Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre:
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Chechen separatist guerrillas threatened to shoot or blow up 700 hostages in a Moscow theatre on Thursday unless Russia pulled its troops out of their homeland.
The group of about 40, including masked women with explosives strapped to their bodies, burst in on Wednesday night firing into the air and shouting “Stop the war in Chechnya”.
The radio station Ekho Moskvy quoted child heart specialist Maria Shkolnikova as telling it from inside the theatre: “They are saying ‘You have been sitting here for 10 hours and your government has done nothing to secure your release.’
“The main thing is that troops must be pulled out or they will start shooting people.”
Earlier, Shkolnikova told Reuters, also by mobile phone: “A huge amount of explosives have been laid through the place.”
She said explosives had been laid in passageways and on seats and even attached to hostages themselves.
Officials said some 60 foreigners were among the captives.
President Vladimir Putin, who rose to power on pledges three years ago to clamp down on the decade-old rebellion on Russia’s southern fringe and boost public security, said the main task was to secure the hostages’ safe release.
He said information from the rebels’ representatives confirmed that “the terrorist act was planned abroad”.
Contacts with the hostage-takers appeared erratic at best.
The Chechen news website http://www.kavkaz.org reported what it said was a statement by the attackers’ commander, Movsar Barayev. “There’s more than a thousand people here. No one will get out of here alive and they’ll die with us if there’s any attempt to storm the building,” the website quoted him saying.
He called on Putin to stop the war and pull his troops out of Chechnya if he wanted to save the hostages’ lives — demands that were confirmed by Russian officials at the scene.
SOME HOSTAGES FREED
The rebels freed around 150 hostages soon after taking over the theatre, including up to 20 children and a number of Muslims. They released a handful more on Thursday morning including three children and a Briton in his 50s or 60s.
But Iosif Kobzon, a member of parliament and entertainer who was taking part in negotiations, told Interfax news agency: “When I asked them to free others, they said they had already let the three smallest ones go and would release no one else.”
Another negotiator, liberal deputy Irina Khakamada, headed to the Kremlin to see Putin after meeting the guerrillas. It was not clear what message she was conveying.
One Russian official said the guerrillas described themselves as a suicide death squad, or “smertniki”. Police said there were up to 700 people still in the theatre, a modern building about four km (three miles) southeast of the Kremlin.
Austrian ambassador Franz Cede said the Western captives included Australians, Austrians, Britons, Germans and Americans.
The attack presented Putin with his sternest test since becoming president more than two years ago.
He has taken an uncompromising stand on the conflict in largely-Muslim Chechnya on Russia’s southern fringes, where the Kremlin has twice launched military pushes to crush separatists.
Western accusations of human rights abuses against civilians in the devastated province have died down since Putin threw Moscow’s backing behind the U.S.-led global war on terrorism following last year’s September 11 attacks in the United States.
It was unclear what foreign groups Putin might be accusing.
Russia has drawn attention to Arab fighters in Chechnya and accuses the rebels of links to radical Islamist groups like the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda, blamed for the September 11 attacks. But privately, Western diplomats play down any Chechen involvement by al Qaeda.
SHOOTING INCIDENTS
Several shooting incidents were reported in different parts of the five-storey theatre after the gang burst in during the second act of the Russian musical “Nord-Ost” (“North-East”).
“They have grenades and they have guns,” Moscow city police chief spokesman Valery Gribakin said.
But Shkolnikova said there had been no casualties when the rebels stormed the theatre, a featureless modern building formerly known as House of Culture.
Two reporters from the Italian news agency Ansa who were freed from the theatre said the group’s leader had threatened to kill 10 people an hour if his demands were not met.
They quoted one of the captors as saying: “We can resist as long as we want. We are ready to die, we want an absolute end to the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.”
Anguished hostage Tatyana Solnyshkina, speaking by mobile telephone, addressed security forces live on NTV television.
“Please do not start storming. There are a lot of explosives. Don’t open fire on them. I am very scared, I ask you please do not start attacking,” she said.
Gennady Gutkov, a member of parliament’s security committee, said: “The building will not be stormed at the initiative of the Russian side if the terrorists do not undertake actions to kill large numbers of hostages.”
