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Russian militants free 26 hostages
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-03 01:30
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Thursday to do all he could to save
hundreds of children, parents and teachers held under threat of death by gunmen
for a second day at a Russian school near rebel Chechnya.
In a small success for negotiators, Russian news agencies said the armed gang
released 26 children and women from among the 350 or so hostages.
A released hostage
(C) holding her baby walks away from the school seized by heavily armed
masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North
Ossetia near Chechnya on September 2, 2004.
[Reuters] |
But the standoff continued with
the gang of up to 40 men and women who seized the school in the North Caucasus
town of Beslan Wednesday threatening to blow it up with their captives.
"Our main task is to save the life and health of those who have ended up as
hostages," Putin said in nationally televised comments. "All the actions of our
forces ... will be devoted to solving this task," he said at a Kremlin meeting
with visiting Jordanian King Abdullah.
A soldier carries a baby and a woman holds a
child after being released by militants in Beslan, North Ossetia,
Thursday, Sept. 2, 2004. Heavily-armed militants released at least 31
women and children on Thursday from the provincial Russian school where
they are holding more than 350 hostages for the second straight day,
officials said. [AP] |
Putin said the seizure
was "horrifying" because children were among the hostages and because it could
rupture the balance of religious and national groups in the Caucasus region.
Valery Andreyev, head of the FSB security service in North Ossetia province,
told journalists: "There is no question at the moment of opting for force. There
will be a lengthy and tense process of negotiation."
The attackers, some of whom are strapped with explosives, are seeking the
release of fighters captured by authorities in neighboring Ingushetia in June.
Scores of relatives continuing an anxious vigil near the school have pleaded
with authorities not to let security forces storm the building and put their
loved ones at risk.
"It is not possible to storm the building. They (the hostage takers) will
blow up the children," said a woman called Luda. Her son was among those held,
but her daughter had avoided the same fate by turning up late.
Reuters Television producer Olga Petrova said she witnessed the release of
infants and women who were driven off in a car of the former head of neighboring
Ingushetia who had reportedly mediated with the hostage-takers.
Television footage showed a burly, armed soldier carrying one infant into a
waiting car.
EXPLOSION
The fraught situation around the school was highlighted when a bang followed
by smoke from the direction of the school sent a ripple of alarm through
bystanders. It turned out to be a burning car, though how it caught fire was
unclear.
A Russian police
officer carries a released baby from the school seized by heavily armed
masked men and women in the town of Beslan in the province of North
Ossetia near Chechnya, September 2, 2004. An armed gang, holding hundreds
of people hostage in a Russian school, on Thursday freed 26 children and
women, Itar-Tass news agency was quoted as saying.
[Reuters] | The mood of residents swung from
anxiety to anger against the authorities for bringing calamity on them.
"These children are not to blame if bandits come here. It's the authorities
who are to blame. They can't restore order or guard the borders. They just guard
their own houses," Ruslan Tivitov, 27, said in a comment typical of a growing
mood.
The crisis, in which the gunmen have used tactics bearing the hallmarks of
past Chechen rebel attacks, gives Putin one of the hardest choices in his 4-1/2
years in the Kremlin.
Should he risk a slaughter by following his past practice of sending troops
to end such sieges, or try to save the children by breaking a long-held vow not
to negotiate with "terrorists?"
He made a similar public commitment to do all he could to save the hostages
in the deadly Moscow theater siege in 2002. When Russian troops eventually
stormed the building, 129 hostages and 41 guerrillas were killed.
DEADLY ATTACKS
The hostage-taking was the latest in a spate of deadly attacks the government
says are the work of Chechen separatists.
"Their (the hostage-takers') demands must be fulfilled, whatever they want.
If they want to get away from here, they should be given a free way out," said
Soslan Paguyev whose daughter and some friends were among those held.
The gang spoke by telephone in the morning with a well-known pediatrician,
Leonid Roshal, who helped negotiate the release of children during the Moscow
theater siege. But no face-to-face negotiations were under way.
Officials say the gang have threatened to kill 50 children for each of their
comrades killed.
The gang killed seven people when they broke into the school and herded
pupils, parents and teachers into a gym.
The gunmen say they will talk only to Roshal or regional leaders.
One official said they had rejected offers to deliver food and water, but had
assured Roshal the children were fine.
Across the border in Chechnya itself, two Russian soldiers were killed and
seven people were wounded when their convoy was blown up by a mine south of the
regional capital, Grozny.
The government believes they are behind a wave a violence in Russia,
including the almost simultaneous downing of two passenger planes last week,
killing 90 people.
Chechen separatist leaders have denied any links.
The U.N. Security Council condemned the school attack on Wednesday and
demanded the immediate release of the hostages.
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