Let me quote a few cases from Amnesty International's latest reports on the situation in Chechnya for you:
"Amnesty International’s delegates spoke with the mothers of Aminat Dugaeva and Kurbika Zinabdieva, who related to them the following account of the "disappearance" of their daughters. On 16 May 2003 at approximately 3am, Aminat Dugaeva, 15, and her relative, Kurbika Zinabdieva, 34, were taken from the latter's home in Ulus-Kert in the mountainous region of Shatoi by armed, masked men in dark blue uniforms who had entered the village in military vehicles.
[..]
When the mothers of Aminat Dugaeva and Kurbika Zinabdieva turned to regional and local procuracies in an attempt to establish the whereabouts of their daughters, they were not given any information, and the procurator of Shatoi district even denied that the two had been detained"
"In March 2000, 18-year-old Kheda Kungaeva was taken from her home by Russian forces and subsequently raped and killed. Colonel Yuri Budanov, who initially claimed that he had suspected her to be a sniper, became one of the very few soldiers to be prosecuted and imprisoned for serious crimes against the Chechen population when in July 2003 he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for the killing of Kheda Kungaeva. No one, however, was ever charged with raping her, although forensic evidence indicates that she had been raped prior to her death"
"On 25 March 2004, at approximately 10:30pm a Russian military helicopter opened fire on a passenger car parked at a riverbank near the Ingush village of Sleptsovskaia in what appeared to be a deliberate attack against unarmed civilians. According to relatives of some of the passengers, the helicopter targeted the group with rockets when they tried to run away, reportedly firing at them four to six times.
One of the passengers, 20-year-old Musa Khamkhoev, was killed on the spot. Two other passengers, both teenagers, suffered serious wounds and were taken to the local hospital. One of them, 16-year-old Ibragim Khashagulgov, died from his injuries a week later. The condition of the third young man remains serious. The condition of the fourth passenger is not known."
"Another person told Amnesty International delegates that in early 2000 he had been detained in the so-called filtration camp Chernokozovo for 57 days, where he was tortured. He has nine children and when he was released from Chernokozovo he was told by the guards to keep quiet about what he had experienced, otherwise his children would suffer."
"On 21 May, six people were reportedly killed in an early morning raid on a number of houses in the Kalinovskaya settlement near one of the main military bases in Chechnya. According to eyewitnesses, a group of 15 armed men in camouflage uniforms entered a house where they shot and killed Zura Bitieva; her husband, Ramzan Iduyev; their son, Idris Iduyev; and Zura Bitieva’s brother, Abubakar Bitiev. Only a one-year- old child survived the attack. Zura Bitieva had been an outspoken critic of the behaviour of federal troops and had submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights."
Reference:
http://web.amnesty.org/report2004/rus-summary-eng
Even before that, one of my grandfathers brothers had hidden the night before he left for the United States in a wheatfield. He was hidding from the Czar's Cossacks.
So, I understand the brutality of the Russians from a family historical perspective. Yes, the Russians have done many cruel things in Chechnya.
However, taking over a school full of children is so far beyond what the Russians have done as to pale in comparison. While death is death, terrorism involving hundereds of innocent children is something totally else.
I understand that Civil Wars are not very civil, but this goes beyond barbarism, and I hope the Russian military kills ruthlessly all those responsible for this act against innocent children.