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.
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