ESTIMATE OF TOTAL DUBROVKA DEATH TOTAL RISES

How many hostages did the Russian special services finally kill with the powerful gas that they used while storming the theater last October? Some independent estimates made toward the end of 2002 found that, if one includes those who died of related effects days or weeks after they were “rescued,” the total number of deaths exceeds 200 (see Chechnya Weekly, December 17, 2002). A more recent investigation by the newspaper Versiya, which it published on October 21, found that “about 300” of the hostages are now dead. That is more than twice the figure that has come to be widely accepted.