STARYE ATAGI, RUSSIA, DEC 12: While Russia's airstrikes on the Chechen capital Grozny remained suspended on Sunday to allow civilians to leave the battered city, the military accused rebels of using the lull to build fortifications and plant mines in the city.Under intense international pressure to end its offensive in Chechnya, Russia backed off on Saturday from an all-out assault of Grozny. The military said all airstrikes against the Chechen capital will be halted until midnight."We know.that the militants are blocking (civilian) people from leaving the city," Russia's government representative in Chechnya, deputy prime minister Nikolai Koshman, said on Saturday according to the Itar-Tass news agency. Russian officials repeatedly accused Chechen rebels of using civilians as human shields.Koshman estimated that up to 50,000 civilians remained in Grozny. Other officials cited numbers several times lower. "We will not strike against a human shield," Koshman said.However, many of the remainingcivilians appeared unable to leave because they are old or infirm, and lack transport. Others did not know about the ultimatum to leave, according to refugees who did make it out of Grozny.Col Gennady Alyokhin, a Russian military spokesman, said on Sunday that rebel fighters were building fortifications on strategic heights in Grozny outskirts, planting mines in the city streets, and installing machine guns on building roofs, preparing to rebuff a possible attack by Russian troops.But he also said that some rebel groups were fleeing Grozny for southern mountainous regions, where Russian troops have yet to venture.Senior Russian generals said the army would wait two to three weeks before trying to seize Grozny, according to Russian news reports. Russia planned to use commandos and other special forces troops to take the city, Koshman said, according to Itar-Tass.Russian forces were also preparing to seize the town of Shali, a gateway to the Caucasus mountains some 25 km southeast of Grozny. Federaltroops were "completing the blockage of Shali" on Sunday, Alyokhin said. As Moscow tried to assuage international critics of the war, Russian emergency situations minister Sergei Shoigu traveled to Chechnya Saturday, on orders from premier Vladimir Putin, to arrange safe passage for the civilians.Russia has opened two safe corridors for civilians of northwest, to the town of Pervomaiskaya, some 20 km from Grozny, and southwest, to the town of Alkhan-Yurt, just outside Grozny. Only five people arrived via the new, Alkhan-Yurt route when it opened on Saturday, officials said.Shoigu ordered emergency situations forces in the northern Caucasus to be put on alert, saying the rebels might use toxic chemicals in Grozny. "We cannot rule out the possibility that the militants are ready to take any action, and we must be ready to protect the people," Shoigu was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass."I hope that (Chechen president Aslan) Maskhadov will have the courage to block actions that could hurt innocent civilianpopulation of the republic," he said.Meanwhile, Grozny mayor Lecha Dudayev was bristled at Shoigu's comments and claims that rebels were using civilians as human shields. "Nobody is preventing the residents of Grozny from leaving the city," he was quoted as saying by Interfax.
