Click to play videoMoscow, 23 October 2002 The Dubrovka Theatre was showing a romantic Russian musical to an audience of over 800. What happened next is caught on the theatre's closed circuit TV.
"An armed man got on the stage, shouted out 'stop, stop the music' and started his machine gun into the air," says actor Marat Abdarkhaimov.
"My legs started trembling; it felt like the whole row was shaking," says Tamara Starkova, a hostage.
After gaining control, the terrorists led by Movsar Barayev ordered hostages with mobile phones to publicise the attack. "They immediately told us to call our relatives and warn them about the situation, to tell them that the siege was for real," recalls Marat Abdarkhimov.
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The heavily armed Chechen rebels had a new, powerful, weapon: a video camera. "It has become normal practice for terrorists to film the action. It's to give a detailed record of how it was done to those who financed the attack," says Aslambek Aslakhanov, Russian government negotiator.
While the world media got hooked to the siege, the terrorists inside were creating their own horrific brand of reality TV to force the Kremlin to negotiate.
"The main purpose of a terrorist act is to instill fear – to frighten ordinary people, government officials and politicians to force them to meet their demands," says negotiator Aslan Aslanhanhov.
And in that situation the journalists involuntarily become their accomplices. Barayev had turned siege of the theatre into a global spectacle, feeding the media hunger for breaking news. The terrorists even allowed a journalist inside, provided he came with a camera.
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After two days, the terrorists lost grip of the situation and opened fire. The Russian military responded but only after ordering a total news blackout. The Russian Government believes the media gag was correct.
"We can talk about the right of the press to work, but in emergencies some limits are in force. We acted very strictly, because we knew that the terrorists were regularly watching TV," says Kremlin spokesperson Alexander Machevsky.
After 57 hours, the siege was over. All 41 terrorists were killed, but 120 hostages died with them when the Russians released an anesthetic gas inside the theatre. And news cameras recorded it all.
To get more insights into terrorism tune in to Nat Geo Investigates Terrorism from Sept 11 to 22 on weeknights @ 10 pm. You can also log on to www.nationalgeographic.co.in/explore/terrorism for the full schedule of Nat Geo Investigates Terrorism.
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