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Doctor Defends Russia's Use of Gas
November 4, 2002
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW (AP) - A doctor who treated the survivors of a hostage raid at a Moscow theater last week defended the Russian military's use of a sedating gas to knock out the Chechen attackers, saying Monday that it was the only way to end the crisis without massive loss of life.
The death toll among the captives rose to 120 over the weekend. The latest victim, a 60-year-old woman, died of a heart ailment, said Lyubov Zhomova, a spokeswoman for the Moscow health department.
Of 149 former hostages still in the hospital Monday, six were in grave condition, she said.
Heavily armed assailants calling for Russian troops to pull out of Chechnya seized the theater on Oct. 23 during a performance of a popular musical. An audience of more than 750 people was held captive for 58 hours, until Russian special forces pumped a narcotic gas inside and stormed the theater.
Most of the hostages who died succumbed to the effects of the gas; two others were killed by rebel gunfire before the raid. Forty-one militants were killed by Russian troops.
While some have questioned the use of the opiate-based gas, Russia has said it was the only way to make sure the attackers did not set off hundreds of pounds of explosives rigged around the theater.
Leonid Roshal, a doctor who went inside the theater during the siege to treat hostages and deliver medicine, praised President Vladimir Putin on Monday for having the ``courage'' to make the move - the only one that ``gave a chance to save lives.''
Roshal dismissed allegations by some Russian media and experts that many victims died because authorities did not treat them for the effects of the gas quickly enough.
``I don't think that any other country could handle it better,'' Roshal said at a news conference Monday, arguing that it was impossible to move so many unconscious people from the theater faster than it was done - about 90 minutes. A parking lot in front of the theater was filled with the hostages' cars, making it hard for ambulances to approach the building, he added.
Doctors who were among the hostages agreed rescuers had done all they could.
``It was difficult to carry even one person out of the hall between the rows of chairs,'' said Vladislav Ponomaryov, who helped evacuate the two hostages who were shot.
Most hostages said they noticed the gas being pumped into the hall before losing consciousness, prompting observers to wonder what prevented the attackers from blowing up the building.
Ponomaryov, a doctor from the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, said at least several minutes passed from the moment he first noticed a gas with a ``sugary smell'' filling the theater hall until he lost consciousness. At the same time he remembered hearing shots outside the hall, as the Russian commandos rushed into the building.
Roshal suggested the attackers who were in charge of detonating the explosives had not received the order to do so from their leader, Movsar Barayev, who was outside the hall when the troops stormed in - an opinion voiced by many Russian commentators.
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