Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis
Encyclopedia
Rebel fighters led by Raduyev then entered the town itself, where they took 2,000 to 3,400hostages and held them at a local hospital
, a nearby high-rise building and a bridge
. (According to Russian officials, there were "no more than 1,200" hostages taken.) At least 13 people were killed in street fighting and 19 in the following siege (including 24 civilians).
All but about 120 of the captives were released the next day, after Russian authorities said the rebels must first release the hostages to be granted a safe passage back to Chechnya. About 160 hostages, some of them reportedly volunteers, acted as human shield
s in order to deter a Russian ambush
along the route.
suddenly opened fire on their convoy
as it approached the border between the two republics. A group of 37 Novosibirsk
OMON
policemen, who were escorting the convoy and were caught in the crossfire
, surrendered to the Chechens. The rebels rushed for cover in the nearby village of Pervomayskoye (also spelled Pervomayskoe, Pervomaiskoye or Pervomaiskoe), where they installed the hostages in a local school and a mosque
and put the captured policemen to work digging trench
es. According to Itar-Tass, the Chechens seized an additional 100 hostages from among the population of the village. Some of the civilians were reportedly given weapons while some of the captive policemen joined the gunmen.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
spoke on national TV on details of the operation against the hostage-takers, famously demonstrating through gesture
s how "38 sniper
s" were supposed to cover the village and shoot all hostage takers. Yeltsin's remarks were later ridiculed to the point where it was denied he ever made them. Before launching the assault, Russian officials incorrectly stated that the rebels had "hanged six Russian soldiers". For the next three days Russian special forces
tried to break into the village, supported by heavy weapons. They admitted losing at least 12 killed, including Colonel
Andrei Krestyaninov, commander of the Moscow
SOBR
. Cold and hungry, they described the fighting as "hell". On January 12, 1996, the rebels freed the women and children; they said they would release the rest if four named respected Russian officials would take their place (politicians Grigory Yavlinsky and Yegor Gaidar
quickly agreed, but retired Generals Boris Gromov
and Alexander Lebed refused).
After the assault attempts failed, Interior Minister
Anatoly Kulikov
and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director General Mikhail Barsukov
falsely declared that Raduyev's men had "executed all of the hostages". Russian commanders then ordered their forces to open fire on the village with tank
s and multiple rocket launcher
s. FSB Major General
Alexander Mikhailov said that the rebels "had shot or hanged all or most" of the hostages, and commanders said they now planned to "flatten" Pervomayskoye. Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin
also said that no hostages remained alive. Nevertheless, hostages were still alive and appealing desperately to the Russian security forces to cease firing on the village, a New York Times correspondent reported that the Russians were "firing into Pervomaskoye at the rate of one a minute the same Grad missile
s they used to largely destroy the Chechen capital Grozny
when the conflict began." The fighting reportedly killed 16 hostages. General Barsukov later said, laughing, that "the usage of the Grad multiple rocket launchers was mainly psychological
," and claimed that although three lauchers were deployed, only one was used. Russian troops attacking the village included the Nalchik
FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko
, whose ad-hoc unit came under friendly fire
from Grad rockets, resulting in the death of two of his colleagues.
During the days when Russian troops stormed Pervomayskoye a large crowd of people, the relatives of the hostages, gathered near checkpoint
s located 10 kilometers from the settlement, as Dagestani police would not allow them any closer. These people stood in silence and watched how Russian troops bombarded with rocket launchers, other artillery
, helicopter gunships and combat jets
, the settlement where their relatives were supposedly being held, Russian authorities sought to minimize coverage of the crisis by keeping correspondent
s away from the scene, confiscating equipment, using guard dog
s and firing warning shots. They injured several, including a cameraman from ABC
television and a The Christian Science Monitor
correspondent, (one reporter was fired upon by soldiers at a Russian military checkpoint). Russian forces also turned away a long line of relief workers, including representatives of Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross
.
and escape in the early morning of January 18, 1996, taking with them about 20 Russian police hostages and some civilians. A number of wounded guerillas were carried on stretchers, while some 20 seriously injured fighters who could not be moved were left behind.
