Dmitry Darin, Moscow poet and journalist and the host of the PRAVDA.Ru Culture section:
“One has to identify the organizers of this monstrous act of terrorism, not only the nephew of Arbi Barayev, the Chechen commander who was killed last year, but also other terrorists who are currently inside the building. After it becomes known what villages they come from, we need to send special units of the Central Intelligence Department. They round up 700 people from those village and from other villages as well. Two or three villages will be enough to collect 700 people. These people will be elders, relatives, neighbors, and everyone who is close and precious to the terrorists. Then, we will put all those people in a line in front of the theater. We will then negotiate. If they shoot a hostage, we will shoot a relative. This will be an exchange as well: one to one. We will exchange the hostages for the terrorists’ relatives, not deputies.
“It is too late to storm the building. We should have stormed the building last night when the terrorists were still in a state of euphoria after they seized the theater successfully. This is the very serious reason for personnel changes in the defense departments of Russia. Such acts need a lot of preparation. Plenty of people knew about the coming act of terrorism. How come the police or the special services didn’t know a thing about it?
“One could talk about the September 11th attacks on America last year. However, the problem was different there. They missed it all because of a lack of coordination, but they at least had information, in contrast to us. A state structure will work efficiently if it pays major attention to preventive measures. If we bring the terrorists’ elders to the theatre, the situation will be changed fundamentally. The terrorists say that they are not afraid to die. This might be true, taking into consideration their fanaticism. However, things will become completely different if they know that some of their close relatives will die as well. I do not see any other way to stop the terrorists.”
Dmitry Darin
PRAVDA.Ru
Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
Related links:
Irish Times : Hostages say Chechen rebels may blow up Moscow theatre
Chechens Allow Hostages Medical Aid
EU condemns hostage taking in Moscow, urges their immediate release
Bush Offers Aid for Russia Hostages
Read the original in Russian: http://culture.pravda.ru/culture/2002/4/8/19/1895_darin.html
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