Families claim death toll from gas in Moscow siege kept secret

A year after Chechens stormed theatre, relatives search for official explanations of how loved ones died

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow Saturday October 18, 2003 The Guardian

Relatives of the victims of the Moscow theatre siege, which ended when Russian troops gassed the Chechen gunmen and 800 hostages a year ago, suspect the true casualty figure may be much higher than the official total and are demanding information from a tight-lipped Kremlin. Officially 129 hostages and 40 Chechen gunmen died when a knockout gas was used to disable those inside the theatre, which had been taken over on October 23 by armed separatists threatening to kill the entire audience of the musical Nord Ost if Russia did not withdraw its troops from Chechnya. But 12 months later a veil of secrecy still surrounds the ending of the siege.

Relatives still do not know how many people died when Russian special forces ended the three-day siege at 5.50am on October 26.

They are also angry because the government refuses to admit their relatives died because of the potency of the gas. The death certificate refers to each as a "victim of terrorism", claiming they died from heart attacks or other physical ailments.

Fears over the true number of victims are focused on an album of photographs of the dead seen by many relatives at a morgue in the Lefortovo region of Moscow used by the Russian security service, the FSB. The morgue in Lefortovo was only one of a number of places to which the dead were taken.

The days after the assault on the theatre, relatives went between hospitals and morgues across the Russian capital searching for their family members who had been transferred there directly from the theatre.

Although around half of the survivors were taken to Hospital 13, the remaining dead and wounded were sent to at least three other hospitals or morgues. Lists of the survivors were posted on hospital gates. Photo albums of the dead were prepared at the morgues.

Parents searching for their loved ones in each morgue were shown a file containing the faces of the theatre dead that were held there. According to some relatives, the Lefortovo file contained 140 photographs.

Search

Irina Khramtsova, whose father Fedor, 45, died in the siege, said: "The day of the assault nobody knew about the Lefortovo morgue. We discovered later that the bodies of the Chechen gunmen were taken there, as were the bodies of hostages with darker skins. They were taken there because they could have been connected to the gunmen.

"As a result, on October 26 a lot of people were running from one morgue to another without finding their relatives. Those who visited the Lefortovo morgue were shown, as in the other morgues, a special album, entitled Nord Ost, where there were photos of the dead bodies, each numbered. According to some testimonies, the album contained 140 photos."

Dmitri Milovidov, who lost his 14-year-old daughter Nina, said: "A lot of people have seen this album, and we would like to see it again. But everything is kept in secrecy. We were not even allowed to see the bodies of our children. They were wrapped up with only the tips of the hands and legs, together with their faces, exposed. As a result we don't know even know the causes of death. We don't know who died from bullets, and who from the gas."

Even if the 140 in Lefortovo included all 40 Chechen gunmen and women, who entered the theatre with explosives strapped to their bodies, it would still mean that 100 dead hostages were kept in Lefortovo. This would suggest the final death toll was a lot higher than the official figure of 129, a gross embarrassment for the Kremlin. A presidential spokesman declined to comment.

Fears have also grown because lists of those suspected of being in the theatre have been published on the internet site www.zalozhniki.ru.

One says 137 hostages were killed, although some familiar with the seven new names say their relatives have failed to provide proof to support their claims. Another list says there were 979 people in the theatre, another that 67 people are still unaccounted for.

Relatives doubt that the Moscow prosecutors' office, which conducted a meticulous investigation into the siege, has a complete list of everyone in the theatre. This would enable a list of victims to be checked and finalised.

Ms Khramtsova said: "We have asked [officials] several times for lists of the families of the victims and survivors, but we never got them."

Mr Milovidov added: "We are not given the addresses of other victims' relatives."

He said relatives of the victims had only contacted each other by leaving notes on the gravestones in the cemeteries where the Nord Ost victims are buried together.

Mr Milovidov added there had been little information about the side- effects of the gas. "Moscow social workers suddenly contacted us months after the siege asking about the health of survivors. We later discovered that one of the female survivors had died. Why did we only get this information accidentally?"

Sidica Low, one of the British hostages, said she had not been given any information on the gas to which she and her son Richard were exposed. "We were just told to go to accident and emergency in the United Kingdom if we felt ill at all afterwards. Neither Richard nor I have suffered any ill-effects."

She did not express any grievance with the Russian authorities.

Last week relatives banded together to form the Society to Support and Protect the Victims of Terrorist Acts Nord Ost.