The storm group lost 17 out of 40 members during the escape, according to its leader, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev
. The follow-up support group with the wounded and hostages led by Aydemir Abdallayev lost 26 men killed, according to Abdallayev. The rear guard was commanded by Suleiman Bustayev. Many of the rebels were killed by strafing
attacks by Mi-24
helicopters in the ensuing pursuit; three or four hostages also perished. The breakout column eventually crossed the border at a river using a gas pipeline
and escaped.
At the same time, another 200 to 300 guerrillas, sent by Dudayev, crossed the border from Chechnya where hundreds of fighters from all over Chechnya grouped under the command of Maksud Ingulbayev. To aid the breakthrough they mounted a diversion
ary attack on the Russian lines from behind and then briefly took over a school
in the neighboring village of Sovetskoye, just a few kilometers outside Pervomayskoye. The relief column, like Salman Raduyev's detachment earlier, apparently made its way through Russian-patrolled areas of Chechnya and Dagestan (Russian military and law-enforcement officials accused the residents of two nearby villages of having colluded with the rebels).
Russian forces finally captured a pulverized village full of the corpses of Chechen fighters, Dagestani civilians, and Russian soldiers. When the fighting was over, one Russian regular
army soldier unintentionally fired his armored personnel carrier's cannon; the shell hit and blew up another armored vehicle, its fragments landed amongst the elite Alpha Group
, killing two FSB commandos and injuring three others. 82 of the Kizlyar hostages were rescued, according to Yeltsin, but his Prime Minister Chernomyrdin said that only 42 hostages had been freed. The Chechens claimed to still hold more than 60 Russian and Dagestani captives, now held in the Chechen town of Novogrozny.
authorities meanwhile coped effectively with the hijackers of the Panama
nian-registered ferry
Avrazya, captured on January 16 by an armed group of nine Turkish citizens of Caucasian
origin and sympathetic to the rebels besieged at Pervomaiskoye. Turkish authorities, in constant communication and negotiation with the captors and ignoring Russian demands for tough action, secured the safe release of the captives (177 mostly Russian passengers and a Turkish crew of 55), unharmed and the surrender of the gunmen without bloodshed.
In Chechnya's capital Grozny
some 29 employees of a power plant, (Russians
sent from Rostov
), were kidnapped for ransom
on January 17 by the group of Arbi Barayev
. It was also reported that some 38 civilians, mostly ethnic Russians, had been kidnapped during the previous week in Chechnya's rebel-controlled Achkhoy-Martanovsky District and offered in exchange for Chechen fighters in Russian captivity and civilian Chechen inmates of Russian "filtration camps". Their release was negotiated later that month.
by the Russian prosecutor
said 37 Russian troops and 41 civilians were killed during the raid. According to the separatist chief of staff
Aslan Maskhadov
90 Chechen fighters died during the crisis, while Yeltsin said 153 were killed and 30 were captured. At least 65 people, including 24 civilians, were reported being killed in Kizlyar. Western analysts estimated losses in Pervomayskoye at 96 Chechen fighters and 26 hostages killed, with about 200 federal casualties. The full extent of civilian casualties remained unknown because the Russian army did not permit journalists access to the village during the attack and independent observers were admitted only after dead bodies of civilians were reportedly cleared from the streets by soldiers.
correspondent Valery Yakov, who witnessed the fighting from inside the village) described a chaotic, overmanned, and bungled Russian operation in Pervomayskoye (Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer
wrote that the armed services involved in the assault displayed a "fantastic lack of coordination)." The international organization Reporters Without Borders
publicly protested at Russian security authorities' intimidation
of the press at Pervomayskoye as well as the Russian military authorities' ban on medical assistance to civilians and their refusal to allow evacuation of the wounded. The United States Secretary of Defense
William Perry
, said that Russia was justified in using military force in response to hostage-taking. Yelstin defended the assault on Pervomayskoye, saying the operation was "planned and carried out correctly."
On January 19, 1996, Raduyev proposed to exchange the police hostages for the seriously wounded fighters he had left behind. The Chechens announced their readiness to turn over the remaining civilian hostages to Dagestani authorities. A special resolution
by the Russian State Duma
granted amnesty
for the 11 captured guerrillas. They were swapped in exchange for 17 policemen (a CNN
report said the captives were "12 Russian soldiers and six police officers") seized by the rebels in Pervomaiskoye. On January 27, 1996, 26 dead Chechen fighters, were swapped for hostages and returned by Russian authorities through Dagestani intermediaries. They were buried in the Tsotsin-Yurt village cemetery, which is considered a holy place because it holds the bodies of 400 Chechens killed while fighting Russian forces during the Russian Civil War
in 1919.