An aide to Barayev, quoted by the website, said a police officer had been killed after trying to make his way into the theatre. Police would not comment.
ANXIOUS RELATIVES
Shkolnikova, the doctor, was allowed out of the theatre briefly to read out an appeal on behalf of the hostages.
“We ask President Vladimir Putin to stop military actions in Chechnya,” it read. “These people are very serious, they are not going to joke and may launch terrorist acts all over Russia.”
Crowds of anxious relatives waited outside the theatre for news. Local authorities closed all schools in the area as a precautionary measure and stepped up security at schools attended by children from Russia’s various ethnic nationalities.
Russia has fought on and off since 1994 to quell the revolt in Chechnya, which costs lives daily among troops and civilians.
Putin’s decision as a politically inexperienced prime minister in October 1999 to order troops back into Chechnya helped to catapult him into the Kremlin. His firm handling and public fighting talk made him Russia’s most trusted politician.
Putin called off a trip due to begin on Thursday that would have taken him to Portugal via Berlin. He also pulled out of an Asia-Pacific summit in Mexico that was likely to take in talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on Iraq and North Korea.
The Moscow hostage-taking incident is the most audacious Chechen attack since the first Chechen war of 1994 to 1996.
In 1995, some 120 people were killed after rebels seized a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk. In 1996 a Chechen group took more than 2,000 people hostage in a raid on the neighbouring Dagestani town of Kizlyar.
By: Glenn - 1st November 2002 at 12:22
RE: Hostages die in Moscow operation
Fentanyl was used or something based on it. The story below.
[link]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021029/ap_wo_en_po/…]
Regards, Glenn.
By: Arabella-Cox - 1st November 2002 at 08:18
RE: Hostages die in Moscow operation
If they had used nerve gas everyone inside would have died.
Nerve gas is deadly.
Are they confusing Nerve Gas with Tear Gas?
Tear gas would probably have been lethal over a sustained period of time in a closed area but it wouldn’t have stopped the terrs from blowing the place up.
(BTW The Tu-22M5 is supposed to have navigation and attack upgrades that bring the accuracy of Iron bombs to close to the level of LGBs.)
By: monster500 - 28th October 2002 at 00:21
RE: Hostages die in Moscow operation
Yes it seems most of the hostages were killed by the Russian Gas that was used to put the terrorists to sleep, I t has been revealed the gas was a general aneasthetic of some sort.
By Elizabeth Piper
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian officials refused to give any details on Sunday of a mysterious gas used to end a Moscow theatre siege in which at least 118 hostages died, raising questions about whether the gas had killed them.
The Kremlin and medical experts were silent about a television report that Russian special forces who stormed the theatre in the early hours of Saturday had killed hostages when they used the sleep-inducing gas.
NTV television reported two hostages — a Dutch national and a Kazakh national — had died from gas poisoning.
The unidentified chemical was so powerful that the Chechen suicide fighters who had been filmed during the siege toying with detonators attached to explosives strapped to their waists had no time to set them off.
There have been suggestions that the troops used nerve gas.
Sergei, 36, who declined to give his family name, told Reuters after he was released from hospital that the gas had smelled slightly bitter. Chemical warfare experts say nerve gas often smells of bitter almonds.
London-based security expert, Michael Yardley, said he believed the gas used was BZ, a colourless, odourless incapacitant with hallucinogenic properties, first used by the United States in Vietnam.
He said the symptoms displayed by the hostages in Moscow — inability to walk, memory loss, fainting, heartbeat irregularities, sickness — all pointed to BZ. According to the U.S. army the side effects last 60 hours, Yardley said.
“The Russians wouldn’t want a big shout about it because it (BZ) is just the sort of stuff they are not supposed to have,” he said. “It’s not specifically banned, but…it is in a sort of grey area.”
MOUTHS WIDE OPEN
Film taken after the special forces stormed the theatre to free more than 750 hostages showed a woman slumped back on a chair with her mouth wide open, and a bag of explosives tied to her front.
“A panic went up among us and people were screaming, ‘Gas! gas!’ and, yes, there was shooting,” theatre director Georgi Vasilev, one of the hostages, told Reuters.
“But then everyone fell quickly down. And then, I was told by one woman while we were in hospital together, but who didn’t fall asleep immediately because she covered her mouth and nose, that it was very strange to look at everyone.
