Posted on 09/03/2004 5:35:31 PM PDT by saquin
[Pupils were lured by chocolate then starved and threatened by terrorists]
WHEN their chance of freedom came with a massive explosion that shook School No 1, many of the children found that they could not escape.
Forced to strip to their underwear and sit shoulder-to-shoulder for three days with their knees tucked under their chins, their legs were numb and would not respond to the instinct to flee.
Hungry and dehydrated after being denied food and water by their captors, they stumbled aimlessly and weakly, their way further hampered by the debris and dust from the blast falling all around them.
The stronger ones reached the windows and began to break the glass with their fists, cutting and scratching their hands, arms and faces in their frantic efforts to get out.
And as they ran, crying and fearful, gunmen in the upper floors of the school began shooting at them.
Fatima, 15, dazed and clearly in shock, seemed to know little of her escape. “I don’t know what caused the blast, I just remember a huge bang,” she said.
“I tried to get up but I couldn’t walk or see anything. Somebody grabbed me and then I cannot remember anything until I got to hospital.”
Vitaly Makiyev, 11, was shaking as he told how policemen carried him from the building. When the gunmen arrived on Wednesday morning, Vitaly had run back into the school building, thinking he would be safe there.
“They held us for three days and they didn’t give us any food or water,” he cried.
Rosa Dudiyea told the Kommersant newspaper that the hostage-takers had at first pretended to be Russian and lured some children into the building with sweets.
“A military lorry appeared in front of the school building. People wearing camouflage and masks jumped out — I could see only their eyes and beards,” she said.
“They opened fire, everyone started running about. Some people, including myself, managed to hide behind a fence.
“Several gunmen stayed outside, near the entrance. They started screaming in very good Russian, ‘Russians, Russians, come here, don’t be afraid!’ One of the terrorists tried to lure children with chocolate.”
A woman teacher who was freed with her three-year-old daughter on the second day of the seige, but forced to leave her older children behind, said that as many as 1,500 people had been in the school when the siege began.
“It happened within two or three minutes,” she told Izvestiya newspaper. “We had begun to form a line in the school yard to listen to the headmistress’s September 1 speeches when suddenly we heard shots.
“We were herded into the sports hall. The doors into the hall were locked. People in masks broke the windows and leapt through them and then they broke the doors down. In the hall they ordered us to sit on the floor and began quickly to mine the room.
“Two large explosive devices were put in the basketball nets and then through the hall they led wires that they attached to smaller explosive devices. The whole place was mined within ten minutes.”
Atsamas Ketsoyev, 14, told The Times: “There were bombs laid out all around the gymnasium — some were hanging from the ceiling and there was one big bomb in the middle of the room. There were two women wearing explosive belts. There was also a man standing with his foot on something like a pedal or a button.”
Around this, said Atsamas, the half-naked children were forced to sit, crammed together “with our knees under our chins”.
It was hot and many had difficulty breathing even after the hostage-takers — who never removed their masks — ordered male hostages to smash windows.
The teacher who was freed said that the terrorists had frequently fired shots to stop children crying and prevent people talking. “The younger classes were terrified. They often asked to go to the toilet. They took them to the toilet in groups. If the younger ones cried the fighters shot in the air and shouted at them to be quiet. Then the young ones were silent.
“There were six or seven fighters in the hall. Two at one end, two at the other. Two or three walked around the hall. I can’t say how many there were, although when we went to the toilet I saw in the corridor there were many of them — some lying down, some walking around.
“On the first day they brought a few buckets of water from the loo. People in masks gave the babies powdered milk in cold, unboiled water.”
The teacher said that women with very young children were later moved upstairs because the crying of the babies irritated the gunmen.
She said: “A frightened child in the hall made a noise and one of the fighters seized a child and threatened to kill it if the noise didn’t stop.
“One of the terrorists grabbed a child who was crying and said ‘If this noise doesn’t stop I’ll shoot you’.”
She continued: “The terrorists said that they only demanded one thing — that troops should be taken out of Chechnya. In general they spoke little and mostly in whispers, but we heard that.
“Mostly they explained things with gestures. By their speech it was possible to make out there were Chechens and Ingush among them.”
The teacher said that during the night some of the children became more frightened and would wake crying from fitful dozes. She added: “The young ones began to cry every now and then, and the fighters shot into the air and enforced silence.
“In the morning they told us they wouldn’t give us any more water because the authorities were refusing to negotiate. When the children were taken to the loo some tried to drink from the tap. The fighters stopped this.”
Some children among those who escaped said they had become so thirsty they drank their own urine. Others had ripped leaves off pot plants in the school and eaten them.
Male hostages were held apart from the women and children and some were forced to “work” — boarding up windows and throwing out the corpses of those killed when the school was seized.
