Aftereffects Of A Siege

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It has been two months since the siege at Moscow's Dubrovka Theater Center, where 127 hostages held by Chechen terrorists died from a gas used by Russian commandos to disable the terrorists. But the effects are proving to be more serious and lasting than many expected. A number of survivors have checked themselves back into hospitals, complaining of respiratory, kidney, liver and partial-paralysis problems. "Eventually, they will all need very elaborate treatment," says a physician. The government paid each of the victims $3,000 in compensation, but that won't cover the expensive treatments these people will need, this doctor says. "They were never told, and still don't realize, how badly their health is ruined." One group of victims is suing the city of Moscow for $7.5 million in health damages or compensation for the loss of the sole provider in the family.

Under Russian law, terror victims are permitted to sue only the local government, but it's the federal authorities who are held responsible for disregarding the hostages' lives in the postraid mess. One rescue worker involved in the operation, who asked not to be identified, said Federal Security Service officers delivered several crates of an unknown antidote to the theater and asked police to inject the unconscious hostages. But police administered the injections incorrectly, he said, or not at all. "I hate the terrorists who took my daughter hostage," says Tatyana Frolova, a notary public whose teenage daughter Dasha died in the siege and who is considering a suit. "But those who ordered what they called the 'rescue operation' I hate even more." --By Yuri Zarakhovich/Moscow