Men Hold Moscow Audience Hostage [Reports of 1000 Hostages]

AP News ^ | OCTOBER 23, 14:03 ET

[McGruff]

MOSCOW (AP) — Armed men entered a Moscow theater Wednesday and took the audience hostage, the Federal Security Service said.

The theater was holding a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, one of the Russian capital's most popular productions.

The Interfax news agency said one of its reporters was inside the theater at the time of the raid. She told them in a telephone call that the men had fired into the air and were preventing the audience from leaving, the agency said.

Police units were on their way to the scene.

[Dr Warmoose]

"Maybe Geraldo is on his way to Moscow as we speak? Isn't he the war correspondent?"

Is there a Hooters near-by?

[gcruse]

 Christians in the USA care about gas prices for their
three cars, not about Hindus in Kasmir or Slaves in Sudan.

We can either rule an Imperial world and solve everyone
else's problems, or let people govern themselves and
run their own lives.  A prediliction for US hegemony
is not what the rest of us are about.

[gcruse]

Thanks for the addy. Message of support and best wishes sent.

[Wordsmith]

The "outpouring of support" is pure Bravo Sierra.

What about the candlelit vigil in Teheran?

[Destro]

The Russians have been fighting al-Qaeda 5 years before all of you ever head of Osama Bin Laden. Bush was PRO-CHECHEN before 9/11. We are the late commers in siding with the civilized side.

You are confusing Russian opposition to a war against Iraq (an evil secular state) with the struggle against Islamist terror.

[Destro]

The Russians have been fighting al-Qaeda 5 years before all of you ever head of Osama Bin Laden. Bush was PRO-CHECHEN before 9/11. We are the late commers in siding with the civilized side.

You are confusing Russian opposition to a war against Iraq (an evil secular state) with the struggle against Islamist terror.

[Mixer]

The Russians have been fighting al-Qaeda 5 years before all of you ever head of Osama Bin Laden

I am pretty sure that many people here know more then you wopuld think. I myself am not an expert on OBL nor do I claim to be but people are more in tune then you make them out to be.

[sarasmom]

RE your 865.

Got you covered on that one.

Where is a podiatrist when you need him? (Florida context)

[McGruff]

Wednesday, 23 October, 2002, 23:53 GMT 00:53 UK

Rebels seize Moscow theatre

Up to 1,000 people may have been seized

The Russian authorities have begun negotiations with Chechen rebels who have seized a Moscow theatre and are holding hundreds of people hostage.

We condemn any terrorist attacks against civilians

Aslanbek Khadiev
official Chechen rebel spokesman

Heavily-armed Russian elite troops are surrounding the building, but the security forces have said they will not attempt to intervene for now.

An MP at the scene, Gennady Gudkov, warned that the attackers were putting forward an "unacceptable demand to end to military action in Chechnya".

The attackers' leader, Movsar Barayev, says they are a Chechen "suicide" unit demanding the withdrawal of troops sent into Chechnya by President Putin in 1999 to restore Russian control.

Chechnya

Mainly Muslim region in south Russia which declared independence in 1991

Tens of thousands killed in two subsequent wars

A mass Chechen hostage-taking in 1995 left more than 100 civilians dead

Click here for Q&A on the Chechen conflict

But a spokesman for the official Chechen rebel leadership told the BBC he had no information about who the attackers were and condemned attacks on civilians.

"We condemn any terrorist attacks against civilians," said Aslanbek Khadiev, a representative of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov at the Hague.

"We don't have any information about that group, and if this is a group, or just individuals - I believe some disparate Chechens are trying to bring attention to the situation in Chechnya, if they are Chechens."

Reports are coming in that two leading Russian politicians of Chechen extraction, Aslanbek Aslakhanov, and Ruslan Khasbulatov, have gone to the theatre to aid negotiations.

Threat to kill

The rebels have so far freed at least 100 people, including many women and children.

One woman among the hostages inside the theatre told Russian TV via a mobile phone that the attackers were ready to kill 10 hostages for any of their number killed if the security forces intervened.

"The only condition they are setting is that for every one of them who is killed they will immediately shoot 10 of us. So please, do not storm the building," said Tatyana Solnyshkina.

She added that the attackers had a "very large amount of explosives"

The group stormed in just as the second half of the performance was beginning in the hall - a former cultural centre at a factory on Melnikov Street in the south of the city.

