Posted on 10/27/2002 5:20:23 AM PST by blam
Sunday, 27 October, 2002, 11:56 GMT
Moscow pressed to identify siege gas
Hostages are not being allowed out of hospital
The authorities in Russia are coming under increasing pressure to reveal details about the type of gas used by special forces in a raid which ended a three-day siege at a Moscow theatre. The latest health ministry statement says that 118 hostages - 28 more than previously reported - and up to 50 Chechen rebels died after troops stormed the theatre on Saturday.
Many hostages are in a serious condition
As the death toll rose, two foreign nationals were reported to have died from gas poisoning. Russia has maintained that none of the deaths were caused by gas.
At least 390 freed hostages remained in hospital on Sunday, many in a serious condition after being overcome by the mystery substance.
According to reports, Russian officials have instructed doctors not to let survivors out of hospital in case there are some hostage-takers hiding among the victims.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made an emotional television address hours after the raid, in which more than 700 Russian and foreign hostages were freed.
The president appealed for forgiveness for not having saved all the captives, but said the Russian forces had "achieved the near impossible, saving hundreds, hundreds of people".
Mr Putin declared a day of national mourning on Monday for those who died in the siege.
Mystery gas
The special forces stormed the complex after pumping in the unidentified potent gas to disable the Chechen rebels.
The gas also incapacitated many of their hostages, leaving some unconscious, with breathing problems and memory loss.
A BBC correspondent in Moscow, Jonathan Charles, says the Russian authorities are maintaining an air of mystery, describing the gas used only as a "special substance".
Military experts believe it could have been based on an hallucinogenic drug - one never deployed before in such circumstances.
Russia's NTV television quoted Dutch and Kazakh officials as saying two of their nationals died from the effects of the gas.
The Dutch Foreign Ministry named the victim as 38-year-old Natalja Zjirova, Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Earlier, Russian Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev said the gas had not caused any deaths.
His statement conflicted with a report on Moscow Radio which quoted doctors as saying some captives might have choked on their own vomit after breathing in fumes.
Hospital clamp-down
Distraught families have been clamouring for information about relatives who are being held at medical facilities across Moscow, but so far they are not being allowed inside.
Police are not letting relatives into hospitals
Officially, there are 40 patients who are still unconscious, but even those who have fully recovered are not being allowed out.
Police believe some of the Chechen rebels might be posing as civilian victims and they want to screen all the patients.
Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov has launched a Moscow-wide operation to catch anyone who might have helped the rebels and 30 people have been arrested.
The deputy Interior Minister also urged the public to report anyone acting suspiciously to police, while patrols are on the streets of Moscow carrying out on-the-spot identity checks.
However, Mr Gryzlov has also ordered measures to prevent outbursts of anti-Chechen feeling in Russia, echoing a call for people not to seek revenge by President Putin on Friday.
Chechnya's elected president, Aslan Maskhadov, said he felt responsible for those "who resorted to self-sacrifice in despair" though the rebels, he said, had nothing to do with official policy.
In a statement published on a Chechen website, President Maskhadov said the "barbaric and inhumane policies" of the Russian leadership were ultimately to blame and criticised the storming of the theatre.
Could it have been exhaust fumes from any passing Russian automobile?
Nothing I saw in moscow lives up to the following definition:
siege Pronunciation Key (sj) n.
1) The surrounding and blockading of a city, town, or fortress by an army attempting to capture it.
2) A prolonged period, as of illness: a siege of asthma.
3) Obsolete. A seat, especially a throne.
The Language Police
Tell me, if they go with outright assault next time, how are they to prevent the terrorists from blowing up the packs of plastique strapped around their waists as the soldiers come in?
And how are they to prevent the terrorists from blowing up the building and killing terrorists, hostages, rescuers, and bystanders?
The gas obviously wasn't a perfect solution, but I'm not sure they had much choice.
Reality check...
The same intellectually-challenged who maintain that we can "negotiate" ourselves out of the current epidemic of Muslim Mass Murder are predictably hand-wringing and wailing that all the hostages were not safely extracted.
Reality check:
The muslim roaches had wired the entired theater with explosives.
Many of the rats were wired with body explosives.
Had they been "palestinians" the mayhem and destruction wuld have been immediate and total.
That over 700 were saved should be cause for rejoicing.
The alternative was real.
Does it matter what gas was used to effect the rescue?
Do we revisit "safer bullets" here?
Has the world IQ plummeted while I wasn't looking?
The low IQ people are getting more face time these days.
I hope to learn a lot in the next few days.
Good Post....Says it all and very well.
Same experience here, LOL.
Except I didn't know what it was.
I remember being wheeled into the OR, then... nothing
Not for any sane adult that is capable of rational thought.
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