Tatiana Karpova, the co-head of the society who lost her son Alexander, said medical care after the siege had been poor. "The survivors were loaded like logs on to the buses after the siege. Many went a lot of time without treatment. Alexander went until 12.35pm - seven hours - before getting help.

"The Moscow government paid us $3,000 in compensation - the price of a pedigree dog. With this money you can't even bury them with dignity."

Northern Chechnyans in Need of Food, Clothing and Water

Church World Service - USA Website: http://www.churchworldservice.org

October 17, 2003

New York -- Residents of Chechnya still suffer the results of a long-standing and debilitating war, according to relief workers. Humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) is urging support and reporting that Chechen families, spread across the region as refugees or internally displaced people, have no safe haven nor a return to normal life. Instead the displaced face serious obstacles, including a lack of accommodation and the means to support themselves. Security concerns are high and worsening, according to recent news reports.

A pressing problem is unemployment, which is causing serious social tensions and need. In 2002 there were 32,800 officially unemployed; today this figure has more than doubled to 79,900. The return of internally displaced persons (IDPs) only exacerbates the situation; jobs do not await them.

Church World Service is responding through its partners Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC/DECR) through ACT (Action by Churches Together).

The international humanitarian agency has supported relief to Chechen families for a number of years and now is concentrating efforts on the completion of an orphanage and school reconstruction; the provision of winter clothes; the development of soup kitchens; and distribution of emergency food and children's school kits.

CWS Executive Director John L. McCullough says financial help is needed for:

* the reconstruction of an orphanage and school for almost 100 orphans and their teachers, plus winter clothing for the children;

* school supplies for over 600 pupils in Grozny;

* a hospital children's ward and pump-house serving 47,000 people in Naurskaya;

* food for 1,400 internally displaced people, daily, in two soup kitchens.

The number of returnees is increasing in a significant way, McCullough reports, "in some places as many as 500 a day." McCullough says many are expected to return in the coming months, in mid-winter, with no food supply or shelter awaiting them.

"The school children are between the ages of 6 and 14," McCullough says, "and what they might expect (through this appeal) are a school kit, two sweaters, two pair of pants, a hat, scarf and coat, a pair of gloves and a pair of shoes, five pair of socks, and three of underwear.

"At the hospital in Naurskaya, cases of tuberculosis are frequent; the water pump will serve to heighten sanitation and avoid the spread of infection.

"This population needs help."

Church World's Service Emergency Response Program is supported by the American Baptist Churches USA, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Church of the Brethren, The Episcopal Church, International Orthodox Christian Charities, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ/Wider Church Ministries, and the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

To contribute, contact Church World Service, Assistance to IDPs in Chechnya, Account #6625 (Ref # EUNC-32) P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. You can also donate online or by phone: 1-800-297-1516.

Media Contacts: Ann Walle, CWS/New York, 212-870-2654; awalle@churchworldservice.org Jan Dragin, CWS, 781-925-1526; jdragin@gis.net

The website of the International Committe for the Children of Chechnya

ICCC is raising funds to bring injured children from Chechnya to Moscow to get the medical care they need. The funds also will help those children get the neccessary follow-up care when they get home.

The contact info is as follows:

International Committe for the Children of Chechnya P.O. Box 38-1305 Cambridge, MA 02238

Phone: 612.319.6489

Their web page (work in progress) is: www.chechenchildren.org email: iccc@world.std.org

Alarming news from Georgia  

Alarming news came from Georgia. They started arresting Chechen forced settlers (`muhajirs`). For five days in a row official power structures were concealing the names of the Chechens arrested early in the morning on October 11 in the villages of Omalo and Khalatsan in the Pankisi Gorge.

And only at the very last moment we managed to establish their identities. The detainees are:

Adam Makalov, native of Shatoi (Chechnya), who arrived in Georgia in August and who had a registration on his person; Vakha Bugiyev, - he made both verbal and written statements to the coordinator of the Refugee Department right on his arrival last summer. Moreover, he also has a medical note that he was undergoing treatment in a hospital in Tbilisi (Georgian capital); Musa Islamov, - his registration documents are in the Refugee Department.

Two of the three are married to local women who are citizens of Georgia. Unconfirmed reports say that these people are being prepared for deportation.

During the interview to Kavkaz Center Georgian human rights activist Jokola Achishvili stated: «Outright tyranny per se has started against the forced settlers, which most likely has something to do with the campaign on forcing them back to occupied Chechnya…There is a chance that this action has been coordinated with Moscow». A press conference dedicated to this situation was held in Tbilisi.