Witnesses said they were wearing explosives and planting more around the theatre.

The man claiming to be the leader of the group - a nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev - said he and his followers were "suicide attackers" who had come to Moscow "not to survive, but to die".

Movsar Barayev told the Chechen rebel news agency Kavkaz-Tsentr that he and his "mujahideen" followers all had mines strapped to their bodies. He said they were accompanied by 40 widows of Chechen fighters.

'Blood in the aisles'

The theatre was holding a performance of a Russian musical, North-East, when the attack happened.

The attackers reportedly released children and Muslims immediately

"People in camouflage uniform ran onto the stage when the show was already in progress. They started shooting into the air from assault rifles," a woman who managed to escape from the theatre told Russian media.

The witness, who managed to escape as she was behind the curtain at the time, said another woman released by the gunmen saw blood in the aisles:

"They did not shoot anyone but they must have beaten people up."

Other reports say, however, that the blood may have come from an injured attacker.

The attackers released some of the hostages immediately while others managed to escape in the initial confusion.

Crisis HQ

The exact number of people taken hostage is unknown, but the play is very popular and always attracts a capacity crowd. Some reports say up to 500 people may be captive.

Special forces have been deployed at the scene

The head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), Nikolai Patrushev, said that FSB and Interior Ministry special forces were at the scene and an emergency headquarters had been established.

He was keeping President Putin briefed on the situation, he added.

The official leader of Chechnya's Muslims, Mufti Akhmad-Khadzhi Shamayev, condemned the attack on Russian TV:

"Terrorists have no nationality. If they are indeed Chechens and if they are Muslims, they must have at least something sacred in them... They are just giving their nation a bad name."

[Aquinasfan]

I'm looking forward to an interview with the tree stump. Should be relatively informative.

[swarthyguy]

BTTT!!

Brilliant and concise. And covers all bases.

[gcruse]

Some excellent footage from CBC just shown on
channel 366, DirecTV's Newsworld International.

"Army trucks are coming into the area with troops. "

[Andy from Beaverton]

Don't those patches belong to Croatian Muslims who served with the Nazi SS???

[Andy from Beaverton]

correction again

It's a religion of peas

[FreedomPoster]

>>It's a religion of peas

In that case, Visualize whirled peas!

[Tolik]

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/10/24/001.html

Thursday, Oct. 24, 2002. Page 1

Armed Chechens Seize Moscow Theater

By Natalia Yefimova, Torrey Clark and Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writers

	Misha Japaridze / AP Special forces and Interior Ministry troops taking up positions around the theater, which was seized Wednesday by a group of armed men during a performance of "Nord-Ost."

About 30 to 50 armed Chechens seized a Moscow theater Wednesday night and took an audience of some 700 people hostage, FSB officials and witnesses said.

The Chechens demanded that federal troops pull out of Chechnya immediately, witnesses said.

Interfax and Russian television, citing rebel web site Kavkaz.org, reported the attackers belong to a group headed by Movsar Barayev, a nephew of slain Chechen field commander Arbi Barayev. The web site could no longer be accessed in Moscow late Wednesday night.

Movsar Barayev has been reported killed several times during the ongoing Chechnya military campaign, most recently 10 days ago during Russian bombing raids.

Barayev was quoted by kavkaz.org as saying that the gunmen arrived in Moscow "to die, not survive" and that 40 Chechen widows are participating in the attack, Interfax reported.

A hostage released at 1 a.m. said there were a number of women among the attackers.

Aslanbek Aslakhanov, the State Duma deputy from Chechnya, entered the theater late Wednesday night to negotiate with the attackers.

"I am ready to give my life so that not one Muscovite is hurt," Aslakhanov was quoted by Interfax as saying. "I would like to tell the hostage-takers that this brings peace no closer to Chechen soil, it only worsens the situation in the republic. And I am afraid that this event may lead to an explosion of anti-Chechen and anti-Caucasian sentiment in Moscow."

The theater, a former house of culture owned by State Ball-Bearing Plant No. 1 near Proletarskaya metro station, was staging a performance of the popular musical "Nord-Ost."

The gunmen were laying mines in the theater, according to relatives of those trapped inside. Spectators were allowed to use their cellphones to call their families for a few hours after the gunmen seized the theater at 9 p.m.

