14th Army On Alert To Protest Chief's Fate

Russia's 14th Army in Moldova has been put on combat alert and is readying for military action following reports that its commander, General Alexander Lebed, will be forced to resign, a senior officer said Friday.


Officers have been restricted to their military base since 9 P.M. Thursday and security has been enhanced outside arsenals, the army's bank and other vital sites, according to Colonel Mikhail Bergman, head of the 14th Army's military police.


Bergman said in a telephone interview from the army's headquarters in Tiraspol, the capital of the breakaway Transdniestr region, that the army was preparing for possible attacks by Russian-speaking separatists to seize weapons to use in their fight against the Moldovan government.


The flamboyant Lebed has gained popularity inside the military by shooting from the hip on issues such as the decline of the once-feared Soviet armed forces and the plight of ethnic Russians living in the so-called "near abroad."


Reports of Lebed's imminent firing spread last week following an interview with the newspaper Izvestia in which the general dismissed President Boris Yeltsin as a "minus." He held up Chilean Defense Minister Augusto Pinochet, the former dictator of the South American country, as an example for leadership in Russia.


A spokesman for the Defense Ministry, however, refuted Bergman's statement that the 14th army was on combat alert, saying no special measures had been introduced.


The 14th Army was deployed in Transdniestria in 1992 in an attempt to stop fighting between the Moldovan Army and the separatists, but intervened on the side of the Russian-speaking separatists.


Tension soon developed, however, between the 14th Army and the Transdniestrian self-styled government after Lebed publicly accused the local leader of corruption.


The acting commander of the army, Major General Yury Cheprakov, said by telephone, "We are having planned operations," but added that the operations did not amount to a combat alert. He refused to elaborate.


Contacted again, Bergman insisted that the army was on "combat alert" and that the orders had been issued by the army's chief of staff General Vyacheslav Tikhomirov.


Bergman was later overheard in a telephone conversation with his superior who said: "Nobody is backing off from what was said. But don't make statements." Bergman's superior added, "Tell reporters these are planned operations and that's it."A switchboard operator at the army's headquarters said later that Tikhomirov, the chief of staff, refused to talk to journalists.


Bergman said the decision to put the army on combat alert had been prompted by frequent threats from the local Transdniestrian leaders to take over the army's arsenals where, he said, "We have weapons enough for three armies."


The threats, he said, had become particularly aggressive in the absence of the army's commander, General Lebed, who has been on vacation since last month.


"Only Lebed is capable of holding these bandits back," Bergman said. "He is the only general in Russia who has stood up against corruption and the mafia."


Bergman said the command of the army had not yet informed Lebed of the alert, adding that if Lebed knew he would fly back to Tiraspol immediately.


The general is currently with his mother who is seriously ill in his home town of Novocherkassk in southern Russia, Bergman said.


Top Defense Ministry officials have censured Lebed for criticizing Yeltsin and the government, but the ministry has not confirmed reports of the general's imminent dismissal.


The ministry's spokesman, Nikolai Shulgin, said the 14th Army is scheduled to be demoted to a division, stating the reason as understaffing.