Russia slams Clinton over Chechnya

MOSCOW, JAN. 28. Russia today criticised the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton's characterisation of its war in Chechnya as `cruel and self- defeating', saying the comment was a fresh sign of the west's lack of understanding.

The Government's new Chechnya spokesman, Mr. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying: ``the real causes of what is happening in the Chechen republic are still not fully understood in the west.

''(The west) tries to look at events in Chechnya through the prism of its own fixed idea of how the struggle against terrorism should be waged,`` Mr. Yastrzhembsky, the man charged with improving the image of the offensive, said.

In Moscow, the Russian security services started taking urgent measures to counter possible rebel attacks from Chechnya, where a pro-Russian Chechen leader said he would hold talks with rebel commanders in Grozny.

Gen. Gennady Troshev, senior Russian commander, said only a handful of civilians were left in Chechnya's war-torn capital, dealing head on with a subject which has particularly concerned the west. Most had been taken to Russian-controlled areas, he said.

Amid fears of fresh terrorist attacks in Russia, Mr. Alexander Zdanovich, spokesman for the FSB domestic security agency, told NTV television Moscow would increase security.

His comments followed a statement by a leading Muslim guerilla commander threatening to launch lightning strikes similar to those which cut heavily into Russia's advance early in the new year.

Russia launched its offensive in Chechnya after devastating bomb blasts rocked Moscow and other cities. It blamed the attacks on Chechen rebels, who swiftly denied the charges.

The U.N. Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, in Moscow for talks with the Acting President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, expressed concern over the four-month military drive.

``Mr. Kofi Annan said that the efforts of the Russian authorities to fight terrorism in the North Caucasus are understandable and enjoy support, but the question also arises of the humanitarian situation,'' said Mr. Sergei Prikhodko, deputy head of the presidential administration.

The NATO Secretary-General, Lord George Robertson, in Ukraine, also called for an end to the fighting.

- Reuters

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Section  : International
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