Posted on 09/04/2004 1:16:00 AM PDT by Walkin Man
Russia's Putin Orders Crackdown After School Siege
Sept. 4, 2004 — By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin ordered a crackdown in southern Russia after a school siege killed at least 250, and warned Chechen sympathizers on Saturday they would be seen as "accomplices of terrorism."
The Kremlin leader paid a lightning early morning visit to the traumatized North Ossetia region close to Chechnya where the two-day hostage drama at the school ended on Friday in bloody mayhem with Russian forces battling Chechen militants.
"One of the tasks pursued by the terrorists was to stoke ethnic hatred, blow up the whole of our North Caucasus," Putin told local security officials.
"Anyone who will feels sympathetic toward such provocations will be viewed as accomplices of terrorists and terrorism."
The hard words suggested Putin had no intention of backing down from his tough policies of crushing Chechnya's separatist rebellion to keep the mainly Muslim region within Russia, using tactics long criticized by human rights activists.
The storming of the school by Russian forces plunged the small town of Beslan into pandemonium. Troops and armed civilians advanced on the red brick building after explosions inside. Pupils, parents and teachers, many drenched in blood, were carried out on stretchers or in the arms of local men.
No definitive figure for the number of those killed -- many of whom were children -- was available on Saturday.
Interfax news agency quoted local health officials as saying at least 250 people were killed from what might turn out to be 1,200 or so children, parents and teachers taken hostage. Hundreds remained in hospital, 92 in serious condition.
Interfax quoted the regional interior ministry as saying most of the hostages held in the school gym died because of the explosions and the roof collapsing.
"There are still dozens of explosive devices there which prevent us removing the remaining dead bodies," a ministry spokesman said.
RIA Novosti quoted health authorities as saying 60 more bodies were pulled from the school's ruins on Saturday, 36 of them children.
Officials said 27 hostage-takers were killed and three taken alive.
"I saw about 25 corpses in the schoolyard, which were not there yesterday," a Reuters witness said. "About 18 were in body bags lying in two rows. Six or seven were just outside a school window without body bags, all men without shirts."
The bloody denouement at Middle School No. 1 in Beslan made the siege one of the world's worst such episodes.
Four out of the dozen or so mass hostage sieges in the past 30 years have been in Russia. All four have been linked to the Chechnya war and all ended in huge loss of life.
Putin brusquely slapped down officials who, during his visit to Beslan, sought to commend the security forces.
"As far as the special forces are concerned, this is a separate story. We will talk about it later. There are unfortunately many losses," he said, clearly angered by the bloody outcome that came after he went on national television and promised to do everything to keep hostages from harm.
Explosives and arms used by the gunmen were smuggled into the building well in advance, during summer building work on the school, Interfax quoted an unnamed regional security source as saying on Saturday.
BORDERS CLOSED
"I have ordered Beslan to be sealed off, Ossetia's borders to be closed and checks to be carried out to find all people linked to the terrorist act," Putin said in Beslan.
Some reports said a few of the gunmen may have escaped.
Western governments offered sympathy to Putin. But the European Union said in a statement it wanted an explanation from Russia "how this tragedy could have happened."
Freed hostages described the mayhem on Friday afternoon. "Bombs were strung all over the gym," one teenage girl told state television. "Tape came unstuck on one and it blew up."
"There were two big explosions," said a women in her forties. "We started pushing all the children out of the windows ... Everyone who was there started pushing them out."
Authorities said they had been forced to launch a rescue operation when the gunmen opened fire on fleeing children.
North Ossetia is the only predominantly Orthodox province in the otherwise mostly Muslim North Caucasus. But the whole region is a tinderbox of small national groups and any crackdown carries a risk of disrupting further a delicate ethnic balance.
Putin, easily re-elected to a second term in March, must now reassure Russians they are safe from the threat of separatists.
The near-simultaneous crash of two airplanes last week, in which 90 people died, was blamed on Chechen suicide bombers as was an explosion by a Moscow metro station which killed nine. (Additional reporting by Oleg Shchedrov)
Like the Nazis who threw children into the furnaces, these maggots must be eradicated.
