Russia starts trial of police over Beslan massacre

reuters.com ^

[Number57]

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Russian court on Thursday began trying three local policemen for failing to stop the 2004 Beslan school massacre but victims' relatives said they were being made scapegoats for the mistakes of their superiors.

The three policemen are the only officials being prosecuted over the bloodbath, which happened after gunmen linked to separatists in Chechnya seized the school. The death toll from the siege was 331 people, half of them children.

Prosecutors told the trial in Beslan that the officers' carelessness allowed the heavily-armed gunmen to slip through a security cordon and reach Beslan.

"As a result of their negligence 331 people died," Interfax news agency quoted prosecutors as saying.

Some relatives say high-ranking officials should also be held to account for running a chaotic rescue attempt which many believe made the bloodshed worse.

No senior officials have been publicly punished over the rescue.

"It was not just these three who were to blame for all those deaths," Ella Kesayeva, the head of Voice of Beslan, the main pressure group for victims' relatives, told Reuters.

"We are categorically against making these three into scapegoats and heaping all the blame on (them)."

The only alleged hostage-taker to survive, Nurpashi Kulayev, is being tried separately on murder and terrorism charges. A verdict in his case is expected soon.

[Number57]

I dunno... just remember the kids gunned down by those Islamofacists.

[Number57]

Pics (some are graphic)

[jocon307]

"...just remember the kids gunned down by those Islamofacists."

A digusting atrocity it was. I seem to recall that it was thought there had been collusion (sp?) on the part of some workers, maybe like maintenance workers, as there were bombs etc. that had been smuggled into the school and planted. Maybe that proved not true.

[backhoe]

Background:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1209052/posts
The Beslan Horror- When Hell Came Calling
various FR links | 09-07-04 | The Heavy Equipment Guy

[Cheburashka]

There was supposedly remodeling work done on the school over the summer, and during this accomplices of the killers placed a cache of weapons, ammunition and explosives in the school underneath a floor.
When they raided the school the terrorists had the adult male hostages dig it up before disposing of them.
I also heard that after the raid the Russian authorities went over every school in the country that had had maintenance work over the summer and found another cache. I can't remember where the school was.
All this is from memory, I can't provide a link. Sorry. Perhaps someone else can.

[jocon307]

Thanks for that info. I wonder why none of those people have been charged with anything.

Love your spatula city tag line, btw, very cute!

[Cheburashka]

I wonder why none of those people have been charged with anything.
---
I speculate day laborers, who can't be traced now. Most likely they brought the weapons in at night or on weekends and made sure anyone not in on the plot did not see what they were doing.
Who would have expected an attack on a school?