Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 7, 1995 TAG: 9506070052
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MOSCOW LENGTH: Medium
In an interview with the ITAR-Tass news agency, Dudayev said his men are ``embittered by the brutality of Russian troops'' and, without his leadership, would try to take revenge on Chechens who had collaborated with the Russians.
The Kremlin began its military campaign against Dudayev's three-year bid for Chechen independence in December. The war has claimed thousands of lives, most of them civilian.
ITAR-Tass said its correspondent interviewed Dudayev, a former Soviet air force general who flew nuclear bombers, in a village in the mountains of southern Chechnya.
The loss of a key stronghold, the mountain village of Vedeno over the weekend, did not appear to have dampened Dudayev's morale. ITAR-Tass described him as speaking confidently.
Vedeno, high in the Caucasus Mountains 28 miles south of Grozny, the capital, had been headquarters for the Chechen military command.
The Interfax news agency said Chechen military sources claimed Tuesday to have retaken the village, a symbol of Chechen resistance to Moscow's domination for more than 100 years.
The agency also quoted Russian military spokesmen as denying those claims.
Dudayev, a controversial leader with many opponents, rejected suggestions that his stubborn insistence on Chechen independence was to blame for the war.
``I only personified the striving of my people for freedom and carried out their will,'' he insisted. ``I didn't make anyone fight.''
by CNB