One teenager escaped when he jumped from a window out of which he had just thrown a body. He broke his leg but managed to hide until nightfall when he crawled to safety.
Hostages said they believed that the terrorists had murdered some of the wounded.
Zalina Dzandzarova, freed on the second day of the siege, said she believed that two suicide bombers had killed themselves on Wednesday, detonating their explosive belts in the corridor, where male hostages were being kept. Mrs Dzandarova said: “They took some of the injured out of the gym and finished them off right there.”
No, but I read the people of Nepal burned down a mosque a couple days ago and shot 12 muslims in retaliation to those Iraqi executions.
I don't know about anyone else, but I think we need to round up every last Collaborator, each and every A.N.S.W.E.R. monkey who'll dare to march in the streets for the Terrorists.
Ping.
Monsters! This is tragic.
Do each and every one of them that way.
Film it and send it to Al Jazeera.
I am so angry that I've been put into this hateful attitude.
Has anyone heard a word of condemnation of this atrocity out of Mecca or the mosques here in the US? Or is this perversion of humanity greeted with silent approval?
So far I haven't heard a word from the Religion of Peace.
Some dogs NEED killing.
Ave Maria piena di grazia il Signore è con Te Tu sei benedetta fra le donne e benedetto è il frutto del tuo seno, Gesù. Santa Maria, madre di Dio prega per noi peccatori adesso e nell'ora della nostra morte Amen
And as they ran, crying and fearful, gunmen in the upper floors of the school began shooting at them.
==========================================
I asked my Lithuanian coworker....and she said Putin should just load up a Bear bomber and take out Chechnya with a nuke. And that was the feeling of all her friends back home in Vilnius.
And the EU wants an explanation!
This is one more atrocity in a struggle that has been going on for decades, and that "went hot" in 1999.
http://www.historyguy.com/chechen_war_two.html
CAUSES OF CONFLICT:
The Dagestan Campaign (1999)--This first part of the "Causes" section covers the initial rebel push into Dagestan. For the Chechnya campaign, see below.
In order to understand the roots of the conflict in Dagestan, an examination of the historical conflicts in that part of Russia in general, and the neighboring area of Chechnya in particular, is necessary. The area in southern Russia known as the Caucasus Region is home to a large variety of non-Russian ethnic groups, many of whom follow the Islamic faith and want little to do with the government of Russia. After the communist Soviet Union disintegrated in 1991, the three southernmost Soviet Republics declared independence: Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The areas immediately north of these new nations remained part of the new Russian Republic, though their populations were largely not Russian. Several of these ethnic groups began agitating for more autonomy from Moscow or for outright independence.
One of the more vocal groups were the Chechens; a group with a long and bloody history of opposition to Moscow's rule. During World War 2, the Communist Soviet government deported the whole Chechen population to Central Asia out of fear they were going to aid the invading Germans. Though they were allowed to return to their homeland decades later, the Chechen populace maintained their dislike of the Russian-dominated Soviet government.
The Chechens declared themselves a sovereign nation in 1991. By 1994, relations between the breakaway government in Chechnya and the Russian government had drastically deteriorated. In December of that year, Russian forces attacked Chechnya, beginning a bloody, embarrassing conflict in which the Russian military proved rather inept. That war ended in August, 1996 with the Chechens claiming victory and independence, and the Russian government claiming victory and the retention of Chechnya as a part of Russia. In other words, both sides agreed to disagree and halted the major fighting. Clashes along the border continued as several Chechen rebel leaders and groups continued to harass the Russians in nearby areas. One such area is Dagestan, another largely Muslim (Islamic), region of southern Russia. Some Dagestanis are reported to have helped the Chechens in their war and some of the more radical Chechen war leaders wish to force Russia out of the area and unite the Muslim peoples of the Caucasus region. However, in comparison to Chechnya, Dagestan has over 30 separate ethnic groups, as opposed to the more homogenous population of Chechnya.
"Khattab", an Arab who is a militant leader of the fundamentalist Wahhabi Islamic movement and Shamil Basayev, a famous rebel leader from the Chechen War, are reported to be in command of the guerrilla forces in Dagestan. They are known to favor the unification of Chechnya and Dagestan. Another point to consider is that Basayev and other militant warlords of the Chechen independence movement are at odds with the elected Chechen President, Aslan Maskhadov, who claims no official Chechen involvement in the new conflict. *This was written prior to the Russian invasion of Chechnya in 1999. Moscow used the Dagestan conflict as an excuse to end Chechnya's semi-independence.
