NEWSPOEM 17 JANUARY 1996

HE WHO FIRST LAUGHS LAST

KEMSI-YURT, Russia, Jan. 17 -- The Russian army today began flattening the hamlet of Pervomayskoye to demonstrate to the Chechen rebels who were holding hostages there... something. The Grad missiles which scatter heavy metal when they strike can reduce a city block to rubble although the hamlet of Pervomayskoye isn't large enough to have any city blocks... 15 Russian soldiers have been killed and 60 wounded, 60 rebels have been killed and 15 wounded and as many as 90 surviving hostages were... U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry wished them well... the Russian army that is. Chechnya has been resisting Soviet rule since 1859.