An Interfax reporter attending the musical said the men claimed to have wired the building with explosives and were calling themselves "the suicide troops from the 29th Division."

Scores of police and elite Alpha troops sealed off the building and nearby streets by 10:30 p.m. as they put operation "Thunderstorm" into action. Parked around the theater were at least two armored personnel carriers, 20 police cars, five fire trucks and a handful of ambulances. A cold drizzle was falling, and power was cut to lights around the theater, leaving the area dark.

By 1 a.m., about 150 spectators had been released or escaped from the building, TVS television reported, citing Moscow police. The channel said two Germans, a father and daughter, remained inside.

A Moscow Times reporter saw a dozen troops in riot gear and carrying rifles run up to the theater at about midnight. Ekho Moskvy radio reported that the troops penetrated the building but then retreated.

 

Misha Japaridze / AP Armed officers standing on guard at the theater near Proletarskaya metro station.

TVS said the hostage-takers had threatened to kill 10 spectators for every Members of the Chechen diaspora said they were ready to offer themselves as hostages, according to Russian television.

 

There were no reports of casualties at 1 a.m.

Radio Mayak quoted a source with the Moscow rescue services as saying that the gunmen had shot and thrown a grenade at a special forces group. The special forces had managed to build a ladder outside the building to help rescue actors from dressing rooms.

The gunmen seized the theater just as the second act began, shooting automatic weapons into the air, said a "Nord-Ost" costume designer who managed to escape with a group of her colleagues through a third-floor window.

The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said costume designers were in a wing off the main stage and heard a loud noise as if a stage light had exploded.

She looked into the main hall and saw men in masks firing guns into the air.

She and her associates ran up to the third floor and climbed out of a window.

Maria Shyorstova, who plays Katya, the hero's girlfriend in "Nord-Ost," said by telephone that she and other actors on stage and in the wings were able to lock themselves in the dressing rooms. By 11 p.m., they had crawled out of the windows to safety.

"We're OK," she said of the actors and crew who had escaped. "Those who were sitting in the audience are still there."

Local media said children, Muslims and foreigners who could show their passports were allowed to leave the building. The reports could not be confirmed.

President Vladimir Putin called an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other top officials in the Kremlin.

Alexei Volin, the deputy head of Kasyanov's administration, told Ekho Moskvy that it was important to negotiate with the gunmen but not to give them any concessions. He said the FSB had made contact with the gunmen.

Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov were among top politicians who rushed to the theater. The Kremlin's spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, was also at the scene.

"This is a serious terrorist attack," State Duma Deputy Yury Shchekochikhin said in an interview outside the theater, adding that he believed the gunmen were acting on their own.

Shchekochikhin met earlier this year with Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy to Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, in Liechtenstein to try to find a way to get out of the stalemate over Chechnya.

Worried relatives and onlookers milled around the 500-meter perimeter around the theater.

Gleb Bauer, an 11-year-old actor in "Nord-Ost," said he and his mother were walking past the theater at about 9 p.m. when they heard a loud explosion. His family lives nearby, and Wednesday was his night off.

"I should have been on stage just about that time, but for some reason I wasn't," he said, glancing around from side to side with evident distress.

The performance in the 1,163-seat hall started at 7 p.m. and was to have finished at 10:30 p.m. "Nord-Ost," which is based on the novel "Two Captains" by Veniamin Kaverin, debuted in Moscow last fall.

[Andy from Beaverton]

You forgot hostage taking and beheading.

[dennisw]

My dream scenario is this:
You tell the Chechnyans that if they blow up the opera house that Mecca, Medina and Q'um will be nuked. This gets their Muslim/Arab "brothers" involved and agitated. Makes them negotiate with the Chechnyan psychos with their top 3 Muslim holy sites held hostage. 

And you follow through with this threat if the Chechnyan blow up the building.....

[Michael2001]

They are not all like that. Daniel Pipes (a pro-Israel Jew who specializs in Middle East studies) estimates that perhaps 10%-15% of Muslims are Islamists.

I don't buy that analysis, though it would be nice if it were true. My view is that Muslims are in three categories:

1. Muslims who pretend not to hate us

2. Muslims that come out and say that they hate us

3. Muslims that go out and try to kill us.