Yeltsin Defends Continuation of Chechnya War

President Boris N. Yeltsin ordered Russian forces Tuesday to continue disarming the rebel fighters of Chechnya, and he defended the war against the Muslim republic as necessary to end the violence and instability of an outlaw regime.

“The reign of banditry on Chechen soil poses a danger to our entire country,” Yeltsin said in a nationally televised address, his first speech explaining why he sent thousands of troops into the tiny republic Dec. 11 to crush Chechnya’s 3-year-old bid for independence.

“No territory has the right to secede from Russia,” Yeltsin declared, saying that Chechnya is an “indivisible” part of Russia under the constitution adopted a year ago.

At the same time, Yeltsin sought to reassure the Chechen people, who suffered under Russian rule in czarist and Soviet times, by promising that “Russia is not an enemy to the Muslims” and will respect Chechnya’s unique traditions.

The president made it plain that Russia will not rest until the Chechen rebels and foreign mercenaries alleged to be fighting alongside them are disarmed.

“Law and order on the territory of the Chechen Republic will be restored,” Yeltsin promised. “Grozny should be cleansed of criminal elements shortly.”

Intelligence sources said a major attack on Grozny, the besieged capital, is expected before Saturday. Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai D. Yegorov said the cleanup operation in Chechnya is to be completed within 10 days.

In a gesture to the many Russians who have reacted with revulsion to televised footage of the carnage inflicted on civilians by Russian air strikes, Yeltsin ordered the military to halt “bombing raids that can cause casualties among the peaceful population of Grozny.”

In fact, the bombing of Grozny was halted several days ago, although Chechen authorities reported Russian air strikes on outlying villages Monday and Tuesday.

But if Yeltsin held an olive branch in one hand, the Kremlin’s other hand was still clenched in a fist. An unnamed military official quickly gave warning that the presidential order not to bomb Grozny did not mean that Chechnya’s skies are safe.

“As soon as weather conditions permit,” the Russian air force plans to attack Chechen positions with laser-guided missiles, a tactic that “practically rules out casualties among civilians” because the missiles are accurate to within three yards, a senior Defense Ministry official told the Interfax news agency Tuesday.

A unit of elite Omon riot police was dispatched to Chechnya on Tuesday to take part in the “second phase” of the Russian military operation, that of restoring order in Grozny, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The feared Omon troops have been used to crush rebellions and riots, and they stormed the Russian Parliament building in Moscow in October, 1993.

But Yeltsin insisted that a political settlement is still possible. He authorized three senior officials to negotiate with the Chechens for a cease-fire and disarmament. That offer has been made before by Moscow and repeatedly rejected by Chechen President Dzhokar M. Dudayev, who has demanded a Russian withdrawal before his forces lay down their arms.

Dudayev remained defiant Tuesday.

“We propose, while there is still time, an immediate withdrawal of troops from Chechen territory,” Dudayev said in an interview in Grozny before Yeltsin’s speech. “Chechnya does not want to shed the blood of Russian soldiers.”

Baiting the Russian bear as he has consistently since coming to power in 1991, Dudayev was shown on Russian television Tuesday giving an interview to a Turkish reporter in which he called on Ankara to supply Chechnya with warplanes capable of bombing Moscow.

“Give me some airplanes who may fly to Moscow and I (will) attack,” the former Soviet air force general said in English, arguing that Turkey should help a Muslim neighbor defend itself against Russian bombing.

Russia has vied with Turkey for centuries over influence in the strategic Caucasus region, and the plea for Turkish intervention in what Russia considers an exclusively internal affair seemed calculated to enrage the Kremlin.

In Grozny, residents emerged from hiding in their basements Tuesday and went out in search of food and water. Kiosks and small markets reopened, but the city reportedly remained without electricity or running water.

Fighting continued in at least five areas outside the city. Russian authorities said two more Russian soldiers had been killed, bringing the official toll to 44 dead and 147 wounded. But casualty figures on both sides of the conflict are considered to be of dubious accuracy.

Chechen officials claimed to have captured 16 Russian prisoners after fierce fighting near the city of Argun. They said Dudayev’s 23-year-old son, Avgur, was seriously wounded during a Chechen attack on Russian positions there.

Russian authorities said armed Chechen “gangs” in many areas have taken to wearing Russian military uniforms.

The Russian government press service alleged that busloads of refugees trying to flee Grozny have been turned around and sent to Freedom Square in downtown Grozny, where they are being kept as human shields in case Grozny is stormed.

But there was no independent confirmation of this, and Russian official information has proved highly unreliable in the past.

On Tuesday, a press-freedom watchdog group protested “outrageous violation of journalists’ rights of access to comprehensive and authentic information,” the pressuring of journalists to make their reports more sympathetic to Moscow and other violations of the Russian constitution.

The Kremlin’s response was more of the same. A reorganization of the official press service was announced that put Deputy Prime Minister Sergei M. Shakhrai in charge.

The Kremlin has ample reason to worry about negative media coverage. A poll released Tuesday found that 75% of Russians disapproved of Yeltsin’s actions as president, up from 70% in September, Interfax reported. The poll surveyed 1,602 Russians across the nation and was conducted Dec. 16-20, before the intensive bombing of Grozny began.

Yeltsin promised to step up humanitarian aid to Chechnya, rebuild its schools and hospitals, restore postal service and telephones, and pay pensioners who have not received their benefits for months or years. All the money Moscow has allocated for such purposes has been diverted by the Dudayev regime to buy weapons, he said.

First Deputy Prime Minister Oleg N. Soskovets estimated that it will cost a trillion rubles--about $285 million--to rebuild Chechnya’s shattered economy. The first priority will be restoring severed railroad service, he said.