The hostage crisis also caused a split among the Chechens, Salman Raduyev was denounced by top Chechen rebel leaders. According to the Polish volunteer Mirosław Kuleba (Mehmed Borz) who met Raduyev two months after the crisis, it was possible that Raduyev meant to ignite a broader civil war
in Dagestan. Kuleba said Raduyev tried to hide in the conversation that the taking of a hospital and gathering of hostages was planned from the beginning. Raduyev was shot in the head in what some reports described as an ambush
by rival guerillas and reportedly killed, but he resurfaced after the war (and Dudayev's death), to became a renegade
warlord
.
Raduyev was captured by the Russians during the Second Chechen War
and in 2001 sentenced to life in prison; he died in a prison colony in 2002. That same year, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev (sentenced to 15 years) also died in prison. They both died in mysterious circumstances. Two other participants of the raid were also convicted – Aslanbek Alkhazurov to five years imprisonment (Alkhazurov died in prison in 2004) and Husein Gaisumov to eight years.
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
, a nearby high-rise building and a bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
. (According to Russian officials, there were "no more than 1,200" hostages taken.) At least 13 people were killed in street fighting and 19 in the following siege (including 24 civilians).
All but about 120 of the captives were released the next day, after Russian authorities said the rebels must first release the hostages to be granted a safe passage back to Chechnya. About 160 hostages, some of them reportedly volunteers, acted as human shield
Human shield
Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...
s in order to deter a Russian ambush
Ambush
An ambush is a long-established military tactic, in which the aggressors take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack an unsuspecting enemy from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops...
along the route.
Siege of Pervomayskoye
The rebels then headed in the direction of Chechnya in a column of 11 buses and two trucks, but they were stopped when a Russian attack helicopterAttack helicopter
An attack helicopter is a military helicopter with the primary role of an attack aircraft, with the capability of engaging targets on the ground, such as enemy infantry and armored vehicles...
suddenly opened fire on their convoy
Convoy
A convoy is a group of vehicles, typically motor vehicles or ships, traveling together for mutual support and protection. Often, a convoy is organized with armed defensive support, though it may also be used in a non-military sense, for example when driving through remote areas.-Age of Sail:Naval...
as it approached the border between the two republics. A group of 37 Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk
Novosibirsk is the third-largest city in Russia, after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, and the largest city of Siberia, with a population of 1,473,737 . It is the administrative center of Novosibirsk Oblast as well as of the Siberian Federal District...
OMON
OMON
OMOH is a generic name for the system of special units of militsiya within the Russian and earlier the Soviet MVD...
policemen, who were escorting the convoy and were caught in the crossfire
Crossfire
A crossfire is a military term for the siting of weapons so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I....
, surrendered to the Chechens. The rebels rushed for cover in the nearby village of Pervomayskoye (also spelled Pervomayskoe, Pervomaiskoye or Pervomaiskoe), where they installed the hostages in a local school and a mosque
Mosque
A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. The word is likely to have entered the English language through French , from Portuguese , from Spanish , and from Berber , ultimately originating in — . The Arabic word masjid literally means a place of prostration...
and put the captured policemen to work digging trench
Trench
A trench is a type of excavation or depression in the ground. Trenches are generally defined by being deeper than they are wide , and by being narrow compared to their length ....
es. According to Itar-Tass, the Chechens seized an additional 100 hostages from among the population of the village. Some of the civilians were reportedly given weapons while some of the captive policemen joined the gunmen.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin
Boris Yeltsin
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...
spoke on national TV on details of the operation against the hostage-takers, famously demonstrating through gesture
Gesture
A gesture is a form of non-verbal communication in which visible bodily actions communicate particular messages, either in place of speech or together and in parallel with spoken words. Gestures include movement of the hands, face, or other parts of the body...
s how "38 sniper
Sniper
A sniper is a marksman who shoots targets from concealed positions or distances exceeding the capabilities of regular personnel. Snipers typically have specialized training and distinct high-precision rifles....
s" were supposed to cover the village and shoot all hostage takers. Yeltsin's remarks were later ridiculed to the point where it was denied he ever made them. Before launching the assault, Russian officials incorrectly stated that the rebels had "hanged six Russian soldiers". For the next three days Russian special forces
Spetsnaz
Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...
tried to break into the village, supported by heavy weapons. They admitted losing at least 12 killed, including Colonel
Colonel
Colonel , abbreviated Col or COL, is a military rank of a senior commissioned officer. It or a corresponding rank exists in most armies and in many air forces; the naval equivalent rank is generally "Captain". It is also used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures...
