RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 7, No. 23, Part I, 5 February 2003

HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST DEMANDS INVESTIGATION INTO DEATHS OF MOSCOW THEATER HOSTAGES.

Lev Ponomarev, director of the NGO For Human Rights, has asked the Prosecutor-General's Office to open an investigation into the security services' use of a sleeping gas during the 23-26 October hostage taking at a Moscow theater, "Vremya novostei" reported on 4 February. About  120 hostages died during the incident, almost all of them from the effects of the sleeping gas (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 30 October 2002). The authorities have denied that the deaths were avoidable, blaming them on the fact that the hostages had been weakened by their more than 50 hours' captivity (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 31 October 2002). "We believe that responsibility for the deaths lies with the Moscow government, which failed to provide [the hostages] with qualified medical assistance, and with those in the security services and higher up who ordered the use of [the gas]," Ponomarev told the newspaper. He added that the names of those responsible should be established and made public in order to avoid similar tragedies in the future. VY