Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis took place from 14 June to 19 June 1995, when a group of 80 to 200 Chechen terrorists led by Shamil Basayev

Shamil Basayev

Shamil Salmanovich Basayev was a Chechen militant Islamist and a leader of the Chechen rebel movement.Starting as a field commander in the Transcaucasus, Basayev led guerrilla campaigns against the Russian troops for years, as well as launching mass-hostage takings of civilians, with his goal...

attacked the southern Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n city of Budyonnovsk

Budyonnovsk

Budyonnovsk , also spelled Budennovsk, is a town in Stavropol Krai, Russia. Previously, it was named Svyatoy Krest and Prikumsk...

(pop. 60,000, often spelled Budennovsk), some 70 miles (112.7 km) north of the border with the Russian republic of Chechnya

Chechnya

The Chechen Republic , commonly referred to as Chechnya , also spelled Chechnia or Chechenia, sometimes referred to as Ichkeria , is a federal subject of Russia . It is located in the southeastern part of Europe in the Northern Caucasus mountains. The capital of the republic is the city of Grozny...

. The incident resulted in a ceasefire between Russia and Chechen rebels, and peace talks (which later failed) between Russia and the Chechens. It caused a major political crisis in Russia.

Initial attack

Basayev's men crossed into Stavropol Krai

Stavropol Krai

Stavropol Krai is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Stavropol. Population: -Geography:Stavropol Krai encompasses the central part of the Fore-Caucasus and most of the northern slopes of Caucasus Major...

concealed in a column of military trucks. At about noon of June 14 they stormed the main police station and the city hall, where they raised Chechen flags over government offices.

After several hours, in the face of Russian reinforcements, the Chechens retreated to the residential district and regrouped in the city hospital. There they took hostage between 1,500 and 1,800 people (some estimates reaching as high as 2,000 or even 2,500), most of them civilians (including about 150 children and a number of women with newborn infants).

Hostage crisis

Basayev issued an ultimatum, threatening to kill the hostages unless his demands were met. These included an end to the First Chechen War

First Chechen War

The First Chechen War, also known as the War in Chechnya, was a conflict between the Russian Federation and the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, fought from December 1994 to August 1996...

, and direct negotiations by Russia with the Chechen regime. Also, Basayev demanded that the Russian authorities bring reporters to the scene and allow them to enter the Chechen position in the hospital. Russian president Boris Yeltsin

Boris Yeltsin

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was the first President of the Russian Federation, serving from 1991 to 1999.Originally a supporter of Mikhail Gorbachev, Yeltsin emerged under the perestroika reforms as one of Gorbachev's most powerful political opponents. On 29 May 1990 he was elected the chairman of...

immediately vowed to do everything possible to free the hostages, denouncing the attack as "unprecedented in cynicism and cruelty."

At about 8 PM on June 15, the Chechens killed a hostage. When the reporters did not arrive at the arranged time, five other hostages were shot to death on Basayev's order. The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

quoted the hospital's chief doctor that "several of the Chechens had just grabbed five hostages at random and shot them to show the world they were serious in their demands that Russian troops leave their land."

But Security Minister Sergei Stepashin

Sergei Stepashin

Sergei Vadimovich Stepashin is a Russian politician, current Chairman of the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation and former Prime Minister of Russia. He was appointed federal security minister by President Boris Yeltsin in 1994...

called the reports of the execution "a bluff."

After three days of siege, the Russian authorities ordered the security forces to retake the hospital compound. The forces employed were MVD police ("militsiya

Militsiya

Militsiya or militia is used as an official name of the civilian police in several former communist states, despite its original military connotation...

") and Internal Troops

Internal Troops

The Internal Troops, full name Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs ; alternatively translated as "Interior " is a paramilitary gendarmerie-like force in the now-defunct Soviet Union and its successor countries, particularly, in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and Azerbaijan...

, along with spetsnaz

Spetsnaz

Spetsnaz, Specnaz tr: Voyska specialnogo naznacheniya; ) is an umbrella term for any special forces in Russian, literally "force of special purpose"...

(special forces) from the Federal Security Service (FSB), including the elite Alpha Group

Alpha Group

The Alpha Group , is an elite component of Russia's Spetsnaz as well as the dedicated counter-terrorism unit of the Federal Security Service...

. The strike force attacked the hospital compound at dawn on the fourth day, meeting fierce resistance. After several hours of fighting in which many hostages were killed by crossfire, a local ceasefire was agreed on and 227 hostages were released; 61 others were freed by the Russian troops.

