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.