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Fire rages at Chechnya

oil refinery

LONDON: A fire raged at an oil refinery in Chechnya's capital Grozny on Wednesday after shots were fired at the installation by unidentified people, Russia's Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Two storage tanks, each containing 5,000 tonnes of fuel oil, were on fire, said the agency, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

There was danger of the blaze speading to two nearby tanks, a member of Grozny's fire brigade was quoted as saying.

The Russian army said on Tuesday it had seized a key Chechen rebel stronghold but insisted it was holding back from active operations in compliance with President Boris Yeltsin's latest peace plan.

Interfax news agency quoted a military official in Grozny as saying troops had taken control of the southern mountain village of Vedeno, a centre of resistance to the Russian army both in the latest conflict and during the Russian colonisation of the region in the 19th century.

Yeltsin, who is running for re-election in June, addressed the nation about Chechnya on March 31, telling the troops to stop "military" operations and offering talks through intermediaries with separatist leader Dzhokhar Dudayev.

Yeltsin's plan to end the 16-month conflict, which has killed at least 30,000 people, stops short of promising full independence to Chechnya.

The Kremlin leader, who sent troops into the breakaway region in December 1994, said "special" operations against defiant rebels would be continued.

Yeltsin has never made clear the distinction between the military and special operations in Chechnya. Tass said a liquid gas well in the village of Beno-Vedeno had been damaged in fighting and attempts to repair it had been unsuccessful so far.

The well was reported to be gushing liquid gas 250 metres (800 feet) high and the village had been evacuated, the agency said.-Reuter