Eight Children Released in Russia Hostage Drama

25/10/2002| IslamWeb

The Chechen fighters freed eight children on Friday but kept some 700 people hostage in a Moscow theater rigged with explosives. The children, aged between 6 and 12, were led to safety by members of the International Committee of the Red Cross and, a Red Cross official said, they were in good health.

Some 40 heavily-armed Chechen fighters seized the theater in southeast Moscow on Wednesday night, demanding Russia pull its troops out of their homeland. They have threatened to blow up the building if security forces storm it.

Diplomats waited for the chechen fighters to honor a pledge to free about 75 foreigners among their hostages on Friday, including Australians, Austrians, Britons, Germans and three Americans.

Conditions have been growing grimmer by the hour inside the theater where the hostages use the orchestra pit as a toilet and supplies of water and food are low.

The siege, which drew international condemnation, dealt a blow to President Vladimir Putin , whose meteoric rise to power was built largely on his decision to send troops back into breakaway Chechnya in southern Russia in October 1999.

There was no new word from Putin, 50, who on Thursday said the attack operation was a "terrorist act planned abroad." He said his priority was to save the lives of the hostages.

Authorities were trying to persuade the fighters to accept sanitary products, and food and water to give to the men, women and children being held.

"This decision is up to the terrorists," deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev said.

FSB security service official Sergei Ignatchenko said seven Russian hostages were freed early on Friday, before the eight children were released.

"We hope in the very near future that the terrorists will release more hostages, children, women and people who are in a difficult physical condition," he said.

GRIM WAIT

The chechen fighters, who say they are prepared to die, killed a woman who tried to escape during the initial assault on Wednesday.

NTV television broadcast film showing the man behind the attack, Movsar Barayev -- a relative of Chechen field commander Arbi Barayev, who Russia says it has killed.

fighters accompanying Barayev, including two black-clad hooded women, were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and pistols. Ammunition pouches and grenades swung from their belts.

Theater spokeswoman Yelena Malyonkina told Reuters: "There is a big bomb in the center of the hall. The stage is mined as well as all the passage ways. Fifteen fighters who are covered with explosives are on duty in the hall. They watch all possible directions from which a storming of the building may start."

The crisis, the biggest challenge to Putin's two and a half year rule, forced the Russian leader to scrap plans to meet President Bush at the weekend in Mexico and cancel trips to Germany and Portugal.

Putin links Russia's war in Chechnya to the U.S.-led global fight against terrorism which he enthusiastically backed after last year's September 11 attacks in the United States.

The respected newspaper laid out three stark alternatives for an outcome: protracted negotiations humiliating Russia, massive bloodshed or a combination of the two.

"We would like to believe that Russian politicians and special forces will find a fourth, good, solution to this situation and we hope that all hostages will be saved."

PHOTO CAPTION

Anatoly Andrianov (L) shouts slogans as he holds a banner reading 'Stop the war in Chechnya during a protest outside the theater where his daughter is one of several hundred hostages being held by Chechen fighters in Moscow October 25, 2002. The fighters holding 700 hostages in a theater rigged with explosives freed seven of their captives early on Friday, and agreed to free all foreigners on Friday, security officials said. REUTERS/Gleb Garanich