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#9 - JRL 6536
BBC Monitoring
Chechen web site says many aspects of Moscow theatre siege unclear
Source: Kavkaz-Tsentr news agency web site in Russian 5 Nov 02
5 November: Leaflets of the Anti-War Committee are being spread these days in Moscow, St Petersburg and other cities of Russia exposing the criminal deeds of the [Russian President Vladimir] Putin regime and calling on the Russian population not to believe the Kremlin's hoax about the so-called "remarkable operation" by the Russian secret service, which in fact freed the Nord-Ost [musical] hostages of their own lives.
The leaflets are being disseminated against the backdrop of a raging scandal over the FSB's [Russian Federal Security Service] raid on the Vesti news programme's office to impound the materials of a journalistic investigation which proved that the commandos had killed not 120 hostages at the Dubrovka theatre, but at least 300 who are said to be missing.
The "remarkable" operation of the secret service is over. As a result of the chemical attack and the subsequent storming of the building, at least 170 people were killed. Approximately as many are killed in Chechnya every one and a half months even though officially "there is no war".
Although the Moscow developments were in the media limelight, many things remain unknown. For instance, we have no idea about the losses of the federal side. The very fact of losses has been acknowledged by Deputy Minister for Interior [Vladimir] Vasilyev, but the names and even the number of those killed in the "heroic storming" have not been disclosed.
Questions like how the FSB managed to prevent the blowing up of the building and why none of [leader of the armed attackers Movsar] Barayev's people could do that are, of course, being kept under a tight blanket of secrecy. Was this a result of the chemical attack? Why did Vasilyev say in an interview that 34 gunmen had been killed but then the figure rose? How were the bullet wounds on the bodies of the killed shown on TV inflicted? Was there a fight in the building? Because if the shahids [martyrs] were engaged in an exchange of fire, they could have activated the detonators and blown up the building as they had been threatening to. They didn't do that. Or maybe they didn't even plan to kill the hostages? Did the Chechen fighters kill any hostages? And how many hostages were there: 700, 817, 1,100? And how many of them are "missing"?
These questions have been brought about by the contradictory information released by the FSB. There are no answers and there are different theories. But some things are known for certain.
We know for sure that the issue of responsibility of senior law-enforcement officials (not to mention the president) for the killings in Moscow will not be raised at government level;
We know for sure that the commandos shot point blank those who were lying motionless and could not resist;
We know for sure that the reason for the Moscow developments is the war in Chechnya. Barayev's fighters, whatever the means they chose, were trying to make the war stop;
We know for sure that as long as the war in the Caucasus goes on, every resident of Russia will remain a hostage of the terrorist state regime of the Russian Federation;
We know for sure that the Chechens did not start this war;
We know for sure that this is a colonial war of the Russian state, that it has to stop and its masterminds be held accountable.
We also realize that we cannot count on the support of Western countries that share Putin's views, while the strength of those opposing the war here, in Russia, is by far not enough. But we have no other choice.
Every day of war means several new deaths.
Down with the war in the Caucasus.
The Anti-War Committee of St Petersburg
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