Posted on 08/12/2003 1:30:43 AM PDT by konijn
Russian Toll in Chechnya Put at 12,000
Agence France Presse
MOSCOW, 9 August 2003 — More than 12,000 Russian soldiers have died in the nearly four-year war in separatist Chechnya, almost triple the officially disclosed figure, the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee rights group said yesterday.
Valentina Malnikova, a representative of the respected group, told Moscow Echo radio that the figures included soldiers who died on their way to a hospital or from injuries at a later date — deaths that are not officially registered by the authorities.
The estimate suggests that on an average, nearly nine Russian soldiers have died daily since President Vladimir Putin launched the self-declared “anti-terror” campaign while still serving as prime minister in October 1999. “Unfortunately, our way of counting the dead soldiers more closely corresponds to reality,” Malnikova said.
Russia rarely issues official toll statistics concerning the conflict, and when it does, the figures often contradict each other.
The latest official estimate puts the Russian toll at more than 4,500 dead and the Chechen rebel toll at about 15,000. The civilian casualties have never been officially disclosed and rights groups fear the figure could stand in the thousands.
Putin has scheduled presidential elections in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus republic for Oct. 5 as part of a political peace process that has been rejected by more radical Chechen leaders. Daily guerrilla fighting rages in Chechnya despite Putin’s declaration that the war has been won and that troops in the republic are there only to perform policing functions. The war has increasingly taken on traits of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as Chechens resort to suicide bombings, often using young women in the deadly attacks.
Russian troops and armed police were combing woodland near Chechnya yesterday after rebels killed six Russian soldiers and wounded seven others in a suspected cross- border raid, local officials said. The group that attacked Russian forces late on Thursday in Ingushetia, neighboring Chechnya, with grenades and machinegun fire may have numbered up to 50 men, a senior regional official said.
No good Putin. You're supposed to say the Major war has been won.
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