A pregnant hostage released by Chechen fighters leaves the theatre in Moscow

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. 

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