“You see, when the shooting began, they (the rebels) told us to lean forward in the theatre seats and cover our heads behind the seats. But then everyone fell asleep. And they (the rebels) were sitting there with their heads thrown back and their mouths wide open.”
Though the government says it freed over 750 hostages it has not given any information on how many were hospitalised nor how many were affected by the gas.
One hostage told Interfax news agency that he saw the guerrillas convulse and slump because of gas.
“After the first shots at the hostages gas came in, I saw how a terrorist sitting at the scene jumped up and tried to get a respirator. I saw how he convulsed and tried to put the mask to his face and then fell,” the unidentified witness said.
REPORTS OF GAS DEATHS
A Health Ministry official quoted by Interfax confirmed that 118 hostages had died, with 50, or nearly all, of their captors.
Earlier, Russian officials said the gas was the “special means” to stop the guerrillas from blowing up the theatre. The guerrillas had threatened to start killing hostages if Moscow did not withdraw its troops from their homeland.
In Moscow, distraught relatives begged for information on loved ones, and police checked cars, passengers and luggage to prevent a feared repeat attack.
Police said they could not immediately confirm a report on Sunday that police in Moscow had charged three Chechens with being involved in preparations for the hostage-taking.
Local television said police detained a Chechen woman who had been in hospital on suspicion of involvement in the attack.
The heightened security meant that many Russians could not get in to see relatives being treated in hospitals.
“They carried out the operation to the end, but they haven’t worked out what to do for the relatives. Many cannot find their family members,” said Anatoly Belayusov, whose 28-year-old daughter Lyuybov was missing after the siege.
FORGIVENESS
President Vladimir Putin asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the dead.
He declared Monday a national day of mourning as dozens of sympathisers left flowers and cards on a low wall near the theatre. Officers in camouflage and with sniffer dogs entered the building to check for booby traps.
“I would like to address primarily the relatives and friends of those killed. We could not save everyone,” Putin said in a television broadcast late on Saturday. “Please forgive us.”
Looking exhausted, Putin called on Russians to rebuild their confidence in a country which had dealt with “armed scum”.
On Wednesday night, the guerrillas burst into a Moscow musical theatre and vowed to kill audience members and staff if Russia failed to pull out troops that returned to Chechnya three years ago on Putin’s orders.
Chechnya’s fugitive rebel president, Aslan Maskhadov, condemned the siege, saying he rejected “terror as a method of reaching any goals”.
A senior aide to Maskhadov said the drama meant Moscow had to choose between talking to gunmen or the man elected president of the breakaway North Caucasus republic in 1997. He warned there could be more such attacks.
By: ink - 27th October 2002 at 20:35
RE: Hostages die in Moscow operation
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 27-10-02 AT 08:36 PM (GMT)]Recent theory I heard on 5 Live (Radio): According to a Russian doctor they interviewed there is a high proportion of heart failure amongst the deceased. Although he couldn’t say exactly why that was the interviewers speculated that the old, infirm and half starved hostages were simply not strong enough to survive all of the stress and the gas may have considerably contributed to this.
Garry, what new Tu-22M5 capability?
By: Arabella-Cox - 27th October 2002 at 18:30
RE: Hostages die in Moscow operation
Last I heard there were 118 hostages dead, one from gunshot wounds and the other 117 from the gas used to prevent the terrorists setting off the bombs.
32 Male terrs and 18 female terrs were killed. (Total 50).
The Gas used has been called a general anesthetic… I guess the high number of fatalities was due to the concentration required to make sure the Terrs got enough to stop them setting off the bombs.
Also many of those who died may have been weakened by being without food and water for three days and being old or young.
Of the remaining hostages at least 45 are in intensive care and a further 100 odd are still being treated.
I must say with the place wired with all those explosives and the level of firepower the terrs seemed to have I thought the death toll would have been 90%+ of the hostages plus some security forces too.
By: Arabella-Cox - 27th October 2002 at 17:31
RE: Hostages die in Moscow operation
THE THREE FEMALE HOSTAGES SHOWN ON RUSSIAN TV…DID THEY SURVIVE???
