Newspaper Article

CHECHEN REBELS WIDEN RESISTANCE, HIJACKING A FERRY

Specter, Michael

1996

Overview

In Grozny, the capital of the disputed province, Russian security officials reported that another group of rebels kidnapped all 30 employees of a power substation on the outskirts of town and drove them to an unknown location. Chechen rebels denied the assertion, although a top aide to the Chechen leader, Dzhokhar M. Dudayev, declared a campaign of \"widespread terrorist activity\" to promote the demand for the withdrawal of all Russian troops from Chechnya. \"There is nothing good to say,\" commented Oleg I. Lobov, head of Mr. Yeltsin's National Security Council and his representative in Chechnya, on Russian television Tuesday evening. \"We have intercepted the Chechen radio communications. They promise that everything will be better in the next world.\" A voice believed to be that of Mr. Raduyev, sounding tense but steady, was heard on the Voice of Chechnya television on Tuesday, telling a Chechen commander that \"Pervomayskoye is under our complete control.\" While there is no proof that the voice was that of the rebel leader, many people who have spoken with him often in the past confirmed that the voice sounded authentic.

• Publisher: New York Times Company
• Subject: FERRIES / HIJACKING / HOSTAGES / INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENTS / POLITICS ANDGOVERNMENT