TENSION is rising in the rebel region of Chechnya, where a fragile ceasefire held during the Russian presidential campaign. As the deadline for the removal of checkpoints by Russian forces approaches, some rebel Chechen commanders have threatened to restart hostilities. The war has so far cost the lives of up to 40,000 people, mainly civilians.
A Chechen rebel spokesman, Mr Movladi Udugov, claimed that Russian artillery had shelled several villages in the mountains in the south east of the region, and that civilian casualties had resulted.
On the Russian side the reason given for failure to remove the checkpoints was that Russian troops had been attacked several times in recent weeks. The federal military command, in a statement to the Interfax news agency yesterday, said that Russian positions had come under fire 12 times in the past 24 hours, with two soldiers wounded.
An agreement reached after President Yeltsin met Mr Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the rebel leader, had stipulated that the region be demilitarised. Russia pulled out one motorised infantry regiment in the run up to the presidential poll.
Election results from Chechnya showed a majority for Mr Yeltsin. But observers from OSCE (the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) declared the election there to be "neither free nor fair". Western journalists who visited polling stations were permitted to vote several times.
Russia's new security chief, Gen Alexander Lebed, is due to visit Chechnya shortly. But a statement from the general's office yesterday said that he had no intention of meeting representatives of rebel forces and would do so only if the pro-Moscow Chechen leader, Mr Doku Zavgayev, thought it would be necessary.
A resumption of hostilities in Chechnya would mark the final stage to a return to the pre-election situation in Russia. Newspapers and television stations which vigorously supported Mr Yeltsin's re-election have now taken a different tack.
The most popular newspaper, Moskovsky Komsomolets, has started to ask questions about Mr Yeltsin's health, having ignored his mysterious absence from view in the final week of the campaign.
