World News 08-12-1999 Civilians Too Scared To Flee Grozny who: Chechen Refugees what: Flee Grozny under fire where: Chechnya when: Yesterday snippet: The Russians have opened a single road to allow Chechen civilians to escape the doomed city of Grozny. "At least 1,500 refugees streamed out of Grozny along the Goragorsky road yesterday," reports The Times, "the vanguard of up to 30,000 who are expected before Saturday." From that point on, the Russian military are expected to bombard the city with "hardened concrete-piercing bombs and fuel-air weapons designed to ignite whole buildings". But many civilians may be too scared or too weak from starvation to walk fifteen miles through hostile territory under fire from fighter jets to the relative safety of Pervomaiskoye. Robin Cook summoned Russia`s ambassador to London, Yuri Fokine, to the Foreign Office and "wholeheartedly condemned" the Russians` ultimatum to Chechen civilians, reports The Independent. "Similar criticism came from Paris, Rome and other capitals. By no co-incidence too, the International Monetary Fund is holding up, for `technical reasons` the release of a new 400m ($640m) loan tranche to help shore up the battered Russian economy." US president Bill Clinton also criticised the brutality of the siege. But the Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin was unshaken, suggesting that "the US would do better to put pressure in Chechnya to give up terrorists". [... more]

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