Posted on 09/03/2004 3:10:43 PM PDT by dennisw
EU wants explanation from Moscow on hostage storming
03 September 2004 = = The EU refused Friday to rush to judgment on how Russian authorities acted in the bloody end to the hostage crisis in north Ossetia, but said it wants Moscow's explanation of the tragedy.
"It is premature now, without knowing the exact situation, to make a judgment on the way the Russian authorities acted," said Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country currently holds the European Unionpresidency.
"We first have to evaluate the situation with the knowledge of all the details," he told reporters at the end of the first day of a two-day meeting of EU foreign ministers in the southern Netherlands.
But in a later statement Friday evening Bot said the EU will be seeking an explanation from Moscow.
"All countries in the world need to work together to prevent tragedies like this. But we also would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened."
The comments came after around 100 were killed and over 550 injured as crack troops stormed a school in southern Russia, freeing children and adults held hostage for almost three days by militants demanding independence for Chechnya.
Earlier in the day Bot called the denouement of the hostage crisis in the town of Beslan a "deep human tragedy" and said it appeared that authorities "considered very carefully this situation before deciding to take this action."
Speaking following afternoon talks, he added that "as figures are coming in it turns out that the drama is even greater than I thought."
He notably said that "perhaps at a later date" European leaders could discuss "with our Russian friends" the possibility of creating a joint anti-terrorism force.
"We should also eventually look into what has happened and discuss ... measures that can be taken to prevent such situations from occurring," he added.
In other news, John Kerry and John Edwards issued a statement condemning the Russians' actions, and demanded an explanation as to WHY they didn't cave in to the terrorists' demands.
Russia and the USA need to sign an act to make EU shut up.
"OK, I'm done with the trite sayings."
I like your trite sayings. Keep them coming!
Not any assistance from the Euros either.
Of course the elitists of the world know what is best, but would never break a sweat to help.
wow
that's all I can say. I never ever thought I would see the day when I would support the Russians over the Europeans.
It just boggles my mind how different the world is today from the one I grew up in and spent my younger adult years in.
Ol' Vlad needs to turn off the natural gas and oil pipelines for a couple of days to send them a message.
FU EU
Hit up the muslim killers for an answer.
"The Czech Republic (or Czechia, as it is sometimes referred to) is located in Central Europe, is ethnically Slavic and overwhelmingly Catholic. Czechs are famous for brewing great beer and delicious pastries."
And their crystal. Best chandeliers in the world.
STFU!
Is it just me? Or does nothing make sense anymore. Black is white, bad is good, the victim is the one to be questioned.......wake me up.
How are they helping in Sudan?
Putin is about to find out just how irrelevant they are.
Has someone quoted Tahraysa yet?
Russia and the United States would make a very powerful tag team in the war on terrorists.
The EU president is a EU bot -- Bernard Bot, that is.
It's a Muslim part of Russia. They want to secede.
Look.
They were given their independence back in '91 along with all the other former Soviet Republics with the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Ukraine, Georgia, Muldova, Dagestan, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Byelorussia, and even the MUSLIM Republics of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, ALL SEPARATED FROM THE CIS WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT!!!!
So What was different about Chechnya???
Wahabbism.
Islam's borders are bloody.
And Wahabbi Islam's borders are the MOST BLOODY.
Aslan Mashkadov was elected prime minister, and Basayev, the mastermind of the slaughter of the innocents in Ossetia, was his DEPUTY Prime Minister.
It wasn't enough to have their Independence.
They had to establish Sharia law and get into scraps with their peaceful neighbors in Dagestan, Ingushetia, Georgia, Ossetia, and Russia.
Then they had to implement the persecution of Christians and Jews, including the barbaric beheadings of Russian Orthodox priests and the murders and disappearances of Baptist preachers and missionaries.
The Russians tried to make them stop.
They replied with terrorist acts deep within Russia.
Putin promised to do something about it.
He implemented a WWII-style, scorched earthy military campaign.
The Russians formed a new INDEPENDENT Chechen government, with a pluralistic Constitution and a Parliamentary Democracy, very much like what the United States is doing in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And just as in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Jihadis come from all over the world to Chechnya to blow up their political leaders and bloody their boarders.
Many of the people in Chechnya are not even Muslim.
Many of them are not even Chechen!!!
The American State department is still fighting the cold war siding with the Chechen Terrorists, rather than helping the Russians establish a Pluralistic Democracy in Chechnya.
I wish that George Bush had taken a page from Clinton's book and FIRED the ENTIRE State Department upon coming to office.
Most of the policies being executed by the State Department were devised in the 1970s and 1980s and 1990s.
That is about it, too.
Exactly. There was no good solution for saving the hostages.
I've got to say that the EU ranks right down there with the terrorists if they are now going to rape Russia from the back after it already being raped from the front.
Very nicely put.
This makes me quite angry. What would the EU have done differently? Oh yes I forgot, surrender.
This is the second time that Russia has had to deal with this type of thing, the first being the Moscow Theater. This just goes to show that this these types of situations, even when you half expect them, there isn't an easy solution.
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