← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Oklahomaman
Thread ID: 3225 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2002-10-26
2002-10-26 05:06 | User Profile
Russian Forces Control Theater 55 minutes ago [10:55PM CST] By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW (AP) - Special forces troops stormed a Moscow theater before sunrise Saturday where hundreds of hostages were being held by Chechen rebels, killing their leader and freeing the captives after a three-day standoff.
At least 20 bodies were seen being taken from the theater by an AP photographer after a night of explosions and gunfire. Some of the bodies were hostages, Russian news agencies said.
Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, said most of the hostage-takers had been killed. He said the operation to free the hostages began when the Chechen rebels began executing the captives.
Earlier, officials said two hostages were killed and two injured and that the hostage-takers had begun to execute their captives. Two women escaped as soldiers armed with assault rifles were seen moving toward the theater, and two more ran from the building later while ambulances poured into the southeast Moscow neighborhood where the crisis began Wednesday evening.
The hostage-takers had earlier threatened to begin killing their captives before sunrise Saturday. After the two deaths, officials reached the captors by phone but then quickly said their negotiations had failed.
Movsar Barayev ââ¬â a young warlord who inherited a gang of rebels from his uncle, the infamous Arbi Barayev ââ¬â had led the group of as many as 50 heavily armed men and women into the theater in a bold raid less than three miles from the Kremlin.
Late Friday, a mediator who met with the gunmen said they promised to release the hostages if Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) declared an end to the war in Chechnya (news - web sites) and began withdrawing troops.
The new demands were brought out of the theater just before midnight Friday by Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist who is respected by Chechens for her reporting on the war and was called in by the rebels to mediate.
Politkovskaya said the gunmen had told here they were "going to wait only a little while" before they started killing hostages.
She listed rebel demands, and foremost among them were Putin's declaration of an end to the war and the start of a Russian withdrawal from one region anywhere in Chechnya to show good will. If verified, the rebels promised to free the hostages.
She said the captors agreed to her suggestion that verification be done by Lord Judd, a member of the Council of Europe who has made many trips to investigate the human rights situation in Chechnya.
The demand was the first time that the gunmen revealed specific conditions for freeing the hostages, estimated to number as many as 800 and include Americans, Britons, Dutch, Australians, Canadians, Austrians and Germans. Earlier, the captors demanded that Russia withdraw from Chechnya.
Putin said Friday that "the preservation of the lives of the people who remain in the theater building" was his overriding concern. Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev said after meeting with Putin that the hostage-takers' lives would be guaranteed if they freed their captives.
Daria Morgunova, a spokeswoman for the musical, told The Associated Press that an actor who was among the hostages called her to say that the captors had threatened to begin killing hostages at dawn. She said she received the call about two hours before Patrushev's statement.
The heavily armed hostage-takers had said they were ready to die and take their hostages with them if their demands weren't met, and witnesses said they had wired the building and themselves with explosives.
The gunmen released 19 hostages Friday, including eight children aged between 6 and 12. Dressed in winter coats ââ¬â and one clutching a teddy bear with aviator goggles ââ¬â the children appeared healthy as they left the building accompanied by Red Cross workers in the afternoon.
Seven adults were freed earlier in the day, and four citizens of Azerbaijan were released after dark, Russian officials said.
Politkovskaya was one of several influential figures who entered the theater late Friday in efforts to mediate with the captors. They also included former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov and Ruslan Aushev, the former president of Ingushetia, a region bordering Chechnya.
Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev was quoted by news agencies as saying unsuccessful attempts had been made to contact Aslan Maskhadov, a rebel leader who was president of Chechnya between Russian troops' withdrawal in 1996 and resumption of the war three years later.
"The leader of the terrorist act is Maskhadov. It was organized with his participation," Vasilyev said in televised comments, while state-run Russian networks broadcast footage meant to prove the link.
