Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506190031
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Chicago Tribune
DATELINE: HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA LENGTH: Medium
On the last day of the Group of Seven summit at which he was a visitor, Yeltsin launched into an undiplomatic diatribe against Chechnya as President Clinton watched in apparent dismay.
The outburst came shortly after the Group of Seven leaders had told Yeltsin that he should end the war in Chechnya and begin negotiations with the rebels, who have seized a hospital and more than 1,000 Russian hostages in Budyonnovsk. A Russian raid to free the hostages failed early Saturday.
``We couldn't act otherwise,'' said Yeltsin. ``We had to destroy those terrorists and bandits.''
Not all people in the world understood the situation in Chechnya correctly, Yeltsin said, ``but I am very glad that my friend, Bill, [Clinton] understood me correctly.''
He said Clinton had never wavered in his support. ``He has always supported and is supporting Russia and President Yeltsin.''
Clinton sympathized with Yeltsin on the hostage situation, comparing it with the terrorist bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, but he said that in a democracy, decisions must be made in a way that would permit ``the cycle of violence to be broken.''
Noting the hostage situation, Clinton said: ``We join the Russian people in condemning terrorism in the strongest possible terms.''
The Russian leader also said Dzhokhar Dudayev, leader of the breakaway region, had asked for and received political asylum from Turkey.
``We don't care where he goes as long as it's far, far away from Russia,'' Yeltsin said. U.S. officials said they could not confirm this.
Yeltsin's harangue brought the three-day Group of Seven meeting to a stunning close and demonstrated the inability of Clinton and the other leaders to influence Yeltsin's decision to continue the fighting in Chechnya.
The summit was attended by leaders of the United States, France, Britain, Italy, Germany, Canada, and Japan and was dedicated mostly to economic matters.
Since he arrived in Halifax on Friday, the Russian leader has been urged by the Group of Seven leaders to end the war in Chechnya. But the joint statement read to him apparently triggered his anger.
Yeltsin said he told the Group of Seven leaders ``what kind of people we're dealing with, what kind of horrible criminals with black bands on their foreheads. They now much better understand that this is the only way that we can deal with these criminal elements.''
Stabbing his fingers toward the ground, Yeltsin said the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, had voted to order him to return and visit Budyonnovsk. ``This is a bad mistake, a bad move on their part, because now I, myself, become a hostage to these very same bandits by having to go back there.''
Clinton and Yeltsin conducted a ``very intense and constructive review of the bilateral relationship'' after this public display, White House press secretary Michael McCurry said. By this time, Yeltsin had calmed down, a senior U.S. official said.
Clinton supported a Yeltsin call for an international conference in Moscow next year on ways to combat nuclear terrorism and smuggling of nuclear weapons and indicated that he likely will attend.
In the Group of Seven statement read to Yeltsin, the leaders also confronted another issue, Russia's decision to sell nuclear technology to Iran in defiance of the wishes of the Western countries.
They resolved to curtail immediately any nuclear cooperation program with Iran if it appears that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons. The Group of Seven countries already have banned the sale of nuclear reactors to Iran.
Despite Clinton's repeated requests, Yeltsin has refused to back away from the sale to Iran of a gas centrifuge, used to enrich uranium for reactors.
U.S. officials took hope in the fact that Yeltsin joined the other seven leaders in a joint political statement that called on all countries ``to avoid any collaboration with Iran that might contribute to the acquisition of a nuclear weapons capability.''
by CNB