Soviet Hostage Toll Rises to 41; Release of 16 Armenians Sought

Another eight Soviet Interior Ministry soldiers have been taken hostage by Armenian residents of a disputed region of Azerbaijan, bringing the total number of captives to 41, Tass said Thursday.

The captors demand the release of 16 Armenians detained in the last 3 1/2 months of civil unrest in the Caucasus Mountain region, the state news agency said.

Speaking through an intermediary, the heavily armed captors threatened to transfer the servicemen by helicopter to Armenia unless all the Armenians are set free, Tass said.

On Tuesday, 12 Soviet Interior Ministry servicemen were taken hostage after an armored personnel carrier was blocked and seized at midday in the village of Aterk, located in the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. Twenty-one more were captured there later in the day, Tass said.

The abductions came after a patrolling military unit of Soviet Interior Ministry troops stopped an Aterk resident who was carrying a machine gun and ammunition.

The captors initially demanded only the release of the Aterk resident in exchange for the servicemen. But Tass reported later Wednesday that they expanded their demand to include 15 other Armenian detainees.

Nagorno-Karabakh is an Armenian enclave inside the borders of the neighboring republic of Azerbaijan. More than 800 people have been killed and more than 5,000 wounded in three years of ethnic clashes in and around Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an interview with Tass, Maj. Gen. Valery Starikov, deputy commander of the Soviet Interior Ministry’s troops, said the ministry would continue to seek the release of the hostages without giving in to the captors’ demands.

“After an agreement was reached between the leadership of the Soviet Interior Ministry and the troop commander, we have decided to reject the idea of exchanging the hostages and we demand a quick release of all the servicemen,” he said.

“Otherwise, the responsibility will fall on the leadership of the Armenian republic,” he said.

In an attempt to crack down on the increasing ethnic violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions last year, Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev ordered local militants to surrender their weapons.

His decree was largely ignored, but Soviet forces started enforcing it again in March.

Tass said the servicemen’s captors had “a considerable amount of weapons.”