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Russia rules out siege inquiry
MOSCOW, Russia -- Calls for an official inquiry into last month's terrorist siege at a theatre in Moscow have been rejected by the lower house of the Russian parliament. Of the approximately 800 hostages held by Chechen gunmen, 128 died, most of them from effects of gas pumped into the building during the rescue operation. Moscow health officials said Wednesday that 31 former hostages remained in hospital, four of them in grave condition, ITAR-Tass reported. Russian officials have been criticised particularly for failing to inform doctors what kind of gas was used before special forces stormed in to kill the 41 hostage-takers and free the captives. Questions have also been raised about how the Chechen rebels were able to move undetected in the Russian capital and mount a well-planned assault. There were two proposals to create a commission to investigate the handling of the incident. The first received 38 votes in favour in the 450-member Duma and the second got 124 votes. It was four days after Russian forces used an anaesthetic gas to end the standoff that Russia's top health official identified the main component of the gas blamed for the deaths of 117 hostages. The gas was based on derivatives of fentanyl, Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said. (Full story) It caused intense drowsiness, according to the released hostages, and many were seen being carried from the building. The gas prevented the hostage-takers from triggering the arsenal of weapons they had stored in the theatre. But the lack of information hampered medical treatment of the 650 former hostages taken to the city's hospitals, health authorities said.
Many Russians have supported the action taken to bring the siege to an end. The hostage-takers had threatened to blow up themselves and their captives unless Russian forces withdrew from the separatist republic of Chechnya.
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