Chechens Given Deadline For Releasing Hostages

Russian troops closed in on cornered Chechen terrorists in this frozen backwater Saturday, for the first time setting a deadline for surrender and backing up the implied threat with a menacing display of military muscle.

Russian authorities gave the Chechen gunmen until 10 a.m. today Moscow time to release their captives and turn over their guns. Federal Security Service Chief Mikhail Barsukov did not spell out what would happen if the Chechens ignore the deadline. But he suggested that the Kremlin is ready to attack - even at the risk of harming the hostages - to end the embarrassing standoff.

Barsukov said he hopes the Chechens “will make the right decision to save the lives of peaceful citizens,” the Itar-Tass news agency reported. And he vowed, “If even one hostage is shot, I will act immediately.”

Itar-Tass later reported that Barsukov offered the gunmen safe passage in a telephone conversation with the top regional official in Dagestan, who was in touch with the guerrillas. It quoted Barsukov as saying that once back in Chechnya the rebels might be able to benefit from an amnesty offer from the Russian government.

But in Saturday afternoon’s waning light, a federal attack appeared imminent as scores of tanks that have mounted a rumbling vigil for five days ground their way through icy mud toward the Chechen militants and their human shield of 200 captives.

The gunmen have been holed up and out of sight for more than three days.

While Russian officers conducted menacing maneuvers, the risks of a deadly attack became more apparent for all involved in the protracted standoff at this bleak outpost just beyond the border of Chechnya in the multi-ethnic republic of Dagestan.

Chechen gunmen trying to trade their hostages for safe passage across the border have said they are willing to die before surrendering to the federal forces. But any artillery storm by the surrounding Russian troops could kill many of the captives and damage already strained relations in the Caucasus Mountains region.

Dagestani leaders early Wednesday guaranteed the Chechen guerrillas safe passage to their homeland in exchange for release of more than 2,000 hostages the gunmen had grabbed a day earlier to demand an end to the war in Chechnya. Most of those captives were freed as the guerrillas made their way toward the Chechen border.

But federal troops blew up a bridge leading into the rebels’ homeland and blocked their exit at this village within sight of Chechnya.

Many Dagestanis said that action by the federal troops undermined their credibility with local Chechens, who have not supported the rebels loyal to Chechen president-in-hiding Dzhokar M. Dudayev.

Amid the mounting tension, Chechen nationalists began feuding among themselves Saturday - their community split over how to respond to the hostage crisis.

One Chechen warlord, Aslan Maskhadov, warned that the prolonged standoff has “blackened the image of Chechens.” In an interview with Itar-Tass, he warned that rebel leaders stubbornly clinging to their hostages will be tried under Islamic laws if they make it back to Chechnya.

The Chechen fighters brought here by guerrilla leader Salman Raduyev have offered to release the women and children among their captives as long as prominent Russian and Dagestani authorities take their place for the ride to freedom.

But with Russian public sentiments running feverish over this latest destabilizing incident, authorities are loath to be seen as bowing to Chechen terrorists and may be less concerned about the fate of a few hapless hostages than the Kremlin’s commitment to restoring security.

President Boris Yeltsin has vowed vengeance against the Chechen gunmen for their second devastating attack and hostage-taking in recent months, and he signaled that the Kremlin’s patience had run out.

“We have nothing more precious than human lives, but bandits should not go unpunished,” Yeltsin was quoted as saying by Magomedali Magomedov, one of the Dagestani elders trying to ward off a cataclysmic showdown.

Yeltsin has been bitterly criticized for the handling of the terrorist attack on the town of Budennovsk in June, when another band of Chechen guerrillas was allowed to escape after a raid that killed more than 150 people.