October 26, 2002	Saturday	Sha’aban 19,1423

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MOSCOW, Oct 25: A former president of the Russian republic of Ingushetia said on Friday the hostage takers at a Moscow theatre wanted to negotiate with a representative of President Vladimir Putin.

The group of separatists will “decide all questions only with a representative of the president”, said Ruslan Aushev, who is widely seen as being close to Chechen fighters.

The captors released a total of 19 hostages in several stages on Friday, after earlier threatening to begin shooting people if their demands were not met.

“Sometime ago four citizens of Azerbaijan were released, three women and a man,” Alexander Machevsky, deputy to Kremlin’s Chechnya spokesman Sergei Yastrzhembsky, told reporters.

A group of about 40 guerillas have held some 700 people hostage in a Moscow theatre since they stormed the building on Wednesday.

Russia pledged earlier on Friday not to kill the guerillas if they freed all their captives.

“We are holding and will keep holding talks...If all hostages are released, the terrorists will be guaranteed their lives,” Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia’s security service (FSB), said after meeting President Vladimir Putin.

Putin said he was open to talks with Chechen guerillas, but added dialogue was only possible on the tough terms he had set out before and accused the hostage-takers of not wanting to end bloodshed in Chechnya.

“We are open for any kind of contacts,” a sombre Putin said in his second television address since the hostage saga began.

On the other hand, a negotiator expressed fears that the hostage takers would start killing hostages any time if their demands were not met and leading officials did not start talking to the group.

Sergei Govorukhin, a film-maker who had been involved in the talks with the Chechens alongside various other officials, said the talks were getting harder and it seemed the difficulties could not be resolved.

“The situation is becoming difficult, almost a stalemate, almost unsolvable. If representatives of the authorities do not go in, I cannot exclude that the terrorists will start shooting the hostages,” he told Russian NTV television.

But other officials who attended talks said the atmosphere at the negotiating table had not deteriorated.

CHRETIEN PHONES PUTIN: Putin told Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien on Friday he would try to ensure no lives were lost in the Moscow hostage saga but would also seek not to reward the captors.

A senior Canadian official said Chretien, who is in Mexico for a meeting of Pacific Rim leaders, phoned Putin on Friday to offer the Russian leader moral support over the hostage taking.

The official quoted Putin as telling Chretien, “I will do everything to ensure no loss of life.”—Reuters