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Interview with former 'Nord-Ost' hostage Svetlana Gubareva
Written by Радио «Свобода»   
Пятница, 31 Октябрь 2003
Yuri Zhigalkin, New York correspondent for Radio Svoboda, talks with former 'Nord-Ost' hostage Svetlana Gubareva.

Yuri Zhigalkin: We will give the following ten minutes of our program over to a talk with an unexpected guest here in New York. Kazakhstan citizen Svetlana Gubareva was among the hostages taken prisoner in the theater at Dubrovka. After a Russian special forces operation, her 13-year-old-daugher, Sasha, and American fiancé, Sandy Booker, died before receiving medical assistance. Several of Svetlana's days here in New York will be spent in interviews with agents from the FBI, who are looking into the reasons for the deaths of several American citizens. The story has also become the basis of a book by Eduard Topol. She is now in our studio. Svetlana, why did you come to America?
Svetlana Gubareva: I came to America to see the city where Sandy lived, and to visit his grave.

Yuri Zhigalkin: But how did it happen that you were to meet with the FBI?

Svetlana Gubareva: They asked to interview me immediately after Sandy's death, but they never got around to a specific time due to some bureaucratic delays. Now, while I'm here in the US, they decided to use this moment.

Yuri Zhigalkin: Do you have any idea what they will ask you about?

Svetlana Gubareva: I guess, since there are investigating what happened, I'll just be a witness.  I'll tell them how it was.

Yuri Zhigalkin: And, what you do intend to describe to the FBI agents?

Svetlana Gubareva: The truth, that which I saw, that which I know.

Yuri Zhigalkin: Does this truth differ from that which we know?

Svetlana Gubareva: Without a doubt. I'll start with the fact that immediately after seizure they kept saying that blood was flowing, heads were rolling, but in reality it was more or less peaceful, as much as such a situation can be considered peaceful. There was no torture or violence of any kind. Well, there were, naturally, threats. They always threatened that, if the authorities did not negotiated, then they start shooting people, or, if the authorities tried to storm the building, then they'd blow up everyone.  There’s no doubt that there were threats.  I think that controlling such as mass of people, almost a thousand, it was probably only possible by making us afraid. But my feelings differed from many of the Russians, because they kept saying: 'we're not at war with foreigners, we won't touch you, we'll let out soon'.

Yuri Zhigalkin: You lost your daughter and your fiancé during this tragedy. It's already been more than a year.  How do you feel now?

Svetlana Gubareva: I never noticed how this year passed, because every night I've been at 'Nord-Ost', always trying to do something to change it all, and every morning I remember, and I understand that I can't change a thing, and what happened, happened. How can I live with this, knowing that they simply killed my daughter? They really killed her, because she was on the floor of a bus under a pile of unconscious people. They simply crushed her.

Yuri Zhigalkin: Svetlana, are you trying to get some kind of compensation?  And in what way?

Svetlana Gubareva: A number of other foreigners and I have filed suit against the Russian government, for violating our loved ones' basic right — the right to the life.

Yuri Zhigalkin: And the result?

Svetlana Gubareva: Thus far — refusal. But we won't give up. We will obtain justice. There's no use counting on Russian justice.  I have a feeling that the Russian government will use all its power to suppress the 'Nord-Ost' case. We'll rely on the European Court of Human Rights.

Yuri Zhigalkin: As I understand it, compensation is not just a rhetorical question for you. If you did get some money, could you get on with your life, do things a little differently?

Svetlana Gubareva: Well, people help me out, and it struck me as so surprising, I never expected that most of them come from America. Maybe this really is a country that is worth living in. Glen and Victoria Hagen, they set up a fund especially designed to help me morally and materially. Andrey Mogilyanski in Philadelphia also set up a fund to help the hostages from 'Nord-Ost', and we are all very grateful to him. I should mention that Eduard Topol has also had a hand in my fate, and, only because of him, was I able get admitted to the hospital, since the Russian officials refused to treat me. 'Get back to your Kazakhstan quickly, because if anything happens to you here, I'll be stuck with your transportation'. Nicely put, yes? Later Topol came to the hospital, he brought books for the whole crowd of us former hostages, and he brought us presents. We'd gather in our room in the evenings, we'd eat, and remember him with kind words.

