Aidar AKHMETOV
ALMATY, Nov 29
(THE GLOBE)
Throughout November, airlines in Kazakhstan have faced shortages in aviation fuel, with some companies completely without fuel for their aircraft. Since Friday, November 26, all planes have had to refuel at airports in Baku and Ashgabad. Sergei Koltsov, of the Fuel Service of the Almaty International Airport, called the antiterrorist campaign in Chechnya the main reason for the rationed export of fuel by Russia to Kazakhstan
Bakatai Naryshev, the Air Kazakhstan head of Ground Service and Maintenance explained that the present situation had been triggered by the narrowed Russian export to the Kazakhstan market. He further emphasized that the problem could have been avoided if the three Kakakh refineries had operated. �Today the situation is getting better, Naryshev said. �If the Pavlodar, Shymkent and Atyrau refineries work, the domestic air fuel market will be under control.�
The jet fuel shortage did not affect some international airlines. Robert Maad, the Austrian Airlines Senior Manager, said the crisis had not touched his company, as it used only 25 to 30% of Kazakhstani fuel. If an aircraft is filled completely in Austria (to its 55 ton capacity), it would require only 15 additional tons of local fuel. Maad reported that his company had received a letter from the administration of the Almaty International Airport requesting them to economize fuel due to the shortage.
Official spokesmen from Lufthansa AG, British Airways and KLM said they as well had not faced fuel problem. No flight had been delayed.
GROZNY, Russia, Nov 29 (AFP)
Chechen forces were on the counter-attack Monday, seizing control of a second village in two days as a top Russian general admitted heavy losses in fierce clashes with Chechen guerrillas.
The reports came as OSCE chief Knut Vollebaek was due in Moscow to discuss a trip to the war zone and visit camps housing some 233,000 refugees who have fled the fighting in the breakaway Russian republic.
Federal forces meanwhile continued to hammer major Chechen towns, pounding the capital Grozny, the strategic stronghold of Urus-Martan 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest, and Argun, 10 kilometres east of Grozny.
Chechen officials said Grozny and Urus-Martan had been 80 percent destroyed by a relentless assault from ground-attack warplanes, helicopter gunships, artillery, tanks and multiple rocket-launchers.
In Moscow, a top Russian general admitted 12 paratroopers had been killed and two captured during a reconnaissance mission in the southeastern Vedeno district, the fiefdom of leading Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev.
�Our kids were forced to fight to the end. Out of 14 people, 12 people died,� Deputy Defence Chief of Staff General Valery Manilov told state-run RTR television.
The toll was the largest reported by Russian commanders from a single battle with the Chechens. Up to 60 Chechens were reported killed in the November 17 battle.
Chechen military officials meanwhile said their forces had Monday captured Noibyora, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Grozny, following the seizure of Novogroznensky, 55 kilometres east of the capital on Sunday.
The Russian defence ministry insisted the settlement was now back under the control of federal forces but declined to comment on the fall of Noibyora.
Grozny also reported fierce clashes around the nearby village of Alleroi, with both sides taking losses.
Russian commanders said rival infantry units had engaged in fierce exchanges around Alkhan-Yurt, a village at the southwestern gates of Grozny, disrupting efforts by local elders to negotiate an unopposed entry of Russian troops into the settlement, the Russian military news agency AVN reported.
The Chechen thrust signalled a switch in tactics heralded 10 days ago. Until now the outgunned guerrillas have avoided pitched battles with Russian troops who rolled into the rebel republic on October 1.
MOSCOW, Nov 29 (AFP)
Russian leaders expressed dismay on Monday at IMF chief Michel Camdessus�s warning that new Fund loans might be suspended because of the Chechen war.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) money accounts for nearly one-fourth off all proceeds pencilled into Russia�s 2000 budget and cooperation with the Fund serves as a bell-wether for foreign investors here.
Some senior lawmakers on Monday flatly warned that Russia might have to resort to inflationary money-printing should the West draw its purse strings tight.
�We don�t quite understand Saturday�s announcement from Michel Camdessus linking financial aid to Russia with our anti-terrorist operation,� said Finance Minister Mikhail Kasyanov.
�We don�t see any basis for political concerns to influence the Fund�s decisions,� he said.
Kasyanov said Russia was meeting all economic obligations that should allow it to qualify for the next 640 million dollar instalment of IMF aid that has been repeatedly put back since September.
The finance minister added that Russia was boosting its defense spending through financial sources not linked to Western aid.
Camdessus in his strongest warning yet on Saturday said that concern about Russia�s tactics in the Chechen campaign might influence the IMF board�s decision on issuing previously agreed to loans to Russia.
�We cannot go on with our financing if the rest of the world doesn�t want us to,� Camdessus said in Madrid.
The Fund has already cautioned Russia that it would suspend all assistance should it discover that Western money was being used to finance the Chechen offensive.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last week announced that the government had already allocated an extra three billion rubles (115 million dollars) to the defense budget.
The nine-week Chechen ground operation has been tremendously popular with the public and defended by the government as a just �anti-terrorist� campaign.
Yet it has been condemned in the West for its heavy civilian toll and seeming disregard for the plight of refugees from the region.
Russian generals predict that the bulk of the fight to bring Chechnya to heel should be over by year-end. However top lawmakers predicted that the government would start printing money should the war drag on and Western aid run dry.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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