Andrei Krestyaninov, commander of the Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
SOBR
SOBR
The Special Rapid Response Unit or SOBR is an elite commando unit of the Russian Interior Ministry, involved in anti-criminal operations....
. Cold and hungry, they described the fighting as "hell". On January 12, 1996, the rebels freed the women and children; they said they would release the rest if four named respected Russian officials would take their place (politicians Grigory Yavlinsky and Yegor Gaidar
Yegor Gaidar
Yegor Timurovich Gaidar was a Soviet and Russian economist, politician and author, and was the Acting Prime Minister of Russia from 15 June 1992 to 14 December 1992....
quickly agreed, but retired Generals Boris Gromov
Boris Gromov
Boris Vsevolodovich Gromov is a prominent Russian military and political figure. Since 2000, he has been the Governor of Moscow Oblast.-Biography:...
and Alexander Lebed refused).
After the assault attempts failed, Interior Minister
Interior minister
An interior ministry is a government ministry typically responsible for policing, national security, and immigration matters. The ministry is often headed by a minister of the interior or minister of home affairs...
Anatoly Kulikov
Anatoly Kulikov
Anatoly Kulikov is a Russian General of the Army, former Interior Minister of Russia .In 1992 Kulikov became Commander of the Interior Troops. Hence he was one of the commanders of pro-government forces during the 1993 Constitutional Crisis in Moscow and the First Chechen War...
and Federal Security Service (FSB) Director General Mikhail Barsukov
Mikhail Barsukov
Mikhail Ivanovich Barsukov is a former Russian intelligence and government official...
falsely declared that Raduyev's men had "executed all of the hostages". Russian commanders then ordered their forces to open fire on the village with tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
s and multiple rocket launcher
Multiple rocket launcher
A multiple rocket launcher is a type of unguided rocket artillery system. Like other rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers are less accurate and have a much lower rate of fire than batteries of traditional artillery guns...
s. FSB Major General
Major General
Major general or major-general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. A major general is a high-ranking officer, normally subordinate to the rank of lieutenant general and senior to the ranks of brigadier and brigadier general...
Alexander Mikhailov said that the rebels "had shot or hanged all or most" of the hostages, and commanders said they now planned to "flatten" Pervomayskoye. Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Viktor Chernomyrdin
Viktor Chernomyrdin
Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was the founder and the first chairman of the Gazprom energy company, the longest serving Prime Minister of Russia and Acting President of Russia for a day in 1996. He was a key figure in Russian politics in the 1990s, and a great contributor to the Russian...
also said that no hostages remained alive. Nevertheless, hostages were still alive and appealing desperately to the Russian security forces to cease firing on the village, a New York Times correspondent reported that the Russians were "firing into Pervomaskoye at the rate of one a minute the same Grad missile
BM-21
The BM-21 launch vehicle , a Soviet truck-mounted 122 mm multiple rocket launcher, and a M-21OF rocket were developed in the early 1960s. BM stands for boyevaya mashina, ‘combat vehicle’, and the nickname means ‘hail’. The complete system with the BM-21 launch vehicle and the M-21OF rocket...
s they used to largely destroy the Chechen capital Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
when the conflict began." The fighting reportedly killed 16 hostages. General Barsukov later said, laughing, that "the usage of the Grad multiple rocket launchers was mainly psychological
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
," and claimed that although three lauchers were deployed, only one was used. Russian troops attacking the village included the Nalchik
Nalchik
Nalchik is the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. It covers an area of...
FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
, whose ad-hoc unit came under friendly fire
Friendly fire
Friendly fire is inadvertent firing towards one's own or otherwise friendly forces while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire...
from Grad rockets, resulting in the death of two of his colleagues.
