|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
 |
 |
    |
|
|
|||
 |
|
||
|
|||
|
|
|
|
||||||||
|
Russia I: Officials Deny Fentanyl Usage Violates Treaty While the civilian death toll from Saturday’s Moscow theater raid rose again, Russian officials yesterday refuted reports that the fentanyl-based aerosol used to incapacitate Chechen separatists might violate the Chemical Weapons Convention (see GSN, Oct. 30). “I officially declare that chemical substances of the kind banned under international conventions on chemical weapons were not used in the course of the special operations,” Russian Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said (see GSN, Oct. 30). Two more hospitalized former hostages have died, but Russian officials denied that the secrecy that initially surrounded the use of the aerosol caused any unnecessary deaths (Michael Wines, New York Times, Oct. 31). Russia’s Foreign Ministry supported Shevchenko’s stance that the gas does not violate international agreements, spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said (Judith Ingram, Associated Press/Moscow Times, Oct. 31). Shevchenko’s comments on the international chemical weapons treaties followed a request for information on the gas from Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Director General Rogelio Pfirter (BBC Online, Oct. 30). Criticism of Russia’s performance in the aftermath of the theater raid mounted from Russian and international sources, including the liberal Yabloko Russian opposition party. “The (lack of) organization of medical assistance to the victims … verges on the criminal,” a Yabloko statement read. “Increasing evidence suggests that many hostages died because they were not given basic medical care immediately after their rescue,” a Human Rights Watch statement said (Bernard Besserglik, Agence France-Presse, Oct. 31). Shevchenko also denied that any lack of medical care contributed to hostages’ deaths. He told reporters that 1,000 antidotes for the gas were ready for use by emergency personnel at the theater. “Specialists, in particular myself, had been warned, even though the operation had to be carried out on short notice,” Shevchenko said. He said the gas was not deadly, but civilians succumbed to it because they were exhausted, hungry and stressed. A Russian chemical weapons expert disagreed, saying that fentanyl is deadly if it is not closely monitored. “With fentanyl, as specialists say, the threshold of an admissible and inadmissible dose for a human organism is very close,” said Lev Fedorov, president of the Russian Union for Chemical Safety. “Any mistake may be fatal” (Glasser, Baker, Washington Post, Oct. 31). Meanwhile, a toxicology professor at Munich University Clinic in Germany said that the gas used in the raid also contained halothane — an anesthetic — and possibly other substances. Thomas Zilker analyzed blood and urine samples from two Germans who had been held hostage in the theater (Ingram, Moscow Times).
| ||||||||||
Back to top
