Posted on 09/05/2004 6:37:30 AM PDT by anonymoussierra
The Russian town of Beslan is holding the first funerals for victims of the school hostage horror, in which scores of children were killed. Orthodox Christian churches across Russia held special services, as donors queued in Moscow to give blood to help the injured in the small southern town.
Nearly 370 died after pro-Chechen gunmen seized control of the school.
Reports that arms were smuggled into the building in advance have fuelled anger over the lack of protection.
But Sunday was a day for public grief in Beslan, where open coffins have been placed in living-rooms surrounded by heartbroken relatives clutching photos of the dead, many of them school portraits taken only recently.
Coffin lids stood outside apartment buildings as families prepared to bring out their dead for the journey to the cemeteries.
Some 150 fresh graves have been dug and new plots were being marked out with wooden crosses and string at the main cemetery.
"I wanted to help," 25-year-old Anzor Kudziyev, one of some 60 volunteer grave-diggers, told the Associated Press.
"When a person goes to the cemetery for a burial, it's sad, but nothing like this - when you dig graves for your children."
Correspondent say they can hear wailing across the town as women keen for their dead.
Russia has announced two days of national mourning to begin on Monday. Flags will fly at half-mast and light entertainment will be dropped from TV channels.
Desperate search
Children at the school had been celebrating the start of the new school year with parents and staff on Wednesday morning when the heavily-armed gang took them hostage.
The crisis ended in carnage on Friday, as Russian troops moved in after bombs went off inside the building.
The North Ossetian regional government has confirmed 338 deaths in the siege, not including the 30 hostage-takers reported to have been killed in the fighting.
A further 447 people were still in hospital on Sunday afternoon, Russia's Interfax news agency reports.
Hospital doctors have pasted photographs of casualties too young or traumatised to give their names, alongside the lists of patients under treatment.
Some families are still searching for loved ones.
'Arms cache'
Police in Beslan say they have made three arrests in connection with the siege.
Earlier, Russian officials reported they were holding three of the actual hostage-takers, but later reports suggested none of the 30-strong gang had been taken alive.
President Vladimir Putin has vowed to step up security in the wake of the tragedy and North Ossetia's regional interior minister, Kazbek Dzantiyev, has resigned.
"After what happened in Beslan, I don't have the right to occupy this post as an officer and as a man," Mr Dzantiyev was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
Russian security services are investigating reports that weapons were smuggled into the school by the hostage-takers and hidden there in preparation for the siege.
Some of the more than 1,000 teachers, parents and children who were held captive are apparently saying that was definitely the case.
One hostage reported that all the adults had been taken into the school gym and made to rip up the floorboards.
Underneath were weapons, ammunition and explosives, he said.
The BBC's Jonathan Charles reports from the town that anger is mounting in Beslan, where relatives believe the hostage-taking was well-organised and that better security measures in this region might have prevented it.
"Russia blasts EU crisis statement"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3628692.stm
"Russia needs to join the 'war against terror' team..
Putin needs to make the call...NOW!" Amen YES!
"the world needs to let them deal with the terrorists"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES.
:{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{
is this enough to wake Putnin up? We are with them in the fight against these slugs.
This is worse than 9/11. We lost many adults on that day. Taking children like this, right in front of their parents -- that is beyond anything I can imagine.
I don't blame the Russians, or the supposed lack of security. I blame the evil monsters who did this. I don't think extra security would have stopped this--from here, it appears the terrorists had some "inside help" and I hope they unmask those traitors, whoever they are, and give them what they deserve.
I think Putin is awake now, and realizes the menace Russia, and the entire world, faces. I think the terrorists might have made a mistake in judgement when they thought this would advance their cause. I suspect it will have exactly the opposite effect.
I pray that calls between Russia and US (and Israel) have already taken place.
One can only hope. Until the entire civilized world comes together and realizes what beasts these are, we will not be able to effectively deal with them. We can't appease these bastards much longer, they are only gonna get more dangerous.
Media-speak for TERRORISTS.
See? It's not that hard to say.
I know. In fact, I've gotten myself into a little hot water here and there on FR saying so. Eventually, we (Russia, the US, the UK, etc.) are going to have to strike back in an extremely forceful way. We'll just have to brace ourselves for the cries we're going to hear: "But what about the INNOCENTS?" In war, often innocents are hurt along with the guilty. In Russia, the school was full of innocents who never did anything to deserve what happened to them.
Retaliation is mandatory, and it must be horrific enough to discourage them from ever going after our children again.
Yep, and this shows we can not under any circumstances let Iran get nukes. Any people who celebrate the slaughter of children will have no problems killing millions.
It's already occurred to the feds and everyone else in small town in America that terrorists could pull this off on the cheap here...huge bang for their buck. We can't protect every school, so the alternative? Wipe out terrorists where they live and train, which we're already doing. But we have many fifth columnists already in place and more coming every day...what with our wretched border situation. So it will happen here, just a matter of time. At that point, though, the backlash will be indescribable. GW will have to do more than the old, 'we'll hunt down the perpetrators and bring them to justice,' mantra. Something large and heavy will have to go boom in the Middle East.
I hope we close our borders if this happens and start prosecuting illegal aliens. This isn't a fight we are looking for, but we will fight back if attacked. We have the means..... This is a scary world we live in.
The convenience of Mexicans seems to be more important than the lives of the kids going to school. It's time for Mexicans to start fixing up their own country anyhow --- they can't just expect to be handed a new one because they don't feel like doing the things it takes to make some reforms. The main reason for open borders is so the elites there can hold onto their power and keep their pockets filling up --- why should we be asked to risk our lives for them?
Just for a little perspective.
In a town of 30,000 a loss of 370 people is 1.23% of the population.
If New York had lost 1.23% of it's population on 9/11 it would have 123,000 people.
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