Battalions
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