Ethnic Violence Continues in Azerbaijan

MOSCOW--A military convoy was ambushed in Azerbaijan and two soldiers and a woman bystander were killed by gunfire, official media said yesterday. The KGB said the republic was on the brink of chaos and anarchy.

Hopes for an end to 10 days of ethnic strife between Armenia and Azerbaijan arose Monday when Communist Party and government officials from the southern republics agreed to withdraw militias from border areas and end clashes between militants.

But Radio Moscow reported yesterday that the situation in Baku remained "complex"--a Russian euphemism that can signify widespread unrest. It said the military commander in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, vowed that his troops would stop further attacks.

Anti-Armenian riots and killings in Baku on January 13 ignited ethnic warfare between Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Azerbaijanis have since threatened to secede from the Soviet Union.

Soviet troops smashed their way into Baku on Saturday to quell the nationalist uprising, and Soviet officials said the assault left 83 dead, including 14 soldiers and members of their families.

On Monday, wailing Azerbaijanis marched through the Caspian Sea port city of 1.8 million to mourn those killed when the Soviet troops moved in. Radio Moscow said antiarmy and anti-Russian sentiments were being whipped up by "irresponsible people" sending threatening unsigned letters and making anonymous phone calls.

The radio, in a broadcast monitored in London by the British Broadcasting Corp., said troops sent to Azerbaijan came under fire four times Monday and overnight, including an armed attack on a convoy of recently demobilized servicemen also carrying women.

Baku Radio, also monitored by the BBC, said two soldiers and a woman bystander were killed in that attack.

"The extremists are thus continuing their criminal activities," Baku's military commander, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Dubinyak, was quoted by the Azerbaijani radio as saying.

The deaths brought the overall toll in the unrest to 170 killed since the Baku riots, with more than 600 wounded.

Azerbaijan's KGB expressed alarm in its appeal to residents of the republic for calm, Radio Moscow said.

"Azerbaijan is on the edge of the abyss, beyond which lie chaos and anarchy," the KGB warned.

Arif Yunusov, a spokesperson for the independent Social Democratic Group political organization, said Baku was paralyzed today by a general strike.

All shops in the major oil refining center were closed, no morning newspapers were published and Azerbaijan's state-run television was off the air, said Sivinch Abdullayeva, an editor, at Azerinform, the republic's official news agency.

Yunusov said fighting continued near Salyanskiye Barracks in Baku, with 263 Azerbaijani military cadets and more than 130 classmates of other Soviet ethnic groups opposing Soviet troops who have cordoned off the area.

Dubinyak told the Krasnaya Zvezda military daily there was still intermittent gunfire in the city but gave no details. In a statement broadcast on Radio Moscow, the general said "there are forces here with an interest in maintaining tension at the highest level."