Launch at Twilight – “Thermal Crossover”
By: Primer55 - 26th October 2002 at 16:20
Hostages die in Moscow operation
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 26-10-02 AT 04:24 PM (GMT)]MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) — Sixty-seven hostages died during an operation to free hundreds of captives held by Chechen rebels in a Moscow theatre and two hostage-takers remain at large, Russian officials have said.
Thirty-four hostage-takers were also killed after Russian special forces, the Federal Security Service, stormed the building at 5.30 a.m. local time on Saturday after the Chechens began executing those being held, Russia’s deputy interior minister, Vladimir Vasilyev, said.
Movsar Barayev, the ringleader of the Chechen group, is confirmed dead and at least two other members of it are being interrogated.
“We are grieving with those close to the 67 hostages who were lost. We couldn’t save them… We saved more than 750 people,” Vasilyev said outside the theatre, adding that there were no children among the dead.
But he said: “Two of the terrorists escaped and we are combing the territory. They are hiding themselves in houses.”
“Up to the last moment — even now — we were afraid there could be a major explosion. This we managed to prevent,” he said. “These people we’re dealing with are real scoundrels. They were constantly giving their threats. They were threatening to start executions which they did. They threated to explode the building.”
Refering to reports that a gas injected into the theatres by special forces ahead of the operation may have contributed to the deaths of some of the hostages, he said: “This is not so.
“Of those who died, some were through stress, hunger and lack of medical supplies that they needed.”
All 75 foreign nationals, from 14 countries including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, Britain and the United States, are alive, diplomats said after the raid that ended the three-day
By: keltic - 26th October 2002 at 13:38
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
Oh yes, it´s definitely really sad. And I wouldn´t call the operation brilliant at all. I wouldn´t like to be in Puttin´s position. But who knows what would the terrorists be doing next if the police hadn´t intervined. It seems that they had started to shoot the hostages. Would they have blown up the theatre?. They are really capable of that. So I suppose, I prefer thinking that 750 have been rescued. If I think in the death of these inocent people that would be really depresive. Other opinions suggest that the people were killed by the poisoned gas not but the bullets. Just see the theatre´s photos. It´s feasible. There´s not much blood….that amount of victims would cause huge amounts of blood and even on the seats which haven´t a single blood spot. If you see the hostage takers after being shot, the amount of blood is quite big only for a single person. Uhhh, suspicious.
By: Flanker112 - 26th October 2002 at 11:19
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
Sad to say but 10-20 deaths is far better than 500-700…don’t you think?
Good job by the Russian Special Forces teams, a real well done!!!
By: keltic - 26th October 2002 at 09:41
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
I don´t think nothing dramatic happens, since the rescue has been showed as a success. Probably internal and hidden cleasing. Fortunately it was great, but not a complete success since some people have been killed. It seems that the hostage takes had started to shoot the hostages. In any case…good everthing is over and hundreds of civilians had saved their lives. 🙂
By: Arabella-Cox - 26th October 2002 at 08:22
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
“I wonder what will happen now in Chechnya and the Pankisi Gorge?”
Knowing human nature I’d say those doing bad things on either side will use this incident to justify more violence in revenge… 🙁
Glad to hear of the low casualties though… 🙂
By: ink - 26th October 2002 at 07:49
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
THIS FROM THE BBC:
Russian security forces have brought a dramatic end to the three-day siege in a Moscow theatre, where about 50 Chechen rebels were holding hundreds of people hostage.
Hundreds of heavily-armed troops stormed the building at about 0600 local time (0200 GMT) after the rebels began executing their captives.
The head of the Russian security service, Nikolai Patrushev, said 34 of the Chechens were killed and several others were arrested. He said none had escaped.
Earlier reports had spoken of concern that some of the Chechen rebels had slipped away undetected.
The group’s leader, Movsar Barayev, was among those who died in the fierce gunbattle.
The bodies of a number of dead hostages are reported to have been brought out of the building.
At least 20 ambulances were seen carrying casualties away from the scene.
But Reuters news agency quoted an Australian diplomat as saying that no more than 10 hostages – none of them foreign to the best of his knowledge – had been killed.
Reports say Russian President Vladimir Putin did not specifically order the operation, but was informed after it began.
The special forces used sleeping gas to subdue the rebels and a number of hostages were brought out unconscious, state-controlled ORT television reported.
