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Russia comes clean over gas, demands extradition of Chechen envoy
October 31, 2002
AFP

Russia broke four days of silence and revealed that the gas used to subdue Chechen rebels and end the Moscow hostage crisis was fentanyl, a potent agent responsible for nearly all of the 119 deaths among the captives.

Moscow also demanded the extradition of a top aide to the Chechen rebel leadership after he was arrested in Denmark on suspicion of being behind the siege.

Health Minister Yury Shevchenko denied that the gas used in Saturday's special forces operation to free the hostage was banned under chemical weapons conventions and said that the active substance in the gas was fentanyl, a powerful narcotic used as an anaesthetic.

"A fentanyl derivative was used to neutralize the terrorists," the minister said, referring to the Chechen rebels who had threatened to execute the hostages unless Russian agreed to end the war in their homeland.

"I officially declare that chemical substances of the kind banned under international conventions on chemical weapons were not used," he said, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Russian officials had previously refused to specify the nature of the gas whose effects killed most of the 119 hostages who died and has left hundreds of others still in hospital, saying only that it was an anaesthetic-type gas of a kind used in surgery.

US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said Tuesday that lives could have been saved if precise information had been given out immediately following the operation.

Shevchenko stressed that the substance, widely used in medical practice, "cannot in itself be called lethal," attributing the deaths of the hostages to their poor condition after three days of captivity, notably a lack of movement and oxygen.

"These were the factors that led to the lethal outcome for some of the hostages," he said.

Opiates such as fentanyl affect pain receptors, induce drowsiness and in sufficiently strong doses can cause the respiratory system to seize.

Shevchenko rejected widespread criticism that the doctors and hospital staff called to treat the hostages had been inadequately prepared for their task.

"The specialists were warned, myself included, although the operation had a security nature," he said.

Medics had prepared beforehand more than 1,000 doses of antidote to the incapacitating gas pumped into the theatre to overcome the Chechen rebels, the minister added.

Medics who entered the theatre behind the special forces to help the hostages complained after the operation that they had been given little or no information or preparation and wholly inadequate material, including a lack of stretchers.

Russia had come under increasing international pressure to divulge the nature of the gas amid lingering suspicions that banned chemicals might have been used, though officials and medical experts in the United States, Germany and Switzerland had all indicated that fentanyl had probably been used.

A senior US official quoted by the New York Times said that if fentanyl had been used, it would not constitute a violation of the 1997 treaty banning the use of lethal chemical weapons because this permits the use of non-lethal chemicals for law enforcement and riot control purposes.

A former intelligence official said Soviet scientists had worked hard during the Cold War on "bio-regulators," agents that could alter mass behavior and even put entire cities to sleep.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Valery Loshinin meanwhile said Moscow hoped that Denmark would "take the necessary steps" to extradite Ahmed Zakayev after the Chechen envoy appeared in a Danish court following his arrest at Russia's request.

A Danish judge, Lisbeth Christensen, ordered the 43-year-old Zakayev detained until November 12, saying there was a risk that he would flee, although his lawyer said he would appeal the ruling.

Zakayev had been attending a two-day international conference on Chechnya in Copenhagen attended by representatives of the Chechen diaspora and non-governmental organisations.

Russia officially filed an extradition request, but Danish Justice Minister Lene Espersen said legal authorities here needed "stronger and more complete evidence" supporting allegations against Zakayev.

"I want to make it very clear, we need solid proof from the Russian authorities before we can accept an extradition. Russia should also promise that Zakayev would not receive the death penalty," she told reporters.

Russia declared a moratorium on capital punishment in 1996 but has not formally abolished the death penalty.

A senior prosecutor said Russia would provide written guarantees to the Danish authorities that Zakayev would not face the death penalty and would be granted full legal rights.

Danish police said Zakayev was wanted as "one of the planners" of last week's hostage-taking.

Zakayev, who is an aide to Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, has been living abroad for more than a year.

Russia has accused Maskhadov of being behind for the 57-hour hostage-taking, although he has denied responsibility and condemned the attack in an interview with AFP Monday.

The toll of the hostage crisis rose slightly as two more rescued hostages died overnight, bringing the number of captives killed to 119, the Moscow chief medical officer Andrei Seltsovsky said.

But many of the hundreds of people released from hospital following treatment for the after-effects of the gas have been re-admitted, Interfax reported.

A total of 510 people have been released but 152 others, including four children, remained in hospital with eight former hostages still in critical condition, Interfax quoted a health official as saying.

The official said that many survivors who were previously released from hospitals had returned and were being provided "with all essential aid."

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