ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 1, 1996 TAG: 9609030070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: GROZNY, RUSSIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
RUSSIAN TROOPS ended their occupation of the Chechen capital Grozny.
The war in Chechnya may not yet be over, but the joyous faces along the roads leading out of the devastated Chechen capital had all the look of victory.
For many Chechens, Saturday will go down as the day Russian soldiers - except for a handful serving on a joint police force - finally ended their occupation of their capital, Grozny.
``Today is a special day,'' said Umar Yanarsayev, 45, as he watched the festivities in Alkhan-Yurt, just west of Grozny. ``For the last 300 years, our people were never as strong as today We consider ourselves victors.''
In a scene repeated across the war-torn republic, Chechens in two villages outside Grozny celebrated jubilantly as processions of trucks, jeeps and cars brought their fighters home from the capital, which they captured this month.
Chechens greeted the rebel fighters and each other with raised fists. Jeeps with pictures of late rebel leader Dzhokhar Dudayev taped to their windshields blared their horns triumphantly.
Young boys played warriors, wearing green headbands and brandishing toy machine guns crudely carved in wood. The rebels fired off submachine-gun salutes into the air.
People formed a tight circle at the roadside and clapped as they took turns doing a Chechen dance to a woman playing accordion and a man banging on a motorcycle sidecar serving as a makeshift drum.
Grandmothers held up their young grandsons and even pre-schoolers joined in.
``We danced all night!'' said 19-year-old Milana Yunusova, whose brother is a leading Chechen commander. ``We're very proud of what our country has accomplished.''
Maleka Magomayeva, 52, said the world must remember the price the Chechens had paid for this ecstatic day. More than 30,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the 20-month bloodshed.
``This war came to every home. There's not one family that didn't lose someone,'' Magomayeva said.
Although the sides signed a peace deal Saturday, prospects for a lasting peace were soon clouded as President Boris Yeltsin cast doubt on the accord's validity.
A Chechen military official, Col. Issa Astamirov, said in Grozny that he was worried about the pact's future.
But he added, ``It's been over one and a half years of pain, struggle and lawlessness. And the enemy is moving away. So of course we're happy.''
Grozny is also awash in speculation that the opposition to the rebels, led by the head of the Kremlin-backed Chechen government, Doku Zavgayev, might attack the separatists to prevent them from retaking power.
The two sides fought each other in 1994, before Moscow sent troops in, and again this month during the rebel offensive on Grozny.
``The war is probably over,'' said Shamil Khaseyev, 63, standing near the bombed-out but still flourishing central market in Grozny. ``But what will happen here in the future nobody knows.''
LENGTH: Medium: 63 linesby CNB