Posted on 11/14/2002 4:00:32 PM PST by knighthawk
MOSCOW (AP) — The lower house of the Russian parliament has turned down two proposals to create a commission to investigate last month's theater raid in which Chechen gunmen held hundreds of hostages.
Russian officials have been criticized for their handling of the Oct. 23-26 crisis, particularly for failing to inform doctors what kind of disabling gas was spread through the theater before special forces stormed in to kill the 41 hostage-takers and free the captives. The lower house turned down investigation proposals on Wednesday.
Of the approximately 800 hostages, 128 have died, most of them from effects of the gas.
Critics have also questioned how the Chechen rebels were able to move undetected in the Russian capital and mount a well-planned assault, even as the Kremlin claims to be bringing the fighting in Chechnya under control.
But many Russians have supported officials' taking decisive action against the hostage-takers, who threatened to blow up themselves and their captives unless Russian forces withdrew from the separatist republic of Chechnya.
One of the measures to create an investigation commission got only 38 votes in favor in the 450-member Duma. The other received 124 votes.
Also Wednesday, the upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, passed a measure forbidding the release of the gunmen's bodies to their relatives, the TVS channel reported.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Development said Wednesday that $1.7 million has already been paid out in compensation to victims of the hostage-taking and their families, according to the news agency ITAR-Tass.
Moscow health officials said Wednesday that 31 former hostages remained hospitalized, four of them in grave condition, ITAR-Tass reported.
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
The two situations are not comparable. The Chechens could easily be smuggled into the capital with their weaponry in a simple panel truck or two. That the Army has subdued the isurrection in the region is an entirely different matter.
The opposition is simply looking for a fishing expedition to try to dig up some dirt to weaken Putin. (That's their job, after all!)
No bodies, no autopsy, no crime. Sounds a lot like Waco doesn't it?
Now, now, now; I think they should be able to retrieve the bodies.
How they separate the bits of body from the mass of pig feces is their problem.
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