|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Russian militants free 26 hostages
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.
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.
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.
"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. |
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
