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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 28, 2002)
Nation & world briefing Gas in Moscow hostage raid killed 117 Mark McDonald Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT) MOSCOW — The gas used by Russian commandos in their assault on a Moscow theater killed all but one of the 118 hostages who have perished so far, Russian health offi cials said Sunday night. And the death toll, they said, was bound to rise. Nearly 650 poisoned hostages re mained hospitalized Sunday night. Moscow’s chief physician, Andrei Seltsovsky, said 150 of the hostages were still in intensive care, 45 of them on the critical list. Russian officials initially said 69 hostages had been killed, and they insisted that none of the deaths were caused by the gas. As the death toll continued to rise Sunday, anguished families waited in bitter cold and a steady rain, press ing against the wrought-iron gates of Clinical Hospital No. 13, desperate for news about daughters, wives, sons and husbands. A U.S. embassy official said an American woman and a U.S. green card holder had finally been located in local hospitals, although he gave no personal details. Consular offi cials continued to search for at least one other American believed to have been a hostage. A group of 54 Chechen militants, 50 of whom were killed in the siege, had taken over the theater on Wednesday night Their single ran som demand was the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. Then in a pre-dawn raid Saturday morning, Russian troopers pumped the gas into the theater before storming it. The rebels apparently shot and killed just one hostage as the commandos moved in. There were numerous, unverified reports of semi-conscious hostages having choked to death on their own vomit inside the theater due to the gas attack. Health officials said Sun day that most had died in various hospitals from respiratory distress and heart attacks. Russian officials refused Sunday to specify the exact name of the gas. Foreign diplomats have demanded information about the gas from the government, but without reply. A physician involved in treating the hostages called the gas “a gen eral anesthetic.” He said heavy doses could cause “unconscious ness, respiration and blood-circula tion problems.” The gas was powerful and fast-act ing enough that the rebels — includ ing.18 Chechen women who had ex plosives wired to their bodies — were unable to detonate the numer ous bombs and mines they had placed around the theater. One hostage described the gas as bluish-gray, and another said it was bitter-smelling. The Interfax news agency quoted an unnamed hostage as saying he saw one of the militants trying to put on a gas mask as the siege unfolded. “He made several convulsive moves, trying to pull the mask over his face, and fell,” the source said. He also described how a fellow hostage, a teacher, had pressed wet napkins to her students mouths during the ordeal. “She kept the napkins iat way until she lost consciousness,” he said. “She saved the children.” President Vladimir Putin declared Monday a national day of mourning, with flags to be flown at half-staff. Putin also asked TV networks, radio stations and cultural centers to can cel their entertainment programs. © 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. Bush fails to rally support for Iraq war at summit Bob Deans Cox News Service PHOENIX — After a lackluster weekend of diplomacy on his Iraq policy, George W. Bush begins a critical period for his presidency Monday with a pair of domestic and international events unfolding over the coming weeks that will shape the remainder of his term. During two days at the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, Bush did not receive a single public endorsement to aid his push for a U.N. ultimatum that Iraq give up its most dangerous weapons or face at tack. A vote on a U.S.-backed reso lution before the United Nations Se curity Council could come as early as this week. Bush returned to the United States on Sunday afternoon for a campaign event in Arizona and will spend Monday campaigning for Re publican candidates in New Mexico and Colorado. It is part of a national barnstorming tour meant to help the GOP cling to its razor-thin ma jority in the House, and perhaps re gain control of the Senate, in the Nov. 5 elections. The outcome will have a deci sive impact on the prospects for Bush’s domestic proposals, from a second round of tax cuts to the creation of a new homeland secu rity department. Republicans are slightly favored to hold the House, though an upset can’t be ruled out. The Senate is too close to call, particularly after in cumbent candidate Sen. Paul Well stone, D-Minn., was killed in Fri day’s aircraft crash. There’s also much riding on Bush’s efforts to rally international support for an ultimatum that Iraq surrender its most dangerous weapons or face U.S.-led attack. While Bush misses no opportuni ty to assert his intention to act alone against Baghdad, if he must, doing so would mark a complicated and potentially perilous turn, par ticularly if it comes to war and things go badly. A weekend of meetings with lead ers from China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Singapore and more than a dozen other Asia-Pacif ic countries produced little for Bush in that area. Bush had hoped to use the weekend to lobby Russian Presi dent Vladimir Putin on Iraq, but Putin canceled his trip to remain in Moscow to monitor the hostage cri sis at a theater there. Perhaps most telling was the pointed refusal of his host, Mexican President Vicente Fox, to embrace Bush’s proposal for a U.N. resolution calling for tough new weapons in spections for Iraq, backed by the threat of U.S.-led force. “We have listened to the United States and we are listening to oth ers,” Fox told reporters, with Bush seated beside him. “We want a strong resolution that leads quickly to new inspections and ensures Iraqi compliance, but a resolution that is satisfactory to all in the U.N.,” said Fox, once one of Bush’s most vocal supporters among foreign leaders. When Bush first sought the reso lution during a speech at U.N. head quarters Sept. 12, he said he ex pected the body to act in “weeks, not months.” Seven weeks later, it’s nearing time to call a vote, or call the whole thing off. “This is a very key week coming up,” Secretary of State Colin Powell told reporters. “We have to make a few fundamental decisions,” he said. “We can’t continue to have a debate that never ends.” Following the APEC summit, there would seem to be little reason for Bush to press for a Security Council vote on Iraq a week before midterm congressional elections, unless he’s certain of getting it passed. That would lend Bush’s ap proach to Iraq the international le gitimacy conferred upon the war his father, former President George H.W. Bush, waged against Iraq a decade ago. Rejection at the United Nations, on the other hand, would sting, un dercutting Bush’s claims of world support and generating public un ease over the prospect going it alone, or very nearly so, against Baghdad. Neither would bode well for Republicans a week from now. \ ; w.bi v. nncc}7-\wr)iviie^ ) onkno! ; . HI ! t\ vV! HI IOI hVl O hh; >1 c HK O' /\\KK HVI k'h: > j\/jOI )1 ! ), WO I! IV) It' t U \ { 1*0 j j * v , - |. 0\| \ H Kl tjcuir IN KiOI ‘ >1 HI K Hi JO ol j lOW ft • j hwoi ri nrt'.cu»l c< n it o . Inf oniu)iion c lotn i r \ i f p<' i UK)) o i)(', )\ n mil i !k vi i if no! one !^i! ( I ( HOC ■ y<u )c H I ( /:(X 1J >!n c , H >1 IO( >1(0) H j ) ’( ( I I j( k 'l l 111 OUh'/iK >1 I i I c )| 11' I I l( ( U five 11 >y\ i j c )i ( )i ( : \( >i i ) j( •; nil i ( c i tie ? ill Jy i (>■ '/f>' 1 ; I(>1 Iii( )l ( !i ii < )i in; ;i k )| \ '•I It I ( >i K I I \ ( > 1 1 K I >1 II >|)( m ^ # ■ UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
