Word: chechenization
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...corpses. Gunfire and exploding shells. Civilian hostages huddled together in fear. These sights and sounds have become such standard fare on Russia's TV news shows in the six months since Moscow invaded the breakaway region of Chechnya that most Russians have grown complacent, believing the horrors of the Chechen war to be far removed from their daily lives. Few, in fact, paid serious attention to repeated threats by rebel leader Jokhar Dudayev to spread the conflict beyond Chechnya's borders. Then last week the Chechens finally made good on that vengeful promise. Suddenly the horrible images on TV were...
...terrorist raid unprecedented since the Russian civil war of the 1920s, more than 80 Chechens crossed into the neighboring Stavropol territory, concealed in trucks supposedly transporting coffins from the war zone, to launch a daring assault at high noon on the city of Budyonnovsk (pop. 100,000), some 70 miles from the Chechen border. Splitting into squads of five and six, the gunmen -- armed with automatic rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers -- fanned out across the city, joining up, according to Russian security officials, with rebels already in place...
After a battle with badly overmatched local police in which at least 20 officers were killed, the invaders occupied the Budyonnovsk town hall for almost two hours and hoisted the green, white and red Chechen flag in a mocking show of victory. Then the raiding party torched houses, set cars aflame, randomly sprayed passersby with bullets and pulled passengers off buses. Finally they retreated to the city hospital, taking hundreds of civilian hostages as a shield against hastily dispatched Russian special forces. The raiders "drove over people; they shot peaceful civilians in cold blood," reported Deputy Interior Minister Yevgeni Abramov...
...Chechen terror team issued a chilling ultimatum to the Russians: either begin the immediate withdrawal of troops from Chechnya or face a bloodbath. As government forces kept a tense vigil outside the hospital, stories quickly spread that to discourage rescue attempts the terrorists had mined the building and splashed gasoline on the hostages-numbering by some estimates close to 2,000. Ratcheting up the war of nerves, Shamil Basayev, a top rebel commander and leader of the operation, told journalists at a hastily improvised press conference: "It does not matter to us when we die. If necessary, we will shoot...
...Chechen rebels who had been holding more than 1,500 hostages in a hospital in Budyonnovsk have released their prisoners and are heading home. More than 150 people volunteered to go along as human shields to insure the rebels' safety as the Chechens departed in a bus convoy. The gunmen agreed to release the hostages after Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomydrin, in a series of dramatic televised telephone negotiations with rebel leader Shamil Basayev, agreed todeclare a ceasefire in Chechnya, resume peace talks and give the gunmen safe passage home. The normally reticent Chernomyrdin surprised many with his decisive action...