From a tape apparently made sometime since June, the footage showed Maskhadov saying rebels have shifted from guerrilla warfare to an "offensive" strategy and adding: "I am certain that in the final stage we will carry out a still more unique action, like the jihad, and with this operation we will liberate our land from the Russian aggressors."
Hostages gave varying accounts of conditions in the theater Friday, with one saying the captives hadn't received food or water and been using the orchestra pit as a toilet.
**A group of about 80 demonstrators outside the theater carried banners and chanted anti-war slogans. Several said they were responding to requests from relatives who were among the hostages. **
Alexander Petrov, a demonstrator who said he had friends inside the theater, said previously he had not been opposed to the Chechen war, but now "what way out is there?"
Good conclusion to this affair - a pile of dead Chechens. It also appears the Russian Army had little choice but to attempt a take over. Still not an easy call to make. I wonder if American officals would have the same fortitude in similar circumstances.
80 is a down right paltry number of antiwar demonstators (esp. given the magnitude of this event) in a country that is supposedly war weary according to the U.S. media conglomerates.
2002-10-26 05:52 | User Profile
A short introduction to Chechen Thugs, a.k.a. "good" terrorists. Also read the excellent AntiYuppie's [url=http://forum.originaldissent.com/index.php?act=ST&f=8&t=2459&hl=&s=0055583cef468884786201afef0daa13] Neocons Rally Behind Chechnya, Jewish Hypocrisy in Action[/url]
A short course on Chechen brutality:
[url=http://mywebpage.netscape.com/mdrssn1/Chechnyas_Grimmest_Industry.htm]Chechnya's Grimmest Industry[/url]
When in Rome do as Romans do:
[url=http://mywebpage.netscape.com/mdrssn1/War_Has_No_Rules_for_Russian_Forces_Battling_Chechen_Rebels.htm]War Has No Rules for Russians Battling Chechen Rebels[/url]
A little insight into the Chechen mind:
[url=http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a39b2bc97524a.htm]Chechen Machine-Gun Wedding[/url]
Chechen Thugs Go To Allah:
[url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13662-2000Feb5.html]A 'Massacre . . . Beyond Comparison'[/url]
Kidnapping business:
[url=http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a8a132f5141.htm]Background: Kidnap capital of the world[/url]
Funny stuff:
[url=http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3a10244a6948.htm]Chechenz With Attitude[/url]
Fake atrocity video:
[url=http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a38bd856718e7.htm]Chechnya's Video Was a Fraud[/url]
Chechen serial killer:
[url=http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a386943ae61dc.htm]The Allah Soldiers[/url]
Liberty...my ass. The definition of liberty on this forum has become, sadly, freedom from jews being alive -- beowolf
2002-10-27 22:40 | User Profile
Based on the story below, will we hear the media constantly drum on about Russia that "Putin gassed his own people...Russia has weapons of mass destruction..." etc., like they do about Iraq?
[url=http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Russia%20Theater%20Raid]Gas Use Questioned in Moscow Raid[/url]
By DAVID MCHUGH ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MOSCOW -- Doctors said Sunday they still hadn't been told exactly what was in a mysterious knockout gas that killed 116 hostages after Russian special forces stormed a Moscow theater to free them from Chechen terrorists.
The chief Moscow city doctor says more than 150 hostages remained in critical condition after the operation, which at first had been seen as a triumphant rescue mission.
The physician in charge of the city's poison unit said troops did not tell medical authorities they had gassed the auditorium until the 750 hostages were brought out, most of them unconscious.
"But we didn't know the character of the gas," said Yevgeny Luzhnikov, head of the city health service Department of Severe Poisoning. The substance was described as akin to compounds used in surgical anesthesia.
Andrei Seltsovsky, the chief city physician, explained that the gas affected hearts and lungs. He said he had no information when asked about reports that the compound could cause vomiting that would choke unconscious victims.
"In standard situations, the compound...does not act as aggressively as it turned out to do," Seltsovsky said. "But it was used on people who were in a specific (extreme) situation for more than 50 hours.... All of this naturally made the situation more difficult."