The F'n Kerry campaign headquarters is sending them tons of spitballs!
I second that, 110%.
I second that, 110%.
Don't worry, GW will take care of that in the next term. What a blowout this is going to be...
John Freakin' Kerry wants a more sensitive response!
Sherman probably wasn't quite as bad as the Chechen terrorists. He did make war on defenseless women and children tho.
Not a chance. We continue to allow in thousands of muslims and islamos legally, while our own borders have become a national security time bomb.
So many layers to this problem.
Watched a documentary on Chechnya...the emphasis was on Russian troop morale..and crime.
so ya...everything from soldiers stealing AK-47's and gasoline for their own fiscal return...to Officers moving large shipments with support net at higher military levels..allong with connection to regional gov and Gangster types.
toss in all manner of other Blackmarket activity...from drugs to prostituki.
Chechnya is a living hell....Russian teens do whatever they can to avoid conscription.
and ya..their families throw in too.
hide the kid in the Urals at the uncles cabin.
Russian gov agents run around with photos trying to catch up with them.
The Russian miltary system has a history of abuse.....some here at Fr are aware of it.
The young Russian soldier exists in a world where he is prey to abuse of all kinds.
as his time served evolves..he becomes a *Grandfather..where he changes places..and becomes the one dispensing abuse to the new soldiers.
Once the soldier is in an environment like Chechnya...its easy to see why they fall prey to Officer extortion in the fieled..regional gangsters etc.
so ya..its a big mess,
Putin will make many enemies if he tries to stop it.
Putin being a realist is unlikely to stop it....just manage it.
Russia has to face Islamic terror...
and misery.... of their own making.
I agree. Eight years of clinton "foreign policy" could have easily been seen as a "more sensitive" way to deal with the growing world wide terrorist threat, or a "Zell" described kerrys' plan for US foreign policy:"a bowl full of mush".
Tony Blair has realized the difference between clinton's and GWB's "foreign policy". Tony KNOWS when GWB says something to him, HE CAN TRUST HIM. I don't know if Putin's KGB "roots" are holding him back from giving GWB a chance to show him he is someone you CAN COUNT ON when times get tough, and all that GWB asks is that it be reciprocated.
Putin HAS to see GWB's "resolve and steadfastness" regardless of which way the political winds are blowing, or his opponents seemingly CONSTANT negativity of his actions.
A "One-on-One" between the two of them will maybe never be as "ripe for the picking" as this moment in time. I hope it doesn't slip by.
To answer your first question, they are trying to be more relevant than the French.
I hate to even think about this, but if this had happened to my child..trying to find one of those bomb belts and visiting the nearest packed mosque may come to mind. I'm surprised it doesn't happen and often.
You speak the truth and this needs to be addressed. In the Clinton years muslim activities were covered up to the American people. The press never mentioned "muslim" when referring to Checnya or Kosovo and according to the complicit press muslims have never attacked Christians in Africa, it's just tribal wars or something. We were on the wrong side in Clinton's war. This has to be admitted sooner or later. He was protecting/creating his legacy and this would have gotten in the way. He thought he could pull it off by appeasing Arafat and other terrorists. He thought wrong.
that bottom photo . . . that's the unforgettable one that brings me to tears. I was so fortunate just now to tuck my not-so-little-ones into their beds, to hold them tight, stroke their hair, pray with them. I grieve with those parents for their excrutiating losses.
Terrible lesson for Russia to learn; we need to pay close attention.
Bush needs to send more troops into the ME, invade Iran, Syria, and destroy anyone who sponsors terrorism. Russia should do the same with the Chechens and any other group connected with Al Qaeda.
And together demand that the Saudis either shut down their Wahabbi mullahs, or be destroyed.
. . . and this attack on children will, I'm sure, be denounced by the same human rights activists. Oh, and CAIR.
"it left me wondering what the liberal editors were thinking."
see there's your problem... liberals don't think.
I wish -- let them live with their own kind. No, Fitz, they won't go to Saudi Arabia or any other Muslim paradise -- they'll seek entry into the US or other western nation. And we would be stupid enough to take them.
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