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Journalist Mark Franchetti tells his story
Written by Андрей Лебедев   
Суббота, 26 Октябрь 2002
MARK FRANCHETTI, 'SUNDAY TIMES' JOURNALIST WHO SPOKE WITH THE TERRORISTS: THE OPERATION WAS ORDERED BY MASKHADOV AND BASAYEV
 
In ‘Izvestiya’
 
It is not the first time that British journalist Mark Franchetti, who twice on Thursday communicated with the terrorist-seized theatrical center, has dealt with terrorists – while in Afghanistan he met with Taliban commanders. He told Andrei Lebedev of ‘Izvestiya’ what sort of people are holding hostages at Dubrovka.
 
- What impression did the terrorists leave you with?
 
“I think they're moderately religious Muslims with all that constant ‘Allahu akbar’… but I wouldn’t call them your ‘typical Arab terrorists’. They’re more Soviet, or something.
 
«These are professionals: that’s evident in how careful they were letting me in. They made me remove my outer clothing and searched me before I went in to see their leader. About him: he’s purposeful, calm, without any sign of tension or stress. On the contrary, he’s obviously pleased with the way events are unfolding. According to him, the main task of his team was to enter the theatrical center and take the hostages, and that’s what he’s managed to do. As to what happens next: well, we’ll just have to see.”
 
- So they have not made any specific demands?
 
“They don’t have any plan such has ‘remove the troops from Urus-Martan in 5 days’. They’re demanding ‘stop the war in Chechnya immediately’, but after that they’ve been on the cell phone with their counterparts in Chechnya. They believe that the next step is President Putin’s, while working out the details of the withdrawal is to be done by the Russian and Chechen governments, and for the latter they have Maskhadov in mind.»
 
- These people are acting on behalf of Maskhadov, that’s what they’re claiming?
 
“They call the events a ‘joint operation’ conducted under orders from Maskhadov and Basayev orders. The militants have stressed this. On the other hand, it can’t be ruled out that they’re trying to discredit Maskhadov, but for now it’s impossible to say how things really are.”
 
- Is it easy to talk with them?
 
“Barayev almost never shows emotion. He’s very calm, and I would even say timid. He speaks about everything in almost the same monotone. He has a deputy with him with whom I talked twice. That one gives the impression of being somewhat more flexible. During one conversation some disagreement arose between them — Barayev offered to let me photograph the auditorium, but his deputy objected, and in the end they agreed that taking pictures or even letting me into the auditorium would be impossible. Instead, they took me to one of the areas inside the theater and showed me three women covered with packets of explosives.”
 
- What language did you speak?
 
“Russian. In my opinion, they speak good Russian. I don’t know whether they made any grammatical errors — Russian isn’t my native language. They didn’t try to speak any English. It’s hard to say for sure, but, in my opinion, they aren’t very educated. They were 25–27 years old, so the period after their schooling coincided with the war years.”
 
- Martyrs are always young…
 
“It didn’t look like any of them were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. They have a high level of discipline. There’s a feeling that they are fully committed, and it’s understandable — they came here willing to die. If there’s an assault, they’ll blow up the building — no doubt about it. On the other hand, I’d say that if someone was going to blow up a building and himself with it, then he wouldn’t need to wear a mask. So it seems that they’re keep their options open: if the situation is defused they can leave the country.
 
 
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