Shaky Cease Fire Wavers

MOSCOW: Even though both sides claim to be strictly observing conditions of a cease fire reached last week in Moscow, bullets continue to fly in Chechnya. As Chechen rebels reported Russian air attacks on villages and land mines exploded in Grozny, all indications were that the peace Boris Yeltsin wanted to be in place before Russia's June 16 elections is on the verge of breaking down. "There is no peace in sight," says TIME's Yuri Zarakhovich. "Even under the best of circumstances, if both sides were seriously intending to end the war, achieving peace would be difficult. As it is now, the environment of mutual distrust and bloodshed is complicated by the fact that Yeltsin's actions are not motivated so much by a desire to reach peace as by his desire to win the election. In addition, neither Yeltsin or Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev is in total control over their own armed forces." Talks are scheduled to resume later Tuesday in Nazran, Ingushetia, but are likely to be slowed by the sticky question of Russian troop withdrawal from the region. -->