5 Captives Reportedly Executed By Chechen Commando Forces
A day after scores of Chechen rebel gunmen swept through a southern Russian town, shooting civilians and taking hundreds of hostages, the gang reportedly executed five captives on Thursday night, forcing a startled Russia to confront the prospect of terrorism on its own soil.
The commando attack in the provincial city of Budyonnovsk, led by a well-known Chechen commander, brought to reality the violent consequences many had feared from Russia’s brutal military action in Chechnya. Chechen leaders, all but defeated in their bitter fight for independence, have frequently vowed to carry the war beyond the Chechen borders. Nobody knew how easy it could be.
“We hope at least one of you will tell the truth,” Shamil Basayev, a top lieutenant to the Chechen leader, Gen. Dzhokar Dudayev, told reporters at a news conference in the hospital in the provincial town of Budyonnovsk. “We are not bandits. We are a country at war with another state. They have taken our families, our land, and our freedom.”
Basayev, wearing a green ribbon that identifies him as a Chechen suicide fighter along with about as much ammunition as can fit on a man, said at the news conference that he would release all children being held as a good will gesture. But that came after the hospital’s chief doctor appeared, saying several of the Chechens had grabbed five hostages at random and shot them to show the world they were serious in their demands that Russian troops leave their land.
A British television company, WTN, videotaped the news conference. During it, some shots and screams were heard off camera just before the doctor said five captives had been killed. The actual shooting of the captives, however, was not shown on the videotape, and Sergei Stepashin, head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, called those reports “a bluff.”
On Wednesday, the Chechen rebels went on a rampage through the streets of Budyonnovsk, which is about 70 miles north of the Chechen border, firing rockets at the main police headquarters, shooting pedestrians, and rounding up hostages by the truckload.
Basayev said at the news conference that he had not planned to attack the city. He and his comrades were on their way to Moscow, he said, but a greedy police officer demanded a bribe far larger than they could afford to let them pass. That started the shooting.
“Our aim was to reach Moscow,” he said at the news conference he demanded in exchange for the release of the children. “And our purpose is to stop this war.”