The approximately 800 hostages were taken Wednesday night when an estimated 50 Chechen rebels stormed the theater during a popular musical. They demanded that Russia end its war in Chechnya.
The few dozen hostages who were well enough to be released Sunday could provide few clues as the the nature of the gas.
"We knew something serious was going to happen" when the gas started seeping into the hot auditorium that reeked of excrement, said Mark Podlesny as he walked out of Veterans Hospital No. 1 near the theater.
"I lost consciousness. Yes, there was a strange smell," said Roma Shmakov, a 12-year-old actor in "Nord-Ost," the musical in progress when the gunmen burst in at 9:10 p.m. Wednesday.
The gas mystery tainted the rescue mission, overlaying it with an aura of confusion and callousness. The impression was bolstered by scenes outside hospitals where the hostages were taken for treatment. Friends and family crowded the gates in futile efforts to learn if relatives or loved ones were inside. Authorities gave out little information on hostages' identities, what hospital they were in or how they had fared through the ordeal.
Even diplomats had trouble finding information about the estimated 70 foreign citizens who were among the captives. U.S. consular officials searched the city's hospitals for one of the two American citizens known to have been in the theater. A second American was found recuperating in a city clinic. Two foreign women - one Dutch and one Austrian - were known to have died.
Only on Sunday afternoon, more than 24 hours after the hostages were freed, did hospitals post complete or even partial lists of who they were holding. Visits still were prohibited. Some people outside the gates saw their relatives waving to them from windows.
"They are hostages again," one visitor shouted to the armed guards at Hospital 13, where about half the captives were taken.
Most of those who left the hospitals hugged those meeting them, then hurried to get out of the chilling rain and avoid a pulsing crowd of reporters and TV cameras.
Those who stopped to talk gave accounts of the ordeal that sometimes contradicted the official version.
Podlesny questioned Russian television footage that showed the captors' corpses in the theater amid liquor bottles and syringes. "They didn't drink, didn't smoke, didn't swear. They were very disciplined," he said.
Both Podlesny and Georgy Vasilyev, the producer of Nord-Ost, disputed Russian officials' statement that the gunmen had begun shooting hostages before dawn and prompting the special forces' to start their assault.
A total of 118 hostages where known to have died since the Chechens stormed the theater - 116 from the effects of the gas, one young woman shot and killed early in the standoff and one hostage shot Saturday morning shortly before the rescue raid.
President Vladimir Putin visited the special forces troops Sunday to congratulate them on the mission and declared Monday a national day of mourning. As troops that had surrounded the theater building began to withdraw, Muscovites placed flowers at the perimeter.
Many of the 50 assailants killed in the hostage-rescue mission died after being shot in the head, apparently while unconscious from the gas. The Federal Security Service said three other gunmen were captured, and authorities searched the city for accomplices or gunmen who may have escaped.
The chief Moscow prosecutor, Mikhail Avdyukov, said Sunday that three people had been arrested in Moscow on suspicion of helping organize and carry out the raid, the Interfax news agency reported.
The attackers included 18 women, many of whom said they were war widows. The women had explosives strapped to their bodies, and mines were place throughout the building the terrorists threatened to blow the building to bits unless Putin agreed to withdraw troops from mainly Muslin Chechnya
Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya after a devastating 1994-1996 war that left separatists in charge. In fall 1999, Putin sent troops back in after rebels based in Chechnya attacked a neighboring region and after apartment-building bombings blamed on the militants killed about 300 people.
In 1995 and 1996, rebels seized hundreds of hostages in two raids in southern Russia near Chechnya, and dozens of people died in both cases, many of them killed when Russian forces attacked the assailants.
2002-10-27 23:23 | User Profile
Police didn't have informed medical help standing by for the use of very toxic "sleeping gas"? I see cops in Russia are as incompetent as cops here.
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