The Hindu : Gunmen set Saturday deadline

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 26, 2002

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Gunmen set Saturday deadline

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW OCT. 25. Gunmen holding hundreds hostage in a Moscow theatre have threatened to start shooting the hostages on Saturday morning if the Russian Government fails to fulfil their demands of ending the war in Chechnya and withdrawing its troops from the region.

The 50-strong Chechen "death squad,'' which initially gave the Government a week's time, hardened its stand after the authorities refused to negotiate the demands.

The TVS television quoted the rebels as saying that they would start shooting the hostages on Saturday, if there was no response from the Government.

The head of the Russian Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, made it clear today that the authorities were not going to accept the terrorists' demands. After a meeting with the President, Vladimir Putin, he said the lives of the gunmen would be guaranteed if they released their captives.

Earlier in the day, the gunmen freed 15 more hostages, including eight children. This brought the total number of hostages freed over the past two days to 54. An estimated 600 to 700 hostages, including up to 30 children, are still inside the building.

A young woman was killed on Wednesday while trying to force her way into the theatre, shortly after the terrorists stormed it. The hostage-takers went back on their earlier promise to free 73 foreigners from among the hostages.

The captives are going through a terrible ordeal as they are not being allowed to leave the auditorium and must use the orchestra pit as a toilet. Sandwiches and chocolates at the theatre are running out, but the gunmen are refusing to allow food from outside. The hostages told their relatives by mobile phones that the gunmen had mined the stage, the aisles and the walls of the theatre and were wearing more explosives on their body.

A Russian doctor who was allowed to examine the hostages said some of them, including three children, were unwell. Some relatives of the hostages staged anti-war demonstrations in Moscow, responding to demands by the hostage-takers. They carried banners and chanted anti-war slogans near the theatre and tried to march to the Red Square, but were stopped by police.

Reports from several provinces with big Chechen communities said anti-Chechen feelings were rapidly growing among the local population and authorities feared riots. Mr. Putin today described the reports as ``alarming'' and instructed the Interior Ministry to take steps to prevent disturbances.

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