A second Russian attack on the hospital a few hours later also failed, and so did a third, resulting in even more casualties. The Russian authorities accused the Chechens of using the hostages as human shield

Human shield

Human shield is a military and political term describing the deliberate placement of civilians in or around combat targets to deter an enemy from attacking those targets. It may also refer to the use of civilians to literally shield combatants during attacks, by forcing the civilians to march in...

s. Yeltsin's human rights advisor Sergey Kovalyov

Sergei Kovalev

Sergei Kovalev is a Russian human rights activist and politician and a former Soviet dissident and political prisoner.- Early career and arrest :...

described the scene: "In half an hour the hospital was burning, and it was not until the next morning that we found out what happened there as a result of this shooting. I saw with my own eyes pieces of human flesh stuck to the walls and the ceiling and burned corpses..."

Resolution of the crisis

On June 18, negotiations between Basayev and Russian prime minister Viktor Chernomyrdin

Viktor Chernomyrdin

Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin was the founder and the first chairman of the Gazprom energy company, the longest serving Prime Minister of Russia and Acting President of Russia for a day in 1996. He was a key figure in Russian politics in the 1990s, and a great contributor to the Russian...

led to a compromise which became a turning point for the First Chechen War. In exchange for release of the hostages, Russia agreed to halt military actions in Chechnya and begin negotiations.
The released hostages were especially angered by Yeltsin's earlier order to use force. Yeltsin meanwhile had gone to the summit of the Group of Seven

The Group of Eight is a forum, created by France in 1975, for the governments of seven major economies: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In 1997, the group added Russia, thus becoming the G8...

in Halifax, Canada. After meeting with Yeltsin, the Group of Seven condemned violence on both sides of the Chechen conflict.

On June 19, most of the hostages were released. Basayev's group, with 120 volunteer hostages (including 16 journalists and nine State Duma

State Duma

The State Duma , common abbreviation: Госду́ма ) in the Russian Federation is the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia , the upper house being the Federation Council of Russia. The Duma headquarters is located in central Moscow, a few steps from Manege Square. Its members are referred to...

deputies), traveled uneventfully to the village of Zandak, inside Chechnya, near the border with Dagestan

Dagestan

The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...

. The remaining hostages were then released, Basayev, accompanied by some of the journalists, went to the village of Dargo, where he was welcomed as a hero.

The raid is widely seen as having been the turning point in the war. It boosted morale among Chechen separatists, shocked the Russian public, and discredited the Russian government. The initiated negotiations gave the hostage-takers the critically needed time to rest and rearm. Until the end of the conflict, the Russian forces never regained the initiative.

Casualties and damage

According to official figures, 129 civilians were killed and 415 were injured in the entire event (of whom 18 later died of their wounds). This includes at least 105 hostage fatalities. However, according to an independent estimate 166 hostages were killed and 541 injured in the special forces attack on the hospital. At least 11 Russian police officers and 14 soldiers were killed. A report submitted by Russia to the Council of Europe

Council of Europe

The Council of Europe is an international organisation promoting co-operation between all countries of Europe in the areas of legal standards, human rights, democratic development, the rule of law and cultural co-operation...

stated that 130 civilians, 18 policemen, and 18 soldiers were killed, and more than 400 people were wounded.

Over 160 buildings in the town were destroyed or damaged, including 54 municipal buildings and 110 private houses. Many of the former hostages suffered psychological traumas

Psychological trauma

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...

and were treated at a new facility in Budyonnovsk.

Political aftermath

The government's handling of the Budyonnovsk was perceived as inept by many Russians. The State Duma passed a motion of no confidence

Motion of no confidence

A motion of no confidence is a parliamentary motion whose passing would demonstrate to the head of state that the elected parliament no longer has confidence in the appointed government.-Overview:Typically, when a parliament passes a vote of no...

by 241 to 72. However, this was seen as purely symbolic, and the government did not resign. Still, the debacle cost both Stepashin and interior minister Viktor Yerin their jobs; they resigned on June 30.

Basayev's force suffered 11 men killed and one missing; most of their bodies were returned to Chechnya in a special freezer truck. In the years following the hostage taking, more than 30 of the surviving attackers have been killed, including Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev

Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev

General Aslambek Abdulkhadzhiev was a field commander during the First and Second Chechen Wars. He was a deputy of Shamil Basayev, and commissioner of Shalinsky and Vedensky Districts after being appointed by Dzhokhar Dudayev in 1994....

in 2002 and Shamil Basayev in 2006, and more than 20 were sentenced by the Stavropol territorial court to various terms of imprisonment.

External links

Was It Just a Warning Shot? Pavel Felgenhauer, The Moscow Times, October 31, 2002
Chechen rebels' hostage history BBC News, 1 September 2004
The Rise Of Russia's 'Terrorist No. 1' Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, June 28, 2006
12th anniversary of Basayev's raid on Budyonnovsk Prague Watchdog, June 15, 2007