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   Say a prayer, for all hostages in Moscow

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Topic: Say a prayer, for all hostages in Moscow (Read 299 times)

Addams
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Say a prayer, for all hostages in Moscow
« on: Oct 24^th, 2002, 11:53am »

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and for their captors. Pray for peace in Russia AND in Chechnya

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MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Two large explosions have been heard outside the Moscow theatre where Chechen militants are holding about 700 people hostage.

The blasts came on Thursday evening, hours after the body of a 20-year-old woman was removed from the theatre.

A Russian medical services spokesman said the woman had been shot in the chest, and it appeared she had been killed when the audience was taken hostage on Wednesday evening.

Earlier on Thursday, five hostages, including a small girl, were released from the theatre.

Russian officials said the release followed the start of talks with the Chechens, who are demanding an immediate end to the war in Chechnya.

A tape aired Thursday on Al-Jazeera TV showed Chechen dissidents, some of them veiled women, telling how they were seeking "a just solution" after "the Russian occupiers have flooded our land with our children's blood."

"We have chosen this approach... for the freedom of the Chechen people and there is no difference in where we die, and therefore we have decided to die here, in Moscow. And we will take with us the lives of hundreds of sinners."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the hostage situation was "formulated abroad" by "the same criminals who have terrorised Chechnya for many years," according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

"The main goal of our law enforcement agencies and special services in planning measures is aimed at freeing the hostages with the maximum ensurance of their saftey," he said.

Putin has cancelled his planned trip to the APEC summit in Mexico next week, the Kremlin says.

Russian officials believe there are 40 hostage-takers -- including 30 men and a woman who were pre-placed in the audience, as others with rifles raided the theatre.

Valeri Gribakin, a spokesman for Moscow police, said there were as many as 50 hostage-takers, among them women of "non-Slavic" nationalities.

The hostage-takers have threatened to kill some of the hostages and have told police they have mined portions of the building -- The Palace of Culture of the Podshipnikov Zavod.

Police said the gunmen had identified themselves as members of the 29th Division of the Chechen army.

A pro-rebel Web site said the Russians had seven days to begin the withdrawal or the theatre and hostages would be blown up.

They have also asked for the Russian-installed head of the Chechen government to talk to them.

A short time after the blast was heard, German and Austrian embassy officials arrived at the scene, where they were told they could win the release of some 60 Western hostages.

But the Westerners were not immediately released, and the Chechens said the embassy officials had arrived too late.

The hostages include citizens of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia and Britain and two Americans.

The international Red Cross said it had launched talks with the guerrillas and was trying to secure the release at least of foreigners and children.

Anastasia Isyuk, an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross, told Reuters: "The negotiations with the rebels are under way at this very moment.

"Two Red Cross representatives have already entered the building with medicines and necessary equipment in case anyone among the hostages needs medical assistance.

"We hope we come to an agreement so that the rebels release children and remaining foreigners."

Hostages who have managed to telephone Russian radio stations on cell phones have said the gunmen have explosives, and have threatened to kill 10 hostages for every hostage-taker wounded by police.

Mark Harris, of the London-based Control Risks Group, a business consultancy operation, said both the hostages and the hostage-takers will feel the psychological and physical strain of their situation as each hour goes by.

from http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/24/moscow.siege/index.html

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Mags
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Re: Say a prayer, for all hostages in Moscow
« Reply #1 on: Oct 24^th, 2002, 6:17pm »

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I am saying a prayer for all in their second night of terror! May the Good Lord Bless them! :angel:

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Maggi

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Re: Say a prayer, for all hostages in Moscow
« Reply #2 on: Oct 26^th, 2002, 9:43am »

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Hostages die in Moscow operation
Saturday, October 26, 2002 Posted: 7:28 AM EDT (1128 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 siege.

Russia's Interfax reported two of the hostages were killed in the hours before the activity intensified, and two others -- a woman and man -- suffered head injuries, a rescue official told the news agency.

About 20 bodies were seen being removed from the building in the heart of the capital.

Some of the victims are feared to have choked to death on their own vomit after special forces are reported to have used sleeping gas before raiding the building, The Associated Press reported.

Many of the freed hostages appeared unconscious or in shock as they were loaded into waiting buses and ambulances.

It was later reported that about 40 former hostages have been taken to hospital in a "poor condition" after suffering from gas poisoning.

State Security chief Nikolai Patrushev had earlier claimed all the remaining Chechens had been taken captive. "None of them managed to get away," he was reported by Reuters as saying.

Pictures taken inside the theatre by Russian television showed some bodies slumped in theatre seats or with their heads down on their arms as if they had passed out. Bombs lay on seats or were still strapped to some of the women hostage-takers' waists.

The building had reportedly been booby-trapped with mines laid at entrances and exits and a huge bomb was said to have been placed in the centre of the theatre.

Some explosions were heard as special forces deactivated the devices or carried out controlled explosions.

Russia's deputy interior minister, Vladimir Vasilyev, said the Russian forces were able to save many lives by preventing the explosion of the building.

The end of the drama, which brought the distant Chechen war to the heart of Moscow, will be a relief to President Vladimir Putin whose own position was being tested by the crisis.

He called at one of Moscow's top hospitals to visit survivors before being whisked away in his motorcade.

A senior envoy to Chechnya's rebel president on Saturday condemned the siege by Chechen guerrillas.

Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy of elected Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, told Reuters: "We cannot come down to the level of our opponents, targetting innocent people," alluding to alleged human rights abuses by Russian forces in Chechnya.

He added: "We offer our condolences to the families of people that died in these dramatic events."

The standoff, which had begun on Wednesday, had been a test for Russian President Vladimir Putin who had refused to give in to the rebel hostage-takers' demands that Russian military forces be removed from the breakaway republic.

Explosions and gunfire heard
As troops moved in, loud explosions and heavy gunfire could be heard.

The rebels had said they were prepared to die for their cause, taking with them as many "sinners" as possible.

"Most of the hostages have been saved and medical assistance is being provided to the persons who were wounded during this operation," Vasilyev said.

A Russian official said the rebels had started shooting their hostages before the raid.

After the two hostages were killed several hostages attempted to escape and came under fire from the rebels.

At this point, the Russian official said, special forces troops opened fire to aid the escaping hostages and the full-scale assault on the theatre followed.

The activity began with a single blast and was followed by a series of explosions of different sizes. Bursts of automatic gun fire went on for a period of about 15 minutes before dying down.

Heavily armed Russian security forces had the complex surrounded since shortly after the siege began Wednesday night.

The audience had arrived at the theatre to see "Nord Ost," a popular production of a classic Russian musical, when the rebels suddenly took over the building during the second act on Wednesday evening.

Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya after a 1994-96 war but they returned in 1999 and have since occupied most Chechen territory.

Moscow blames Chechen militants, who say they are fighting for independence, for a series of bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people.

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Re: Say a prayer, for all hostages in Moscow
« Reply #3 on: Oct 29^th, 2002, 7:22am »

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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - Foreign governments worked diplomatic channels Monday trying to discover what type of gas Russian special forces used to end a hostage crisis in Moscow, and considered turning to the world's chemical weapons regulator.
More than 100 hostages were killed in the assault on the theater, nearly all from the effects of the gas.
Russian officials have kept the substance a secret even as doctors treat hundreds of survivors. U.S. officials identified it Monday as an opiate related to morphine. Such substances not only kill pain and dull the senses but also can cause coma and death by shutting down breathing and circulation.
The United States and other countries were in contact with Moscow in search of details, officials said on condition of anonymity.

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