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Kursk relatives demand reopening of investigation

Forty families are calling on the Russian authorities to reopen the inquiry into the loss of the submarine Kursk, sunk with the loss of 118 lives in the Barents Sea three years ago. They accuse the government of covering up key facts to avoid the embarrassing prosecution of senior officers.

Their lawyer Boris Kuznetsov said, in an interview to mark the third anniversary of the disaster, that there was a "clear contradiction between the detailed research of the experts who worked on the investigation and the conclusion of the report."

This week the families will petition the military prosecutor's office to have the investigation reopened. Despite their low pensions, Kuznetsov said, they were not primarily seeking financial compensation but "to be told the truth."

The submarine, powered by two nuclear reactors, sank to the sea bed at a depth of 100 to 150m more than 140km north of the Russian port of Murmansk, after an explosion. It was taking part in Russia's biggest naval exercises in the Arctic for years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to shun offers of international help and seemed unmoved until the navy finally admitted the sailors had died.

The military authority's report was published last July and the investigation was closed soon afterward, the Kremlin considering the matter over. Several senior officers were sacked or demoted.

The families say key facts were covered so that the 14 senior officers arrested in connection with the case need not be charged with criminal offences.

The families also say the crew was given poor training before going to sea, knowing little about the volatile liquid fuel torpedo which caused the explosion.

"The most shocking conclusion for me in the report is that the actions of the navy command `are not directly linked' to the deaths of the submarine's crew," Kuznetsov said.

"To justify this conclusion, the investigation had to prove that at the moment when the rescue alert was declared, the crew was already dead. This meant however badly or well the navy performed the rescue operation, they would not have been able to save anyone," Kuznetsov said.

The most compelling evidence that the crew were still alive after eight hours was the knocking noises registered by the navy hydro- acoustic service during "the first, second and in the morning of the third day after the catastrophe", he said.

The noises were hailed as SOS calls from survivors, but later dismissed as being from other ships.
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