ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, December 18, 1996 TAG: 9612180040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NOVIYE ATAGI, RUSSIA
SOURCE: Associated Press
THE COWARDLY ``deliberate assassination'' was condemned by all sides in Chechnya.
Masked killers forced their way into a Red Cross hospital in Chechnya before dawn Tuesday and went room to room, using guns with silencers to slaughter four nurses and two other workers as they slept.
A seventh worker was wounded in the bloodiest attack against the Red Cross in its 133-year history. All sides in Chechnya condemned the slaying, which cast a shadow over prospects for stability in the separatist region.
The International Committee of the Red Cross immediately suspended all operations in the southern republic, where a truce has been in place since August, and evacuated the rest of its staff.
As many as 15 attackers participated in the raid on the Red Cross' 3-month-old hospital in Noviye Atagi. Those killed were five women and one man from the Netherlands, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and Norway.
The killers arrived at 4 a.m. at the small cluster of buildings on a dirt road in the village 15 miles south of Grozny, the Chechen capital.
They entered the dark rooms one by one, killing their victims while they slept. They left without entering the main hospital building, which had 40 patients.
``The people who did it knew exactly what they were doing. Nothing was stolen,'' said Kim Gordon-Bates of Red Cross in Geneva.
The motive was a mystery. Speculation was that it was an attempt to wreck the fragile peace in Chechnya, disrupt upcoming elections or to discredit the separatists who are now in charge.
Red Cross workers in Chechnya had already endured six kidnappings this year, and the agency had reduced its staff this month because of security concerns.
Jean de Courten, operations director for the Red Cross, called the attack a cowardly ``deliberate assassination'' in an emotional news conference at the group's headquarters in Geneva.
``In the past years, we have known tragic events at the Red Cross, but this one hits at the heart of the Red Cross and it hits at the motivation of every one of us who is working for the humanitarian good,'' he said in a trembling voice.
The Red Cross called it the single deadliest attack against its delegates - the agency's highest field rank - although 15 Red Cross people were killed in separate attacks in Somalia in 1992. It was the worst attack on foreigners since the war in Chechnya began two years ago.
Killed were Johan Elkerbout, 47, a Dutch construction technician; medical administrator Nancy Malloy, 51, of Vancouver, British Columbia; and four nurses - Ingebjorg Foss, 42, and Gunnhild Myklebust, 50, of Norway; Sheryl Thayer, 40, of New Zealand; and Fernanda Calado, 49, of Spain.
Christophe Hensche, a Swiss national in charge of the hospital, was shot in the shoulder and survived by feigning death.
The remaining 23 workers were evacuated along with the six bodies, which were to be flown to Moscow today. The survivors were headed for their home countries.
``Their work was a wonderful thing,'' said Ilya Kapayev, a resident of Noviye Atagi. ``We can hope that they will return and that the culprits will be brought to justice.''
The British medical group Merlin also decided to pull its staff out of Chechnya after the shootings, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Top Russian and Chechen officials said they hoped the tragedy would not scuttle the peace process or local elections set for Jan. 27.
LENGTH: Medium: 71 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB