- MOSCOW (Reuters) - President
Vladimir Putin focused on the threat to Russia from Chechen rebels on Monday,
vowing no deal with "terrorists," while his officials dodged
questions about a lethal mystery gas used to end the Moscow theater siege.
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- Of the 117 hostages who died in the theater ordeal, all
but two were killed by the gas pumped in at dawn on Saturday when Russian
special forces ended the three-day siege by Chechen rebels, who had demanded
Russian troops pull out of Chechnya.
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- Officials have refused to name the gas, even to the doctors
trying to treat the critically ill, but London security expert Michael
Yardley said it may have been BZ, a colorless incapacitant with hallucinogenic
properties.
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- Sergei Mironov, chief doctor within the Kremlin administration,
told reporters the death toll could still rise.
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- BZ acts on the peripheral autonomic and central nervous
systems resulting in loss of motor coordination and memory, fainting, dry
mouth, irregular heartbeats, nausea, vomiting, and hallucinations -- all
symptoms experienced by the hostages.
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- According to the U.S. army, the side effects last 60
hours.
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- On Monday, an official day of mourning in Russia for
the siege victims, Putin made no reference to the gas, preferring instead
to pledge a hard line against the country's foes.
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- "Russia will make no deals with terrorists and will
not give in to any blackmail," Russian news agencies quoted him as
telling government ministers.
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- He was also quoted as saying Moscow would respond in
"appropriate" fashion if there was any threat to use weapons
of mass destruction against Russia.
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- Chechen leaders, who accuse Russian forces of brutality
away from the world's gaze in their southern republic, offered again on
Monday to sit down for talks -- an offer the Russians have so far largely
refused.
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- Denmark said it was moving a Russia-European Union summit
scheduled for November 11 in Copenhagen to Brussels after Kremlin protests
over a meeting by Chechen exiles in the Danish capital.
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- MANY STILL IN GRAVE CONDITION
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- The theater siege began when some 50 Chechen separatists
seized a packed Moscow theater during a musical.
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- It ended when troops stormed the building after using
the mystery gas to stop "suicide squad" rebels detonating explosives
strapped to their bodies.
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- Moscow's top doctor Andrei Seltsovsky said on Sunday
hundreds of rescued hostages remained in hospital, including 45 in serious
condition.
-
- Frustrated and exhausted relatives, carrying food parcels
and presents, gathered outside hospital gates in a desperate attempt to
learn news of their loved ones.
-
- Doctors at Hospital No. 13, where more than 300 hostages
were taken, said most were expected to be allowed out on Monday.
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- Elated, the first to go home flashed smiles at the crowd.
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- "When the gas came, I lost feeling in my body, I
couldn't move my fingers. I lay down on a red fur coat and after that I
can't remember," said Andrei Naumov, 17. "When I awoke, I felt
I was alive."
-
- Flags flew at half mast and light entertainment was canceled
in the city of more than 10 million. Schoolchildren stood for a minute
of silence before starting classes. Wednesday's Champions' League match
in Moscow between Spartak Moscow and FC Basel was canceled as a mark of
respect.
-
- Passers-by placed fresh flowers and candles outside the
theater where the hostages were held. Fifty hostage-takers, nearly all
of them, were killed in Saturday's assault.
-
- "My heart is broken," an elderly local resident
said, wiping tears from her cheeks. "I couldn't move from my balcony
all night. I just stood there, helpless."
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- Putin apologized within hours of the dawn raid on Saturday
for proving unable to save all hostages.
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- "POISONED LIKE COCKROACHES"
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- Initial relief that accompanied the first reports that
perhaps only 10 hostages had died was replaced by doubts about the mysterious
gas as the death toll mounted over the weekend.
-
- "They poisoned us like cockroaches," a woman
quoted her daughter as saying in Kommersant daily, in a front-page spread
under the headline "Overdose."
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- One doctor expressed frustration at the lack of information.
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- "I saw no gunshot wounds at all. Those who died
had swallowed their vomit or their tongue or their hearts had stopped,"
he told the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily.
-
- "If only we had known beforehand! If they had told
us that we would be getting large numbers who had lost consciousness or
heart failure, it might have been a bit different."
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- A spokesman said the U.S. embassy had asked Russia for
details of the gas so one of their nationals still in hospital suffering
from its effects could be better treated.
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- Despite the controversy, British Prime Minster Tony Blair
backed the decision to intervene.
-
- "There are no easy, no risk-free, no safe solutions
to such a situation," he told parliament on Monday.
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- "And I hope people will understand the enormity
of the dilemma facing President Putin as he weighed what to do, in both
trying to end the siege with minimum loss of life and recognizing the dangers
of doing anything that conceded to this latest outrage of terrorism from
Chechnya."
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- Chechnya's elected but now fugitive president Aslan Maskhadov
said through an aide that he was ready to hold unconditional talks with
the Russians to find a political solution to the bloody, protracted conflict.
-
- "We can only solve it politically," his envoy
Akhmed Zakayev told a Chechen gathering in Copenhagen.
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- "President Maskhadov, as before, is ready without
any preconditions to sit at the negotiating table. It is up to the Russian
leadership."
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