During the days when Russian troops stormed Pervomayskoye a large crowd of people, the relatives of the hostages, gathered near checkpoint
Civilian checkpoint
Civilian checkpoints or Security checkpoints are distinguishable from border or frontier checkpoints in that they are erected and enforced within contiguous areas under military or paramilitary control...
s located 10 kilometers from the settlement, as Dagestani police would not allow them any closer. These people stood in silence and watched how Russian troops bombarded with rocket launchers, other artillery
Artillery
Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...
, helicopter gunships and combat jets
Jet aircraft
A jet aircraft is an aircraft propelled by jet engines. Jet aircraft generally fly much faster than propeller-powered aircraft and at higher altitudes – as high as . At these altitudes, jet engines achieve maximum efficiency over long distances. The engines in propeller-powered aircraft...
, the settlement where their relatives were supposedly being held, Russian authorities sought to minimize coverage of the crisis by keeping correspondent
Correspondent
A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is a journalist or commentator, or more general speaking, an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, location. A foreign correspondent is stationed in a foreign...
s away from the scene, confiscating equipment, using guard dog
Guard dog
A guard dog, an attack dog or watch dog is a dog used to guard against, and watch for, unwanted or unexpected people or animals. The dog is discriminating so that it does not annoy or attack familiar people.-Barking:...
s and firing warning shots. They injured several, including a cameraman from ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
television and a The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
correspondent, (one reporter was fired upon by soldiers at a Russian military checkpoint). Russian forces also turned away a long line of relief workers, including representatives of Doctors Without Borders and the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
.
Rebel breakout
On the eighth night, despite Interior Minister Kulikov's assurances that three rings of security forces had surrounded the village, Raduyev and his men managed to break out of the encirclementEncirclement
Encirclement is a military term for the situation when a force or target is isolated and surrounded by enemy forces. The German term for this is Kesselschlacht ; a comparable English term might be "in the bag"....
and escape in the early morning of January 18, 1996, taking with them about 20 Russian police hostages and some civilians. A number of wounded guerillas were carried on stretchers, while some 20 seriously injured fighters who could not be moved were left behind.
The storm group lost 17 out of 40 members during the escape, according to its leader, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev
Turpal-Ali Atgeriev
Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev was a former Deputy Prime Minister and National Security Minister of Chechnya. Also spelled Turpal, Atgeriev.- Biography :...
. The follow-up support group with the wounded and hostages led by Aydemir Abdallayev lost 26 men killed, according to Abdallayev. The rear guard was commanded by Suleiman Bustayev. Many of the rebels were killed by strafing
Strafing
Strafing is the practice of attacking ground targets from low-flying aircraft using aircraft-mounted automatic weapons. This means, that although ground attack using automatic weapons fire is very often accompanied with bombing or rocket fire, the term "strafing" does not specifically include the...
attacks by Mi-24
Mil Mi-24
The Mil Mi-24 is a large helicopter gunship and attack helicopter and low-capacity troop transport with room for 8 passengers. It is produced by Mil Moscow Helicopter Plant and operated since 1972 by the Soviet Air Force, its successors, and by over thirty other nations.In NATO circles the export...
helicopters in the ensuing pursuit; three or four hostages also perished. The breakout column eventually crossed the border at a river using a gas pipeline
Pipeline transport
Pipeline transport is the transportation of goods through a pipe. Most commonly, liquids and gases are sent, but pneumatic tubes that transport solid capsules using compressed air are also used....
and escaped.
At the same time, another 200 to 300 guerrillas, sent by Dudayev, crossed the border from Chechnya where hundreds of fighters from all over Chechnya grouped under the command of Maksud Ingulbayev. To aid the breakthrough they mounted a diversion
Diversion
Diversion may refer to:*diversion, a detour, especially of an airplane flight due to severe weather or mechanical failure, or of an ambulance from a fully occupied emergency room to one another nearby hospital*diversion, a distraction...
ary attack on the Russian lines from behind and then briefly took over a school
School
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
in the neighboring village of Sovetskoye, just a few kilometers outside Pervomayskoye. The relief column, like Salman Raduyev's detachment earlier, apparently made its way through Russian-patrolled areas of Chechnya and Dagestan (Russian military and law-enforcement officials accused the residents of two nearby villages of having colluded with the rebels).