About two hours after the raid, the channel showed pictures of the theatre strewn with bodies, some severely mutilated, others with their heads down as if they had passed out.
Booby traps
Some of the hostages began attempting to escape after the rebels shot two of their captives.
In the ensuing panic, the hostages inadvertently set off booby traps laid in the theatre by the rebels.
Russian special forces then rushed to their aid, engaging in a pitched gun battle which lasted more than an hour.
None of the special forces were killed or injured in the operation.
“We succeeded in preventing mass deaths and the collapse of the building which we had been threatened with,” said Russian Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev.
The BBC’s Jonathan Charles, who is at the scene, said the hostages looked shocked and terrified as they emerged.
As troops secured the building, special teams were deployed to disarm mines and explosives planted by the rebels inside the Palace of Culture theatre.
Takeover
The siege started on Wednesday when around 50 Chechen rebels seized control of the theatre, about 4 kilometres (2.7 miles) south-east of the Kremlin.
At least 700 Russians and foreigners were inside, watching a performance of the musical Nord-Ost.
The rebels threatened to shoot the audience and blow up the building if Russian security forces intervened.
They demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya and an end to the war there.
On Friday, the rebels released 19 hostages, but negotiations to release others broke down.
**************************************
This appears to be an astounding victory for the Russian special purpose units involved inspite of the tragic death of some of the hostages.
I wonder what will happen now in Chechnya and the Pankisi Gorge?
By: Arabella-Cox - 25th October 2002 at 04:40
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
I’d say test the Tu-22M5’s new systems by bombing a certain gorge in Georgia…
By: ink - 24th October 2002 at 22:50
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
[updated:LAST EDITED ON 24-10-02 AT 10:51 PM (GMT)]SOC,
The trouble is that not all Chechens in Chechnya are anti-Moscow and its a good idea to keep pro-Russian Chechens on side (or at least alive). To be honest there seems no way out – no chance of storming the building (depending on how many terrorists there actually are) and there doesn’t seem a negotiable escape.
I fear the worst but my thoughts and prayers are with the families of those inside (and of course with the hostages themselves).
By: SOC - 24th October 2002 at 17:36
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
The Chechens honestly think this is a good idea? If they blow up that building Putin is liable to do one of two things: 1), level every square inch of Chechnya, through the judicious use of TOS-1 thermobaric MRL’s, or 2), I’ll give you a hint, it involves a suitcase. If they keep pulling this crap I’m going to start pulling for #2. You don’t encourage rebels, you put them down. China should do the same for that matter, but that’s another debate entirely.
SOC
“Peace through kinetic solutions”
By: keltic - 24th October 2002 at 17:32
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
Unfortunately I don´t expect a happy ending. Too much extreme stances on both sides.
By: Saab 2000 - 24th October 2002 at 16:57
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
Its a dreadful situation,hopefully everything will end up alright.
By: KabirT - 24th October 2002 at 15:53
RE: Chechens threaten to kill 700 hostages in Moscow theatre
Russian hostage drama continues, one captive killed:
Heavily armed Chechen rebels, holding nearly 800 people hostage in a theatre in Moscow, shot dead one of them on Thursday night, even as negotiations continued to end the standoff.
Itar Tass news agency said the gunmen shot dead a woman and refused to release more hostages till their demands of a complete halt on military operations in Chechnya and total pullout of Russian troops were met.
President Vladimir Putin condemned the siege as a major terrorist attack. “This is the largest hostage taking not only in Russia, but also abroad,” said Putin, who cancelled his foreign trips to deal with the situation.
Around 40 rebels, including women, armed with automatic weapons, grenades, belts with explosives attached, mines and canisters with gasoline, stormed the theatre during a popular musical show on Wednesday night, taking the audience, including 62 foreigners, hostage.
Among the hostages were Americans, Britons, Dutch and Germans. There was no Indian.
A pro-rebel Web site said the attackers had given a seven-day deadline to Russia to fulfil their demands, failing which they would blow up the building.
The rebels overnight released 180 hostages, including 24 children and two pregnant women. Five more were released on Thursday afternoon shortly after four mediators holding white flags entered the building and began talks
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October 24, 2002 at 3:43 pm