15 January 2004, 15:01
Irina Khakamada makes appeal to victims of State terrorism
On January 14, central Russian newspapers published as a part of a publicity campaign an open letter by the presidential contender Irina Khakamada "to the citizens of the country who have suffered from State terrorism". This letter is a per se election manifesto of one of Vladimir Putin's main rivals in the presidential election.
"Earlier I have not published many things of those which I saw at the Theatre Center.
I have not spoken about it before because I have been mistaken believing that President Putin will help find truth in the end and will repent of his order to use homicidal gas," Ms. Khakamada confesses in her statement. Now she has decided to respond to the appeal by relatives of those who died as a result of the explosions of apartment houses in Moscow in 1999 and during the storm of "Nord-Ost". On January 12, they called upon all the presidential contenders to give their appraisals of these terrorist acts and their investigation and to help reveal truth and punish the guilty.
"After my negotiations with the terrorists at the Theatre Center on October 23, 2002 and subsequent developments, I came to the conclusion that the terrorists had no plans of blowing up the center and the power was not interested in the rescue of all the hostages, Ms. Khakamada said. While trying to estimate the happening, I arrive at the inevitable conclusion that this terrorist act helped to spur up anti-Chechen hysteria, to continue war in Chechnya, and to hold the President's high rating. I am convinced that the actions of President Putin to conceal the truth in the given situation is a per se treason. She promised when she became president, "the citizens of Russia would know the truth about the explosions of the houses and about the tragedy in the Theatre Center, as well as about many other crimes of the power."
Source: Grani.ru Internet Daily