Russian forces finally captured a pulverized village full of the corpses of Chechen fighters, Dagestani civilians, and Russian soldiers. When the fighting was over, one Russian regular
Regular
The term regular can mean normal or obeying rules. Regular may refer to:In organizations:* Regular Army for military usage* Regular clergy, members of a religious order subject to a rule of life* Regular Force for usage in the Canadian Forces...
army soldier unintentionally fired his armored personnel carrier's cannon; the shell hit and blew up another armored vehicle, its fragments landed amongst the elite Alpha Group
Alpha Group
The Alpha Group , is an elite component of Russia's Spetsnaz as well as the dedicated counter-terrorism unit of the Federal Security Service...
, killing two FSB commandos and injuring three others. 82 of the Kizlyar hostages were rescued, according to Yeltsin, but his Prime Minister Chernomyrdin said that only 42 hostages had been freed. The Chechens claimed to still hold more than 60 Russian and Dagestani captives, now held in the Chechen town of Novogrozny.
Related hostage crises
TurkishTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
authorities meanwhile coped effectively with the hijackers of the Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
nian-registered ferry
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
Avrazya, captured on January 16 by an armed group of nine Turkish citizens of Caucasian
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
origin and sympathetic to the rebels besieged at Pervomaiskoye. Turkish authorities, in constant communication and negotiation with the captors and ignoring Russian demands for tough action, secured the safe release of the captives (177 mostly Russian passengers and a Turkish crew of 55), unharmed and the surrender of the gunmen without bloodshed.
In Chechnya's capital Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...
some 29 employees of a power plant, (Russians
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
sent from Rostov
Rostov
Rostov is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population:...
), were kidnapped for ransom
Ransom
Ransom is the practice of holding a prisoner or item to extort money or property to secure their release, or it can refer to the sum of money involved.In an early German law, a similar concept was called bad influence...
on January 17 by the group of Arbi Barayev
Arbi Barayev
Arbi Alautdinovich Barayev , nicknamed "The Terminator", was a renegade Chechen warlord often accused of clandestine links with the Russian special services...
. It was also reported that some 38 civilians, mostly ethnic Russians, had been kidnapped during the previous week in Chechnya's rebel-controlled Achkhoy-Martanovsky District and offered in exchange for Chechen fighters in Russian captivity and civilian Chechen inmates of Russian "filtration camps". Their release was negotiated later that month.
Casualties
Raduyev's later indictmentIndictment
An indictment , in the common-law legal system, is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that maintain the concept of felonies, the serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that lack the concept of felonies often use that of an indictable offence—an...
by the Russian prosecutor
Prosecutor
The prosecutor is the chief legal representative of the prosecution in countries with either the common law adversarial system, or the civil law inquisitorial system...
said 37 Russian troops and 41 civilians were killed during the raid. According to the separatist chief of staff
Chief of Staff
The title, chief of staff, identifies the leader of a complex organization, institution, or body of persons and it also may identify a Principal Staff Officer , who is the coordinator of the supporting staff or a primary aide to an important individual, such as a president.In general, a chief of...
Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Maskhadov
Aslan Aliyevich Maskhadov was a leader of the Chechen separatist movement and the third President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.He was credited by many with the Chechen victory in the First Chechen War, which allowed for the...
90 Chechen fighters died during the crisis, while Yeltsin said 153 were killed and 30 were captured. At least 65 people, including 24 civilians, were reported being killed in Kizlyar. Western analysts estimated losses in Pervomayskoye at 96 Chechen fighters and 26 hostages killed, with about 200 federal casualties. The full extent of civilian casualties remained unknown because the Russian army did not permit journalists access to the village during the attack and independent observers were admitted only after dead bodies of civilians were reportedly cleared from the streets by soldiers.
Aftermath
Russian press accounts of the carnage (including those by IzvestiaIzvestia
Izvestia is a long-running high-circulation daily newspaper in Russia. The word "izvestiya" in Russian means "delivered messages", derived from the verb izveshchat . In the context of newspapers it is usually translated as "news" or "reports".-Origin:The newspaper began as the News of the...
correspondent Valery Yakov, who witnessed the fighting from inside the village) described a chaotic, overmanned, and bungled Russian operation in Pervomayskoye (Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer
Pavel Felgenhauer
Pavel E. Felgenhauer is a Russian journalist. He is known for his publications critical of Russia's political and military elite.-Biography:...
wrote that the armed services involved in the assault displayed a "fantastic lack of coordination)." The international organization Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
publicly protested at Russian security authorities' intimidation
Intimidation
Intimidation is intentional behavior "which would cause a person of ordinary sensibilities" fear of injury or harm. It's not necessary to prove that the behavior was so violent as to cause terror or that the victim was actually frightened.Criminal threatening is the crime of intentionally or...
of the press at Pervomayskoye as well as the Russian military authorities' ban on medical assistance to civilians and their refusal to allow evacuation of the wounded. The United States Secretary of Defense
United States Secretary of Defense
The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...
