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A hostage speaks Valery Pivovarov, age 31, a music equipment manager (located at the 13th Municipal Hospital after rescue): Our company rents an office at the theatrical center. We sell and install professional music equipment. On the day of capture, I was in my office on the third floor when suddenly these masked men run in and drag me to the auditorium. When they brought me there, I saw the audience, and on the wall overhead there was this banner covered with some sort of ‘hieroglyphics’. The terrorists had already declared us their hostages and said: “Get ready, it’s going to be a long time.” The auditorium was about two-thirds full, and I figured that there were about 700 people, most of them under the age of 30. Right away they released the Azerbaijanis and Turks. They made me go sit down, and let me call my family, but later took away all the cell phones. The terrorists warned us that anyone found with a phone would be shot. Later they gave back the phones a couple times, so that we could call and ask our relatives to arrange a demonstration outside the theatrical center. We had no sources of information, and so we did not know what was going on outside the building. They treated us okay, in general, but the militants were constantly aggravating the situation. They did not have to use their weapons — everyone was so beat down psychologically. There were two leaders of the insurgent group, and I noticed they played different roles in the treatment of the hostages: one ‘good’ and one ‘evil’. One of the terrorists would regularly play some Middle East songs through audio equipment. For food they gave us only what they found in the snack bar: juices and chocolates. For a toilet we used the orchestra pit. After watching the terrorists for a while, I immediately decided they were not going to achieve a thing. They made too much blunders, regularly dropping pistols and grenades and kind of scatter-brained, in general. Every day every militant went up on stage and prayed. They practically did not speak with the hostages, and we were not allowed to move between rows. Right away they seated the foreigners separate from us in the first row. On the first night the terrorists shot a woman, but she was behaving inappropriately and looked like she was drunk. She started pestering the rebels, asking them to let her shoot their guns. She was taken out and shot. The assault began after one of the men among the hostages lost his nerve and started running toward the stage along the seat backs. One of the terrorist women shot him. On the day of the assault one of the group leaders told us that at ten o’clock in the morning someone was coming and that everything would be okay and their demands would be met. It all started about six o’clock in the morning. Half of the hostages were asleep, and I was dozing when suddenly I noticed white smoke coming out from the front right corners of the ventilation grills. The people looked at the smoke for about five seconds and simply started falling asleep. The gas affected everyone differently, depending on where they were sitting. After this, after six in the morning, I do not remember a thing. I woke up lying in a puddle of water, and later I was put on a stretcher and taken somewhere. Later I woke up in the hospital. We were all put on IVs and given injections. They took statements from us and said that we would be questioned soon. In ‘Vremya Novostey’ |
