Chechen Capital in Russia’s Grip, Putin Declares

MOSCOW —  Acting Russian President Vladimir V. Putin declared Sunday that federal forces had scored a major victory in Chechnya, taking control of the republic’s war-torn capital, Grozny, after seven weeks of fierce fighting with separatist rebels.

“The last stronghold of the terrorists’ resistance--Grozny’s Zavodskoy district--has just been seized, and the Russian flag has been hoisted above one of the administrative buildings,” Putin said in a television interview. “I can say that the operation to liberate Grozny is over.”

The battle for Grozny virtually destroyed the city and cost the lives of untold numbers of soldiers and civilians, as Russian bombers and ground troops painstakingly forced the rebels out of buildings they had turned into fortresses.

Russian forces claim that they killed about 1,500 rebels--including a number of top Chechen commanders--as the Islamic fighters tried last week to retreat from Grozny into the Caucasus Mountains to the south.

Russian television showed gory footage Sunday of a doctor finishing amputating the right foot of notorious rebel leader Shamil Basayev, the most wanted man in Russia. Basayev reportedly stepped on a land mine during his escape from Grozny. The footage also showed a woman bandaging one of his hands as he lay on a table. Earlier, the Chechens had reported that Basayev had been wounded by a “splinter” from a shell fragment.

New York-based Human Rights Watch charged Sunday that as Russian soldiers moved into Grozny, they retaliated against the local population by executing at least 22 civilians, most of them women and elderly men.

Refugees from Grozny whom the organization interviewed in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia described how Russian soldiers had looted their possessions, shot and burned women, and thrown hand grenades into basements where civilians were hiding. At least six men disappeared, the refugees said, after being forced to retrieve the corpses of Russian soldiers from the battlefield.

A woman identified only as Hedi, 40, described how she was among a group of women who were shot by Russian troops. Seriously wounded, she pretended to be dead as they stripped her body of jewelry and a small amount of cash, she said.

“They turned me over face down,” she told Human Rights Watch. “They took my gold ring and earrings. They checked me all over and found 400 rubles in one pocket. It was tough for them to get my gold ring, and they were looking for a knife but couldn’t find it. They tried again, and fortunately the ring came off.”

After taking the women’s valuables, the soldiers piled mattresses on top of them, doused the mattresses with gasoline and set them on fire, according to Hedi’s account. But the mattresses were damp and burned slowly, and after the soldiers left, she was able to crawl to a neighbor’s house for help. She had a bullet wound and burns consistent with her testimony, the rights group said.

After more than four months of aerial bombardment and artillery strikes, the destruction of Grozny is so vast that the occupying Russian forces were having difficulty finding buildings that could be used for headquarters and offices.

Russian officials said that more than 80% of the city’s office and apartment buildings have been destroyed. Many of the remaining buildings were mined and booby-trapped by the fleeing rebels. Russian forces were moving cautiously through the city clearing explosives.

Lt. Gen. Gennady Troshev, first deputy commander of the Russian forces in the North Caucasus, said the Russians were in complete control of the capital.

“I have to state with all responsibility that there is not a single [Chechen] fighter in Grozny today,” he told RTR state television. “It is the second day that there has been no fighting [in the city] in the proper sense of the word. . . . The situation is normal.”

Until September, the capital was home to more than 400,000 people. As many as 40,000 civilians--most of them poor and elderly--remained in the city throughout the siege. Many were still cowering in their basement hide-outs as the Russians took over.

Yuri Surayev, a Russian officer, said his troops had been approached by about 200 civilians seeking help.

“Naturally, the things they need most of all and ask for are food and water,” he told Russia’s NTV television network.

Based on the reports of refugees who recently fled Grozny, Human Rights Watch painted a grim picture of a city seized by Russian soldiers who were undisciplined and out of control. According to these accounts, the soldiers shot civilians at close range in revenge for their fallen comrades--and took any booty they could.

“We have now confirmed the deaths of 22 people, most of them women and elderly men,” Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch said by telephone from Ingushetia. “These were willful executions, not incidental casualties of this war.”

The organization is investigating 14 additional alleged killings of civilians under similar circumstances. Earlier, the group documented 17 cases in the village of Alkhan-Yurt in which Russian soldiers allegedly killed civilians.

“Some of our worst fears about what could happen in Grozny are now being confirmed,” Bouckaert said. “These allegations are very credible, and they paint a very disturbing picture. There appears to be very little that protects citizens trapped in Grozny from brutality by Russian forces.”

In one reported incident, soldiers ordered six civilians who had emerged from a cellar to go back in. They threw several hand grenades into the cellar, injuring all six people, then ordered them to come back out.

“They started shooting at us from close range,” said a woman identified only as Lora. “People lying around me were still moving. I was all in blood and brains from other people. I was also wounded in the right side of my chest, and blood was coming out through my mouth. Then soldiers decided that we were all dead and left.”

Lora, the only one of the six to survive, reached a hospital in Ingushetia, where she was interviewed by the rights group.

* RUSSIAN DISCREPANCY

Soldier freed over the weekend is same one reported released days earlier by rebels. A12