MOSCOW, Oct 7 (AFP)
Anxious not to worsen relations already frayed by the NATO campaign in Kosovo, the West has avoided condemning Moscow�s invasion of Chechnya, despite reports of civilian deaths and the mass exodus of refugees.
A troika of senior EU officials was in Moscow for talks Thursday to discuss the crisis on Russia�s troubled southern flank, and was expected to raise the plight of tens of thousands of Chechen refugees and human rights issues.
But the criticism voiced by the European Union � whose offer of mediation was immediately rebuffed by a bristling Moscow � is �very muted,� said Andrei Piontkovsky, director of the Centre of Strategic Studies in Moscow.
The United States, which has called for restraint, has been even less vocal in expressing concern about Moscow�s tactics � Chechen officials said Wednesday that 48 people had died in Russian attacks in a 12 hour-period.
Grozny says Moscow�s month-long bombing of the secessionist republic � which it accuses of harbouring �terrorists� responsible for incursions into Dagestan and a wave of apartment block bombings in Russia � has killed more than 600 civilians.
Last Friday, Russian troops, tanks and armour poured into Chechnya with the declared aim of crushing the Islamic rebels, the first such incursion since a disastrous 1994-1996 civil war which killed 80,000 people, mainly civilians.
�The West is in a difficult situation,� because of the bombardment of civilian areas and the refugee crisis, said Alexei Malashenko of the Moscow branch of the Carnegie Endowment think-tank.
But he added: �It is concerned not to risk a worsening of relations with Russia after the rupture over NATO�s campaign in the Balkans,� when Moscow raged with impotent fury at the attack on its traditional ally Serbia.
�And the West is not interested in the north Caucasus (strategically),� the expert added.
Crucially, all Western governments accept the Russian position that the Chechen conflict is an �internal matter� � repeatedly stressed by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other top Russian officials.
So sensitive is Moscow about outside interference that last week it insisted it could cope with the refugee situation without outside aid, despite a plea for help to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees by a senior official in Ingushetia, the Russian republic which has borne the brunt of the refugee influx.
The Ingush president, Ruslan Aushev, on Wednesday described the situation as �dire,� and warned that relief supplies were fast running out. Russia�s emergencies ministry says 124,560 refugees have fled Chechnya.
Erkanat ABENI
ALMATY, Oct 7
(THE GLOBE)
On Wednesday OSCE representatives polled journalists of some Almaty mass media. The poll was devoted to the election. It seems noteworthy that representatives of the international organisation divided the local mass media into two categories: independent and state mass media. Both categories were polled separately. Only TV channels �31 channel�, �NTK� and THE GLOBE newspaper were considered as independent mass media.
OSCE members rejected to comment anything till the end of the Parliamentary election in Kazakhstan. They did not mention how and where they are going to observe the voting process.
�We fear, if we comment this, the authorities will be able to take corresponding measures,� one of the representatives of OSCE Bureau on democratic institutions and human rights told to THE GLOBE.
The OSCE delegation, which has arrived to Kazakhstan to observe the coming election, includes senators, representatives of Lower Houses and other political figures.
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