Last Friday afternoon a report came in that Adam Makalov, Vakha Bugiyev and Musa Islamov, who were arrested in Pankisi five days ago, temporarily avoided sped-up secret extradition to Russia. At the very last moment it became clear that this attempt was undertaken in violation of all procedural requirements.

On the initiative of some individual Georgian police officials the detainees were secretly taken to the Russian-Georgian border during the very first hours, where Georgian authorities prepared to hand them over. And only lack of coordination among the power structures delayed the process of extraditing the detainees to the Russian side.

There is a pretty strange story coming up when the norms of individual human rights and interests are grossly violated. Extrajudicial actions against Chechens are being taken, and outright lawlessness by Georgian power structures stands no criticism.

Most likely, the extradition process will be continued and the fate of the five Chechens extradited earlier awaits these detainees as well. Which means that the Russian side will concoct any criminal prosecution cases under any pretext. Chechen forced settlers believe that this is undisguised revenge to the Chechens for their refusal to leave Georgia.

Data Tutakhshia, Tbilisi, Georgia.

For Kavkaz-Center

2003-10-19 12:22:59

------------------------

Kavkaz News:

Thursday noon in Chechen district capital of Achkoi-Martan a local cafewas blown up, which was servicing the invaders. Four invaders sustainedserious fragmentation injuries. One of them was transported to theMozdok hospital [neighboring republic of North Ossetia] by helicopter, Russian sources reported.

Handmade explosive device was planted at the cafe entrance and detonatedright at the moment when a group of invaders came in.

Editors of Ingishetia.ru internet edition have made a public appeal toPresident of Ingushetia Murad Zyazikov to immediately release ArthurPetrosian, journalist of «Ingushetia» newspaper, who was kidnappedseveral days ago. The statement says:

«Editors of Ingishetia.ru have the information that Press Secretary ofPresident of the Republic of Ingushetia Issa Merzhoyev and Zyazikov’sbodyguards were directly involved in kidnapping «Ingushetia» newspaperjournalist Arthur Petrosian. We are not claiming that this is true, butthere are very interesting moments that speak in favor of this version».

«Mr. Zyazikov! Please issue an order to release kidnapped Petrosianimmediately! Please order Merzhoyev and your people to release thatinnocent man».

No one allowed access to camps of forced settlers

Council of Non-Governmental Organizations reported that during the dayon October 17 at the checkpoint by the entrance to the refugee camps ofChechen forced settlers («muhajirs») «Alina», «Satsita» and «Sputnik»Russian power structures would not let a Chechen resident visit his sonliving in Sputnik refugee camp. The policemen had one singleexplanation: a special pass is needed and they are not allowed to letanybody in without having one.

Such despotism is continuing in spite of the fact that a few days agoacting chief of migration service of Ingushetia Ivan Pomeshchenko statedthat there have been no instructions whatsoever on restricting theaccess to the camps of forced settlers. Moreover, a day before that thedistrict office of the FSB of Ingushetia told the members of RefugeeCouncil, who inquired about the explanations, that no one has the rightnot to allow human rights activists, journalists, relatives, etc. enterthe refugee camps or other placement facilities of the «mujahirs»(forced settlers). In spite of all this, neither the local authorities,nor migration service of Ingushetia, or appropriate power structures aretaking measures to stop the unlawful actions perpetrated by the Russianpower structures in charge of the checkpoint at the camps’ entrance.

Invaders kidnapped two Chechen girls

Council of Non-Governmental Organizations reported that early in themorning on October 15 (at about 3:00 AM) in the village of Roshni-Chuarmed invaders wearing masks and camouflage uniforms kidnapped a younggirl, granddaughter of the local elderly lady Makka Yusupova. The girlwas living with her grandmother on 125, Lenin Street. The locals areconfidently assuring that the kidnapping was conducted by Russianinvaders. The girl’s whereabouts or her fate are unknown.

Earlier, in the dawn on October 14 in the village of Gekhi, Urus-MartanDistrict, Russian invaders along with the local collaborators kidnappeda young girl of about 18 years old right from her home. The name of thevictim is currently being established. According to the informationavailable, the girls will be released only if her relatives turn in herbrother who participated in combat operations.

On October 14 in Roshni-Chu the invaders captured local resident RuslanAmagov and took him away. According to the locals, the aggressors brokeinto the house of the Amagovs at about 4:00 in the morning. After wakingRuslan up, they took him outside and drove him away.

Kavkaz-Center News

2003-10-19