Yeltsin Softens Chechen Ultimatum

GROZNY, Chechnya -- President Boris Yeltsin appeared to back away from a threat to intervene in Chechnya on Thursday, even as Russian troops massed on the borders of the breakaway republic and jets continued to attack the capital.


Russian planes flew over Grozny on Thursday, scattering copies of Yeltsin's Tuesday ultimatum threatening to impose a state of emergency that would use all necessary force unless the warring parties laid down their arms within 48 hours.


The 6 A.M. Thursday deadline passed without event, however, and the text that reached the citizens of Grozny contained no reference to imposing a state of emergency in the republic.


In Moscow, where the same text was also released Thursday, the president's press service said it was issuing a clarification of the statement, because the media had "given differing interpretations of certain clauses of this document," according to Interfax.


In the new version of the ultimatum, Yeltsin reiterated that if Chechnya did not comply with his demands, Russia would "use all powers and means at its disposal to end bloodshed, defend the lives, rights and freedoms of citizens of Russia, and establish constitutional law, order and peace in the republic of Chechnya." But there was no mention of a state of emergency.


In a new approach, Yeltsin offered limited amnesty to Chechens who "voluntarily laid down arms by Dec. 15," according to The Associated Press.


In another sign that Russia sought to avoid direct confrontation, Defense Minister Pavel Grachev told reporters in Moscow that some Russian servicemen who "carried out certain military tasks for material compensation" from anti-Dudayev forces had been brought back to central Russia. Grachev insisted such service men were volunteers who were not in Chechnya on army orders, The Associated Press reported.


Dudayev's government said it had captured up to 70 Russians in fighting last weekend and alleged that some were army soldiers. Chechen officials initially threatened to execute them but subsequently said they would be treated as prisoners of war.


News agencies reported several dozen military transport planes carrying hundreds of troops had landed at the North Ossetian city of Vladikavkaz, close to the Chechnya border, and that long lines of armored vehicles were on the road near the airport. But there were no reports of the troops moving into Chechnya itself.


Unidentified planes carried out three more raids Thursday on the outskirts of Grozny in the wake of attacks on the two previous days that destroyed several civilian planes on the ground at Grozny's airport. As the jets screamed overhead, anti-aircraft batteries opened up from rooftops.


In the second raid, bombs or rockets fell on the street in the west of the city. Reporters saw a woman lying dead in the road, and local people said there were other casualties.


The mood in the city was as defiant as ever among those who had decided to stay. Fighters fired their Kalashnikovs in the air, while outside the presidential palace, 200 Chechens danced a Zika, a war dance again and again.


A number of volunteers have come into the city from the outlying villages of Chechnya to what they say could be the last stand of Chechnya's self-declared independence.


But the road out west toward Vladikavkaz was clogged with traffic as families struggled to leave the city.


Valentina Levchenko, a Russian doctor, said she too would have left if she could, but she did not have enough money. "We used to have rich factories and oil refineries here," she lamented. "Now all the specialists have left, and all we've got is this battle for power."


The green, white and red Chechen flag was still flying over the presidential palace, but President Dzhokhar Dudayev himself was taking no chances when he called a press conference in a basement bomb shelter.


An outwardly calm but clearly angry Dudayev accused Russia of being "an evil empire" unleashing a third World War on the world. "It is propaganda, lies, lies, and violence," he said. "It is no longer possible to speak with Moscow."


He said the situation was "getting out of control," and that in Moscow "only the military are deciding matters -- and the military don't negotiate."


He held out little hope of striking a deal with an eleventh-hour delegation of deputies that arrived in late afternoon from the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament.


The delegation was led by Duma Defense Committee Chairman Sergei Yushenkov, who said they had not been received by Dudayev but had discussed the plight of the prisoners seized during last weekend's failed attack on Grozny with Chechen Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.


Yushenkov said the delegation had established that 21 Russian nationals were being held, as well as 74 Chechens.


Delegation member Ella Pamfilova said she did not expect there would be an invasion, but that the delegation was determined to get a clear picture of the situation in Chechnya. "We want to see with our own eyes, draw correct conclusions and tell the wider Russian public the true state of affairs," she said.


At his press conference, Dudayev put the blame for the crisis squarely on Moscow, and called the Russians "aggressive, unbridled, satanic forces."


He read out a declaration by demonstrators in the square calling for a Russian prisoner to be hanged in the street from captured parachute cords after every air raid. He did not say whether he personally supported the declaration.


One of the prisoners, Andrei Chasov, who is being held in the state security headquarters, told The Moscow Times he was an ordinary conscript from the Kantemir Division who only joined the army seven months ago.


Chasov looked anxious as he told how he and 20 other soldiers were sent from outside Moscow to the town of Mozdok in northern Ossetia last week.


"They told us nothing, they do everything in secret," Chasov said.


He said the Russian soldiers were given a tank and told they were being sent to take control of a demonstration.Only when they were surrounded by Chechen fighters on the outskirts of Grozny did Chasov say he understood where he was. His comrades fled, and Chasov alone was captured.