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Putin vows to stand firm on Chechen mass hostage-taking
October 25, 2002
AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed not to give in to Chechen rebels holding more than 700 hostages at gunpoint in a Moscow theatre and ordered his security forces to secure their release.

The Chechen separatists, who call themselves "smertniki" or death squads, shot dead a woman hostage as she attempted to flee at the start of their assault, Russian security officials said.

In a humiliating blow to Putin's hardline policy on the Chechen conflict, up to 50 heavily-armed rebels, including women, burst into the theatre late Wednesday during a performance of a hit musical and took the entire audience and cast hostage.

Explosives strapped to their bodies, the rebels have threatened to shoot the hostages, among them children, and blow up the theatre unless their demands for a Russian pullout from Chechnya are met in seven days.

But Putin, who swiftly cancelled a planned trip to Mexico for a Asia-Pacific summit, took a hardline stand, vowing he would not give in to the demands of the rebels, fighting for independence for the mountainous Muslim Caucasus territory.

"We will not give in to provocations," Putin said, following a meeting with Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov.

"The most important thing is to guarantee the safety of areas near the theatre, to help the hostages and to assist their relatives," Putin added, with a clear implication that security forces were contemplating an armed operation to free the hostages.

He also linked the hostage-taking to the October 12 bombing on the Indonesian island of Bali which killed 190 people, saying it had been organized by "the same people".

The dead woman's body was brought out of the building on a stretcher, images broadcast on Russian television showed. The rebel website kavkaz.org said earlier that a woman was shot late on Wednesday as she tried to enter the building because the rebels had taken her for a security agent.

Two young Russian women managed to escape on Thursday evening, an FSB security official said.

The two 18-year-olds climbed out of a window and one of them suffered light wounds after the rebels threw grenades at them, said FSB spokesman Sergei Ignachenko.

Late Thursday two explosions were heard near the building.

Up to 45 children aged between 12 and 16 are among the hostages, a senior Russian education official said.

FSB security forces and army special units were on high alert, and a tank took up position within 400 metres (yards) from the theatre early Thursday.

An Alpha anti-terrorist security force was also in position while heavily armed troops and police, including snipers, surrounded the building, as hundreds of relatives and friends held an anxious vigil outside.

World leaders meanwhile rallied to Putin's side, condemning what they called a terrorist act, but also calling for a peaceful resolution to the crisis.

US President George W. Bush, who had been due to meet Putin in Mexico, phoned the Russian leader to voice his support and offer any help.

The UN Security Council on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution condemning the hostage seizure and demanded the abductees' immediate and unconditional release.

In footage aired by Qatar's Al-Jazeera satellite TV, a woman clad in an Islamic chador who said she was one of the Chechen rebels in Moscow's hostage crisis vowed Thursday to "kill hundreds of infidels."

"We have chosen to die in Moscow and we will kill hundreds of infidels," said the woman.

On the rebels' website they said that if the Russians did not end the war in Chechnya within a week, the theatre "will be blown up with all hostages."

One of the captives said the rebels had threatened "to shoot 10 people every hour if their demands are not met."

The hostages urged Putin in a television appeal to to meet the gunmen's demands.

"We are asking you to make a reasonable decision and end the war in Chechnya. Enough with wars, we want peace. Please find a peaceful solution or blood will be spilled," hostage Maria Shkolnikova said, reading from a statement.

Shkolnikova, like the other hostages was allowed to communicate by mobile phone.

The Austrian and German ambassadors and several other foreign diplomats visited the scene, with 75 non-Russians among the hostages according to the FSB.

These include four Americans, seven Germans, two Dutch, two Australians, 23 Ukrainians, three Turks, five Azeris, three Latvians, a Canadian, three Britons, two Swiss, one Bulgarian, three Georgians, an Armenian and a Moldovan, said an FSB spokesman.

The crisis has raised fears of a repetition of a botched hostage release operation at Budyennovsk, in southern Russia, in June 1995 when Chechen rebels took several hundred people hostage in a hospital and more than 100 civilians died after Russian troops stormed the building.

After releasing several hostages overnight, mostly women and children, the hostage-takers set five others free -- a British national in his 50s, a Russian woman and three children -- shortly after midday.

Thirty-seven hostages have been freed in total, the FSB said.

Two international Red Cross delegates were allowed into the theatre to bring medical supplies and take out one ill hostage, as well as two children and a woman, International Red Cross Committee spokeswoman Annick Bouvier told AFP.

The kavkaz.org website said the raid was led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev, who was killed last year according to the Russian military.

Russian forces have been battling since October 1999 to restore Moscow's control over Chechnya. More than 4,500 Russian soldiers have died according to official figures and between 10,000 and 20,000 civilians have been reported killed.

Following a ceasefire in the first Chechen war in 1994-1996, Chechnya had remained officially within the Russian Federation but enjoyed de facto independence.

The earlier conflict left some 80,000 people dead.

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