I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
(Croupier:Your winnings, sir)
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)
I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
(Croupier:Your winnings, sir)
Fox News is reporting 322 dead this morning. Prayers and support go out to the families.
Heartbreaking pictures. Screw the EU socialists-commies-nazis!
If you can influence homeland security, LEO types, and school/business officials, ask them to think about emergency planning related to this kind of attack.
Provocations? This is MUCH more than provocation! More like savagery, Animals. Scum of the earth filled with hatred and bigotry. Did putin even mention that it was muslim mercenaries that carried out this atrocity? May they rot in Hell. It's looking more and more like WWIII every day!
I'm guessing a round hundred billion in foreign aid would allow Putin to hold a line between the Black and the Caspian Seas until, say.....February 2006, at which point, the bad guys start running into severe supply line problems.
For starters.
That works out to $12 for me and my family, and I'm willing to double it just on general principle.
Where do I send the check?
I was thinking something along the same lines--offer Putin (or any other leader that comes up against a similar situation) the services of our terrorist-fighting special forces. I'm sure we've got some seasoned boys in Afghanistan right now that could have helped out in this Russian incident.
Closing the border is less than a daunting task as Chechnya is comparable in size to New Jersey.
This is the thing that constantly confuses me. It's not like Putin is 'encumbered' by a bill of rights or activist judges or RAT politicians to keep him from doing what needs to be done.
Keeping order is the one thing I would think they would be able to do well.
So why don't they use them??
Go to hell EU.
It's worse than that, see post 72
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1207131/posts?q=1&&page=72#72
There should be no place on earth where it is allowed to exist in any form.
is Russia a member of the EU ? I wasn't clear on that. But the EU's demand IS eerily reminiscent of *certain* Americans who continue to blame Bush for 9/11. Terrorists had nothing to do with it!
These are the savages that deserve to be thrown alive into a shredder.
We're all Russians today.
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