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Chechnya’s Representative: All Chechens Are Hostages of Russian Military
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Hostages
wave white sheets and shout “Don’t shoot” as Russian troops storm a hospital
in the city of Budyonnovsk on Saturday, June 17, 1995.
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LONDON,
October 24 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Chechnya’s
representative for Europe said Thursday, October 24, that the
hostage-takers who have taken several hundred people hostage in a
Moscow theater, who are not part of the Chechen army, were trying to
draw world attention to the tragedy in Chechnya, where all Chechens
are hostages of the Russian military.
Aslambek
Kadiyev said that it was “a desperate action of Chechens who are
trying to draw international attention to the tragedy in Chechnya
where all Chechen people are all hostages of the Russian military
campaign.”
Kadiyev
said the hostage-takers were not part of the Chechen army and that
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov condemned the attack against
civilians.
He
also said he fears the Russian military will launch an assault on the
Moscow theater where hundreds of people were being held hostage by
Chechen rebels, resulting in a bloodbath, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
reported.
“We
know from our previous experience when Russian troops take military
action, they don’t care about the loss of civilians and we are
afraid that this time also the civilians can be brought as a sacrifice
to the military cause,” said Aslambek Kadiyev in a BBC interview.
“We
would like the situation to be solved peacefully but...in the past,
Russia didn't show any mercy against civilians. Thousands of civilians
are killed in Chechnya and thousands are held hostages and
disappear,” he said.
The
hostage-taking began Wednesday evening when between 40 and 50 rebels,
including women, stormed the building during a performance of
“Nord-Ost,” - which is German for North East, one of the city’s
most popular shows.
The
rebels are demanding an end to the war in Chechnya and a withdrawal of
Russian troops, where Moscow’s troops are fighting since October
1999, their second war in the breakaway Caucasus republic.
In
June 1995, Chechen rebels took several hundred people hostage in a
hospital at Budyennovsk, in southern Russia. The operation ended with
more than 100 civilians dying when Russian troops stormed the
hospital.
Meanwhile,
the hostage-takers have requested that a doctor be sent to the scene
along with medications for sick hostages, Russia's FSB intelligence
agency said Thursday.
They
“have asked for a doctor and medications to take care of some
hostages who are ill,” the FSB said in a statement.
A
German doctor at the scene refused to enter the theater, the ITAR-TASS
news agency reported.
More
than 700 people were taken hostage late Wednesday at a theater in the
southeast of the Russian capital by the fighters, who have threatened
to blow up the theater if Russia does not withdraw its forces from
Chechnya.
Five
hostages - a British man and four Russians - were released Thursday.
Some 150 people, mostly women and children, were freed late Wednesday.
The
Briton, who walked with difficulty, was escorted out of the theater by
two representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross
and given first aid in an ambulance at the scene. He was not
immediately identified.
Russian
authorities have begun negotiations with the hostage-takers, the
Interfax news agency quoted an FSB official as saying.
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