Yuri Zhigalkin: I have a question.  Here you are telling us your pain.  Is there any spite in you, a desire for retribution?

Svetlana Gubareva: I have a desire to obtain justice. Everyone should answer for what he has done.

Yuri Zhigalkin: Good.  If you are aren’t able to obtain justice in Russia, which is how it's looking right now, you'll turn next to the European Court?

Svetlana Gubareva: My hope is strictly with the European Court. A number of other hostages and I filed suits against the Russian government, and they rejected them, of course, so we are united. I understand very well that one soldier in the field isn't enough, we have to join together to resist the power of the government machine. An organization for the 'Nord-Ost' hostages was created. I think that, together, we'll be able to do something. You understand, that, in the great scheme of things, that which we are now doing is more needed by others, than by me personally. I’ve nothing left to lose, I lost everything that was valuable in life.  You all have families, children, friends, relatives, and the children of friends who go to Moscow, and go to Russia. 'Nord-Ost' won't be the last terror attack. At any moment one of our loved ones can find themselves in a situation like I was in. I think that if you all would support us, then it would be wonderful.

Yuri Zhigalkin: Your situation became the central theme in a novel by Eduard Topol.

Svetlana Gubareva: I should say that my story is no better or worse than any other, it's just that Topol selected me. You know, Lena Baranovskaya lost her husband and son, and that was also a rather romantic story. She knew her husband 30 years, and he waited 30 years for her to agree to marry him, but they only managed to live together one year before 'Nord-Ost' happened.

Yuri Zhigalkin: In Topol's work there is a rather interesting subject — your correspondence with Barayev's girlfriend. It this really true?

Svetlana Gubareva: She was the woman who loved him.  A young girl.  I found a message from her on the internet site created by the parents of Grigori Burban, who was another hostage who died at 'Nord-Ost'. It seemed to me that this girl was pierced by the same pain that I was experiencing. I simply wrote to her, and she answered me, and that was our correspondence.

Yuri Zhigalkin: And what you did get from this correspondence? Does this person seem kindred to you?

Svetlana Gubareva: This person suffers as I do. It seems to me that any grief deserves sympathy.

Yuri Zhigalkin: I already know how you feel about the authorities and those who made decision to assault the theater. But how do you, if you would allow me this question, how do you feel about those who took you hostage?

Svetlana Gubareva: I understand that their acts were impermissible. There is no way to justify threatening the lives of innocent civilians, those men, women, and children who would go to the theater that night.  There is simply no justification for any reason. But I understand why those women went there. Really, one had to really push these women hard so that they reached such a state that they were ready to forget their fear of death and to go there with a weapon in order to kill, or let us say, maybe to kill. Sitting there in the hall, I talked with many of them. The last woman whom I talked to was about my age.  She told a terrible story, about how her home was destroyed it in the first Chechen war.  Her husband built another, but the Russians destroyed it again.  Then one day they came to the school, and took away her 12-year-old son.  He disappeared forever, she knows nothing about his fate. They killed her husband, they killed her brother.  She left her 5-year-old daughter with her sister and went to 'Nord-Ost'. I understand, she was driven to it by desperation. I was only in the theater hall for 57 hours, but I was seized by the same desperation. The only thought that stopped me was that violence was a dead-end.
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  Comments (1)
1. Света Губарева
Written by Юлия, on 22-12-2011 17:48
Спасибо Вам за сайт и за Вашу удивительную человечность! Вы редкий человек! Я абсолютно согласна с Вами по поводу того кто реальный виновник ТАКИХ жертв «Норд-Оста»! Столько погибших, это не мало, как говорят некоторые, это ОЧЕНЬ много, учитывая то что некоторых точно можно было спасти!!!! Очень-очень горько, что так получилось!
Но,я не была заложницей, не испытывала Вашего горя! А Вы, пережив ад и потеряв близких, сумели не озлобиться,не требовать слепой мести, а сохранили способность здраво рассуждать…..
Простите, если что, не так написала, не могла не выразить Вам свои чувства!
Храни Бог Вас! А погибшие в «Норд-Осте» не будут забыты!
С уважением, Юлия.

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