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A
pregnant hostage released by Chechen fighters leaves the theatre
in Moscow
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MOSCOW,
October 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Chechen hostage takers
are preparing to release around 30 foreigners they took hostage in a
Moscow theatre among several hundred captives, after the Chechen
fighters Thursday, October 24, gave Russia a one-week ultimatum to end a
brutal war it is waging in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
A
Chechen website kavkaz.org reported the deputy head of the Chechen
commando group said that around 10:00 am Moscow time (06:00 GMT) that
the commandos were preparing to release 30 foreign hostages.
The
Chechen fighters also gave the Russian authorities seven days to end
military operations in Chechnya before they blow up the theatre in which
the hostages are held.
Russian
authorities “have seven days to end the war and begin to withdraw
troops from Chechnya,” the hostage takers said in a statement on the
Chechen separatist website kavkaz.org.
“If
the issue is not resolved within a week, the building will be blown up
with all hostages,” the site said.
The
hostages, numbered at up to 1,000, were trapped in the theatre in a
Moscow suburb for a second day on Thursday, fearful that Russian troops
would launch a bloody assault.
An
Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent saw a tank arrive within 400
meters from the theatre.
Between
40 and 50 fighters, including men and women, stormed into the theatre
late Wednesday. According to freed hostages, they were armed with
automatic weapons, grenades, belts packed with explosives, mines and
cannisters of petrol.
They
have mined the entire perimeter of the building with explosives, a
hostage told Moscow Echo radio.
Heavily
armed troops and police, including snipers, surrounded the building.
FSB
security service head Nikolai Patrushev said FSB and army special units
had been placed on military alert, media reported. An Alpha
anti-terrorist security force was also at the scene.
A
detonation was heard near the theatre at 9.10 am (0510 GMT) Thursday but
its nature could not be determined. There was no sign that an assault
was imminent.
“We
are really afraid that it will be the same as Budyennovsk. It was all
calm, people around me can remember (from media reports), then the
assault began and people were killed,” one of the captives told Moscow
Echo on Thursday.
In
June 1995, Chechen fighters took several hundred people hostage in a
hospital at Budyennovsk, in southern Russia. The drama ended in tragedy
with more than 100 civilians dying when Russian troops stormed the
hospital.
“We
really don’t want there to be an assault as any armed action will
leave us without a hope in the world,” said the woman, cardiologist
Maria Shkolnikova, speaking by mobile phone from inside the theatre
building.
A
Russian lawmaker involved in the handling of the Chechen hostage-seizure
in Moscow said on Thursday that security forces would not storm the
theatre unless the rebels began killing hostages.
“No
assault will take place at the initiative of the Russian side unless the
terrorists start to massacre the hostages,” Gennady Gutkov, a member
of parliament's security committee, was quoted as saying by Interfax.
The
Russian authorities are prepared to offer the hostage-takers who have
seized up to 1,000 theatre-goers at a Moscow theatre safe passage to
another country, a senior Russian deputy said Thursday.
The
Chechen commandos who are holding the hostages could be granted
“passage in conditions of security to another country,” Ruslan
Khasbulatov, a former parliamentary speaker and himself an ethnic
Chechen, said as quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
Khasbulatov
said the crisis team set up by the Russian authorities had asked him to
pass on the message to the group. “I am inclined to believe this
promise,” he said, giving no other details.
His
statement could not be confirmed from official sources.
Police
officials have said that between 500 and 700 people were being held
hostage. But Shkolnikova said that there were more than 1,000 hostages
according to a headcount by the captives. She also said there were as
many as 62 foreign nationals among the hostages, including Dutch,
Bulgarians, Canadians, Australians, Lithuanians, Moldovans, Yugoslavs,
Belarusians, Turkmens, Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Georgians, Americans,
Germans, Britons, Swiss and Ukrainians.
Shkolnikova
denied police reports that 150 people had already been set free, saying
a much smaller number had been released, mainly children and pregnant
women.
The
kavkaz.org website said that the raid was led by Movsar Barayev, the
nephew of Chechen commander Arbi Barayev, who was killed last year
according to the Russian military.
“They
have one demand: stop the war and start a rapid withdrawal of the
Russian occupiers in Chechnya,” the rebel site said.
“The
building is mined and all the mujahideen (Islamic fighters) are mined.
They are suicide commandos. They didn’t come to live but to die,”
the statement said.
Meanwhile,
the Chechen fighters who have seized up to 1,000 hostages in a Moscow
theatre are demanding that representatives of the Red Cross and Medecins
sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors without Borders) be sent to talk with
them, one of the hostages said Thursday, as quoted by Moscow Echo radio.
However
the rebels said that no Russians should be among the representatives
sent to talk to them, the hostage, Shkolnikova, said.
They
are also demanded the group include representatives of the countries
from which several foreign nationals among the hostages originate, she
said. The United States condemned the attack and said it stood ready to
help Russia.
The
Chechen deputy in Russia’s State Duma (lower house), Aslanbek
Aslakhanov, spoke by telephone early on Thursday with Barayev to try to
secure the hostages’ release. The lawmaker, accompanied by
fellow-Chechen Ruslan Khasbulatov, a former speaker, was unable reach an
agreement, Interfax reported.
The
captives are being allowed to visit the toilet but had not received any
food or water more than 10 hours after their ordeal began.
The
authorities offered relatives of the captives medical care and
psychological counseling in a sports center, media reported.
The
Austrian and German ambassadors and diplomats from several other
countries have gathered in front of the theater and are waiting for the
release of their fellow citizens, AFP reported.
At
least 30 foreigners were among the hundreds of hostages seized late
Wednesday, October 23, in Moscow by Chechen rebels demanding an end to
the war in Chechnya, Russian police said.
The
foreign hostages included citizens from Britain, Austria, Australia, the
Netherlands and Germany, an official with the police crisis unit dealing
with the hostage taking said.
A
U.S. citizen was also among the hostages, the RIA Novosti news agency
quoted the U.S. embassy in Moscow as saying.
The
British Embassy in Moscow confirmed to AFP that three British citizens
were among the captives. There were also one Austrian, two Dutch
citizens, three Germans, these countries’ authorities said, and the
Australian foreign affairs and trade department said two Australian
nationals were among the hostages.
Bulgarian
authorities said one Bulgarian was being held in the theater, while the
Georgian embassy added two Georgians to the list.
Fifteen
Ukrainians and Four Azerbaijanis were also among the hostages, the RIA
Novosti news agency quoted these countries’ embassies as saying.
Russia
launched a military campaign against the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in
1999.
According
to international Law Professor Francis Boyle, the Chechen Republic of
Ichkeria qualifies as an Independent Nation State under international
law and practice in its own right.
According
to Article I of the Genocide Convention, all contracting parties thereto
have an obligation “to prevent” the ongoing Russian genocide against
the Chechens, Boyle said in an article published by MediaMonitors.net
February 15, 2002.
