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Officials report impasse in talks with cultist
WACO, Texas — Federal officials negotiating for the surrender of a heavily armed religious cult sounded their first pessimistic notes yesterday, reporting that talks with the cult’s leader had reached an impasse and that authorities no longer believe they are making progress.
“We’re going through a very frustrating, disappointing period in the negotiating process,” said the FBI special agent in charge, Bob Ricks.
Ricks said officials are particularly frustrated by their inability to win the release of additional children from the fortified compound where David Koresh, who describes himself as a Messiah, and over 100 followers are surrounded by 400 law enforcement officers.
The standoff began a week ago Sunday when 100 agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms staged an abortive military-style raid, leaving four agents and at least three cult members dead. The ATF was seeking to arrest Koresh on illegal weapons charges.
Since then, Koresh has allowed 21 children and two elderly women to leave the compound, located on a 77-acre farm on ranch land about 10miles from this North Central Texas city. But 17 children remain inside, according to Koresh, and no children have been released since Friday morning.
“In getting the children out of the compound it seems we have hit somewhat of a stalemate,” Ricks said.
Speaking at a morning news conference, Ricks did not say whether federal authorities consider any of the children hostages. But he described an unsuccessful effort to win the release of a girl who authorities believe is being held against her will.
“Initially she spoke cheerfully of coming out. It appeared that when she spoke of not coming out she was parroting words that had been given to her,” Ricks said.
In a further indication that the relationship between Koresh and federal negotiators has deteriorated, Ricks said the 33-year-old cult leader and rock ‘n’ roll guitar player had broadcast recordings of his music from the compound on Saturday evening.
After the music was heard by reporters, who are being held over a mile from the cult’s farm, some of them speculated that federal authorities had aired the rock ‘n’ roll in an act of psychological warfare directed at Koresh.
But Ricks, who described the loud broadcast as “bizarre,” said yesterday that officials believe it was an “attempt to engage in such tactics against us.”
Federal negotiators, who held a long conversation with Koresh that ended at 3:15 a.m. yesterday and that resumed seven hours later, say that Koresh has become increasingly frustrated by his inability to speak directly to reporters.
Koresh, they say, fears that his version of the events leading to the 45- minute firefight on Feb. 28 will not be accurately portrayed once he surrenders. The cult leader is said to believe that he and his Branch Davidian followers acted in self-defense, and that federal agents are responsible for the deaths that resulted from the assault on their compound.
In the early hours of the standoff, Koresh gave several interviews to reporters, some of which were broadcast by television and radio stations, in which he claimed to be Christ and to have been wounded in the battle with ATF agents.
Since then, authorities have altered the cult’s telephone service so that negotiators may call in, but cult members may not call out.
“He feels frustrated by the fact tha he cannot talk directly to the media as he was able to do previously,” Ricks said. “He has expressed his desire to have another outlet for his information.”
Federal negotiators may be refusing to allow Koresh to communicate directly with reporters or the public because they tried that tack once before — with disappointing results.
Last Tuesday, officials asked local radio stations to broadcast a one-hour tape produced by Koresh after the cult leader promised he would surrender in return. The tape was aired, but Koresh then said he had received a message
from God instructing him to wait before giving himself up.
Now, instead of allowing Koresh to speak to the public, negotiators are attempting to persuade him that he will have ample opportunity to state his case once he entrusts himself to the custody of federal officials. “He will probably have greater exposure once he enters the judicial process than he’s ever had before in his history,” Ricks said.
Negotiations over the release of more children from the compound appear to have foundered in part over a videotape of the 21 youngsters released thus far.
Federal officials delivered the tape after cult members said they were seeking proof that the children had not been split up and entrusted to foster care. Cult members are charging that the tape is blank.
Authorities also are continuing to negotiate a request made by Steve Schneider, who was described yesterday as a “first lieutenant” to Koresh, to have officials remove the body of a cult member apparently killed in the firefight.
However, when it comes to the big question — the surrender of Koresh and his followers — officials say that the cult leader greets all requests for negotiation with discussions of religious scripture and his childhood, or with ”tirades” in which he blames federal authorities for the Feb. 28 raid.
“He may do anything to deflect a focus on what we need to do to get this matter resolved,” Ricks said.
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