The Chechen Campaign (2000-Present)
During the Dagestan Campaign, Russia suffered from several terrorist attacks in which powerful explosions ripped apart apartment buildings in cities throughout the nation. At least 300 people died due to the explosions in September of 1999. Russia's government, then headed by President Boris Yeltsin, claimed that the Islamic rebels (meaning the Chechens) were responsible for the terrorism. Using this as an excuse to continue the Dagestan Campaign into Chechnya proved quite popular with Russian voters. After Yeltsin's retirement, Acting President Vladimir Putin won the March 2000 election largely on the strength of his continuing war against the Chechens and Islamic "terrorists."
DESCRIPTION OF CONFLICT:
War Update: 8-21-01
Fighting broke out in August, 1999 in the Russian area of Dagestan as guerrilla forces infiltrated from neighboring Chechnya. Following months of clashes and tension in the border area of the semi-independent state of Chechnya and the Russian Republic of Dagestan, rebels seized control of several villages and battled Russian troops. Approximately 2,000 self-proclaimed Islamic rebels battled the growing numbers of Russian troops. The Russian government reinforced the 17,000 soldiers already in the region and carried out airstrikes against the rebels. Within the first six days of the war's outbreak, Russian warplanes flew at least 200 sorties.
The local populace did not flock to the rebel banner, allowing the Russian forces the opportunity to take the initiative and drive the rebels out of Dagestan and back into Chechnya.
After driving the rebels from Dagestan, Russian forces pursued the rebels into Chechnya with the intent of ending the separatist republic's existence. To this end, a ruthless military push toward the Chechen capital of Grozny began. Learning from their failed 1994-1996 war against the Chechens, the Russians made extensive and heavy use of long-distance weaponry. Chechen cities and villages were leveled by intense Russian air attacks and artillery bombardment designed to maximize rebel losses while minimizing Russian casualties.
Russia now claims control of Grozny, but rebel units and snipers still fight on inside the city as the war turns to the countryside. The war now is moving into a rural guerrilla conflict. Russian losses continue to grow as they pursue the Chechen forces into the mountainous regions to the south. Also, areas that Russia claims are pacified periodically erupt in hit and run ambushes of Russian troops. The war for Chechnya does not appear to have an end in sight.
CONSEQUENCES OF CONFLICT:
Russia's relations with the West were strained due to the harshness of the Chechen campaign.
CASUALTY FIGURES:
Russia--As of January, 2000, Russia admitted to 1,173 casualties. Independent media sources however, report Russian losses at closer to 3,000 dead.
Chechnya-- Unknown, but civilian deaths are thought to exceed 50,000.
UNIQUE FACTS OR TRENDS:
Too soon to determine.
SEE THE ABOVE LINK FOR LINKS TO THESE
SOURCES:
The Dagestan War: Actors, Roots and Predictions-- Report from the Center for Defense Information
The Boston Globe: Russia's threat raises prospects of regionwide war in Caucasus
Christian Science Monitor: The Dagestan War and Beyond
British Broadcasting Corp.: Dagestan rebels hit hard--Includes map of region.
British Broadcasting Corp.: Analysis: Jihad or Russian conspiracy?
Time Magazine: Why Dagestan Smells Like a Recipe for Disaster
Russia Today: Key Facts And Figures About Russia's Dagestan--Contains good background information.
Russia Today: Chronology of Russian Involvement in the North Caucasus--Contains good background information.
Screw the EU and the UN. They're both dead.
These Chechyn terrorists are very complex people with needs. They are obviously very disturbed about something. Our children must have offended them. We need to be very sensitive in responding to them.
That will be John Kerry's fantasy. I think the Russians should behead the captives, on TV, without delay, and attack their nest forthwith. Ther is nothing left to negotiate. These vermin are klingons.
Only two posts apart... (See #30...)
A charity for the victims:
http://www.moscowhelp.org
MISSION STATEMENT - BESLAN
THE FUND'S GOAL IS TO HELP THE CHILDREN AFFECTED BY THE TERRORIST ACT IN BESLAN
The complete fallout of the terror act in Beslan is not yet clear. What is clear is that this is the worst terror-related human catastrophe in the history of Russia. As of now, media reports indicate at least 150 victims who already died as a direct result of this terrorist act, and over 600 victims, mainly children, have been taken to local hospitals, a large number of them with very serious injuries.
The Foundation was originally established in 2002 to raise personal and corporate charitable donations to help families of the Nord-Ost terror victims. That project was successfully completed with all donations fully distributed.
On September 11, 2001, Russian people and the whole world stood by the people of the United States, Canada, and all other countries whose citizens became victims of that unprecedented terrorist attack.
The Beslan hostage crisis is an example of the same type of terrorism that has perpetrated the September 11 attack. In terms of the number of people involved and the worldwide attention and solidarity, the Beslan siege can in many ways be compared to the major attacks against the US and many other countries.
The Foundation is managed by a group of activists and operates in full accordance with applicable US charity laws.
All personal donations will be used solely to help the children who were injured in Beslan or whose parents died as a result of this terror act.
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