Russian PM strikes TV deal with Chechens

ANDREW HIGGINS Budennovsk For the first time since Chechen gunmen seized more than a 1,000 hostages, this traumatised southern Russian town yesterday briefly turned its horrified gaze from the Central District Hospital to extraordinary images on their television screens - the Prime Minister, Viktor Chernomyrdin, in telephone negotiations with a man condemned as murderous terrorist.

Stunned by the bloody failure on Saturday of an attempt by Russian troops to free the hostages by force, Mr Chernomyrdin telephoned Shamil Basayev, the Chechen commander in the hospital and promised to halt hostilities in Chechnya and provide safe passage for the hostage-takers.

At 8pm Russia's military commander in Chechnya, General Anatoly Kulikov, ordered his troops to halt all military actions.

The about-turn raised the first faint hope that the hostage crisis, which has claimed more than 150 lives, might end without massive loss of life. About 500 captives have got out of the hospital, mostly women, children and wounded, but 700 or more are still inside.

Mr Chernomyrdin's offer, made in two phone conversations and broadcast nation-wide, also gives the Chechens something they have failed to achieve during six months of fighting -the first high-level talks with the Russian government.

Three Russian members of parliament who met Mr Basayev in the hospital said a deal was being worked out to allow the Chechen fighters to fly to the Caucasus mountains. According to Russian news agencies, Mr Basayev agreed to free all hostages by 5am local time, but he would be taking some "voluntary" hostages with him - parliamentary deputies, officials from the local Stavropol region and other unidentified figures. Transport helicopters landed on a sports field in the centre of Budennovsk last night. A trickle of hostages emerged yesterday from the bullet blasted hospital, one wing of which has been gutted by fire. With them came details of the misery inside. Some said they had been put up against the window as human shields when Russian soldi ers made two attempts on Saturday to storm the three-storey block. Others, though, said the Chechens had treated them well, even donating blood to help Russian wounded. Residents of Budennovsk crowded around television sets to watch film of Mr Chernomyrdin's negotiations. He had earlier accused the kidnappers of staging a "monstrous crime against humanity". "I declare in front of the people that all military actions will be halted immediately," Mr Chernomyrdin told the Chechen commander, a balding, 30-year-old former expert in ecology. "I ask you only to release all the hostages you have." "I will not let them go because panic will start. I will not let any of them go today. Nothing will happen to them. They can sleep tonight and then they can go," Mr Basayev told the Prime Minister. "The longer this goes on, the harder it will be forme t o hold people back," said Mr Chernomyrdin. The Prime Minister's promised peace deal would seem to meet the gunmen's demand for an end to Russian military operations in Chechnya. A string of Russian gains in the past few weeks, including the capture of Vedeno, where Mr Basayev led Chechen resistan ce, has left Chechen fighters scattered across the mountains in the south of the country. Much more difficult for Russia to accept will be a demand that it pull out its troops. Russian troops in Budennovsk remain jittery, careless and trigger-happy. They shot dead a Russian journalist, Natalia Alyakina as she drove away from a checkpoint in the centre of town with her German husband, also a correspondent. A Russian armoured car fired by accident into a group of Russian soldiers resting on the grass near the hospital. Five were hurt. Among those freed yesterday from the hospital was Yevegeny Medsentseva, a 15-year-old who had been wounded in the chest and head. "The Chechens lined them up in front of windows and used their shoulders as gun rests," said his mother.