William Perry
William Perry
William James Perry is an American businessman and engineer who was the United States Secretary of Defense from February 3, 1994, to January 23, 1997, under President Bill Clinton...
, said that Russia was justified in using military force in response to hostage-taking. Yelstin defended the assault on Pervomayskoye, saying the operation was "planned and carried out correctly."
On January 19, 1996, Raduyev proposed to exchange the police hostages for the seriously wounded fighters he had left behind. The Chechens announced their readiness to turn over the remaining civilian hostages to Dagestani authorities. A special resolution
Resolution (law)
A resolution is a written motion adopted by a deliberative body. The substance of the resolution can be anything that can normally be proposed as a motion. For long or important motions, though, it is often better to have them written out so that discussion is easier or so that it can be...
by the Russian State Duma
State Duma
The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...
granted amnesty
Amnesty
Amnesty is a legislative or executive act by which a state restores those who may have been guilty of an offense against it to the positions of innocent people, without changing the laws defining the offense. It includes more than pardon, in as much as it obliterates all legal remembrance of the...
for the 11 captured guerrillas. They were swapped in exchange for 17 policemen (a CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
report said the captives were "12 Russian soldiers and six police officers") seized by the rebels in Pervomaiskoye. On January 27, 1996, 26 dead Chechen fighters, were swapped for hostages and returned by Russian authorities through Dagestani intermediaries. They were buried in the Tsotsin-Yurt village cemetery, which is considered a holy place because it holds the bodies of 400 Chechens killed while fighting Russian forces during the Russian Civil War
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
in 1919.
The hostage crisis also caused a split among the Chechens, Salman Raduyev was denounced by top Chechen rebel leaders. According to the Polish volunteer Mirosław Kuleba (Mehmed Borz) who met Raduyev two months after the crisis, it was possible that Raduyev meant to ignite a broader civil war
Civil war
A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same nation state or republic, or, less commonly, between two countries created from a formerly-united nation state....
in Dagestan. Kuleba said Raduyev tried to hide in the conversation that the taking of a hospital and gathering of hostages was planned from the beginning. Raduyev was shot in the head in what some reports described as an ambush
Ambush
An ambush is a long-established military tactic, in which the aggressors take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack an unsuspecting enemy from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops...
by rival guerillas and reportedly killed, but he resurfaced after the war (and Dudayev's death), to became a renegade
Renegade
- Games :*Command & Conquer: Renegade, a 2002 first-person shooter video game*Renegade , a 1986 video game*Renegade Legion, a 1990 board game series including the video game Renegade: the Battle for Jacob's Star...
warlord
Warlord
A warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
.
Raduyev was captured by the Russians during the Second Chechen War
Second Chechen War
The Second Chechen War, in a later phase better known as the War in the North Caucasus, was launched by the Russian Federation starting 26 August 1999, in response to the Invasion of Dagestan by the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade ....
and in 2001 sentenced to life in prison; he died in a prison colony in 2002. That same year, Turpal-Ali Atgeriev (sentenced to 15 years) also died in prison. They both died in mysterious circumstances. Two other participants of the raid were also convicted – Aslanbek Alkhazurov to five years imprisonment (Alkhazurov died in prison in 2004) and Husein Gaisumov to eight years.
See also
- Beslan school hostage crisisBeslan school hostage crisisThe Beslan school hostage crisis of early September 2004 was a three-day hostage-taking of over 1,100 people which ended in the deaths of over 380...
- Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisisBudyonnovsk hospital hostage crisisThe Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis took place from 14 June to 19 June 1995, when a group of 80 to 200 Chechen terrorists led by Shamil Basayev attacked the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk , some north of the border with the Russian republic of Chechnya...
- Moscow theatre hostage crisis
External links
- Chechen rebels' hostage history, BBC NewsBBC NewsBBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
, 1 September 2004