Lebed meets Russian officials in Chechnya

Lebed meets Russian officials in Chechnya

GROZNY, Russia (Reuter): Alexander Lebed, Moscow's new peacemaker in Chechnya, met Russian officials in the rebel region yesterday as civilians took advantage of a lull in the past week's battles to stream out of Grozny in their thousands.

Lebed, to whom President Boris Yeltsin gave strong powers on Wednesday to settle the 20-month-old war, met army and civilian leaders at the Russian military base of Khankala outside Grozny to shape his peacemaking efforts, Interfax news agency said.

Lebed, who has blamed his predecessors for lack of progress in making peace in the mainly Moslem Caucasus region, also planned to meet rebel leaders, Interfax said, giving no details.

As the gruff former paratroop general talked, the flood of refugees headed out of Grozny seemed to gather strength. The city has been relatively calm since Wednesday as thousands of well- armed rebels consolidate their control following more than a week of the worst fighting the region has seen in 18 months.

Lebed flew to Grozny early yesterday. He is due to brief the media in Moscow this afternoon.

Separatists and Russian forces said the fighting had largely died down across the region, with sporadic exchanges of fire.

"Overnight in Grozny and across Chechnya the separatists did not carry out organized and coordinated military operations," the Russian interior ministry in Grozny told Tass.

"In general, the situation is quiet across the region," rebel spokesman Movladi Udugov told Reuters by telephone.

I saw hundreds of guerrillas in south and west Grozny, clearly in control of the area and relaxing after the battle.

They had dug trenches but had so far had no need of them. Groups of fighters patrolled the streets in commandeered buses and cars, including captured police jeeps with Russian Zenit anti-aircraft guns mounted on the back.

The only fighting came from the east of the city center, from where I could hear regular grenade and mortar blasts.

For the first time since the rebels were ousted from Grozny in April 1995 they are negotiating from a position of strength.

But Moscow has repeatedly said it will not countenance their demand for full independence.

Lebed, whom Yeltsin gave vast powers to "coordinate the activities of federal executive bodies" in Chechnya indicated on Wednesday he was prepared to be flexible.

"We have to seek and find a face-saving solution for both sides -- nobody won and nobody lost," he told CNN television on Wednesday. "I am sure we will find this solution."

Lebed first visited Chechnya last Sunday when he met rebel chief-of-staff Aslan Maskhadov.

There has been confusion as to whether or not Maskhadov and the acting Russian military commander in Chechnya, Gen. Konstantin Pulikovsky agreed a cease-fire at a meeting on Tuesday. The rebels said they did. Pulikovsky said he told his men not to shoot but denied there was a formal cease-fire deal.

Whatever the case, the fighting which claimed hundreds of lives, has since quietened significantly although both sides accuse the other of breaching the truce.

A Russian military source told Interfax yesterday that rebels had captured two armored personal carriers and 18 servicemen who had been delivering humanitarian goods in Grozny.

Guerrilla sources told the same agency that movements of Russian armor in the city must stop and threatened to shoot if it did not stop.

The rebels say Russian aircraft have attacked villages in southern Chechnya and refugees trying to flee Grozny.

Interfax quoted rebel command as saying that up to 40 civilians were killed on Wednesday alone in the Russian raids.

More than 30,000 people have died since the start of the conflict, most of them civilians.