These are the forgotten people of Chechnya who are being subjected to the worst kind of torture by Yeltsin's butchers.

When the Russians attacked Chechnya and made initial advances in the first few days, the West overlooked the invasion hoping that a swift and short end and capture of Chechnya will free them from any moral condemnation. The answer to the shrill cries of critics would have been "It's all over. What can we do?"

However, the valiant Chechnya held on. And Europe and the United States began to feel uneasy. Hordes of Russian troops backed by superior artillery and air power decimated whatever little that remained of Chechnya stoic struggle.

And yet apart from industrial and somewhat feeble criticism no major and concerted condemnation was voiced by the international community. The West did not want Yeltsin to lose control. They did not want to endanger his rule. That was the implied answer.

This procrastination gave the Russians increasing confidence to continue its massacre of the Chechan people and brutalize them. The mood in Yeltsin's headquarters was that of genocide and not a negotiated settlement.

The Russians claim it is an internal conflict. The West also believes that. History refutes it. And the Chechens suffer.

Women and children maimed and killed. Napalm bombs burning the flesh of people and sadistic Russian soldiers shooting people in the face blowing their skulls to smithereens.

Boris Yeltsin is taking it upon himself to impose a military solution to the conflict between Russia and Chechnya.

His troops massacred hundreds of thirsty and hungry villagers pleading for water and food. Children were ripped away from their mothers' arms and thrown under tanks. People were doused with petrol and set on fire. An American journalist Tom Goltz stated in a report that "people I had known came out after three days without water to beg for water only to be shot like dogs."

Yeltsin's lust for blood equals that of Stalin. He maybe even trying to go a step past the communist dictators horrible record.

Russia's aims are sinister. Whoever occupies the Kremlin can never shake the legacy of Russia's rulers, be they Czarists or Communists or Nationalists - that of subjugating people around them and using bloody methods to do that. Yeltsin is said to believe that the carnage in Chechnya will break the back and the spirits of the Chechans struggling for independence.

The past few days have also seem Russian bombing attacks on Tajik Muslim refugees in Afghanistan.

He would like to suppress all dissent within and outside Russia's borders using deadly means.

The Russian President will be hosting talks with Prime Minister John Major and U.S. President Bill Clinton on May 9.

He would like to clear the rubble and bury the corpses before their arrival in order to present them a clean slate.

I wonder if these two people will be able to growl at the Russian bear or come back with a whimper. Past track records of these two leaders forebodes pessimism.