Posted on 09/04/2004 8:06:02 AM PDT by TexKat
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - The killing of more than 320 children, parents and teachers during the bloody end to a 53-hour school siege left barely a family untouched in the small Russian town of Beslan.
Grief, anger and uncertainty mingled in the town of 30,000 after the bloodiest hostage crisis in decades ended on Friday with half-naked and wounded children dodging bullets as they fled and security forces stormed the school building.
"Everyone in this town has lost someone," said Alan, looking for news of his sister who had been at the school. "What they say on television is a lie. There could be 600 dead."
His eyes were red from lack of sleep on Saturday and he blinked repeatedly to stop tears as he walked through crowds on squares and street corners, pale and exhausted faces desperately searching for news of relatives and friends.
In the nearby city of Vladikavkaz, hundreds queued up outside the overwhelmed morgue for the gruesome task of identifying their relatives.
Dozens of stretchers lay outside with corpses on them, their skin the color of powdered milk. Most were children or women, naked bodies covered with black tarpaulin or plastic sheets.
Relatives accompanied by nurses picked their way past rows of stretchers, holding handkerchiefs or gauze masks to their faces against the stench.
At the main hospital in Vladikavkaz, one of several dealing with gunshot wounds and burns among victims, the head doctor, Uruzmag Dzhanyev, said 250 children were being treated.
"Many children -- even those who live -- will be invalids. Some do not have eyes," he told Reuters.
STUNT
Anger among the relatives mounted over the silence from Moscow during the siege and President Vladimir Putin's lightning visit early on Saturday under cover of darkness.
"Putin came here at four this morning," said Boris, whose neighbor and all her family disappeared.
"He saw no one and talked to no one. He just wanted to show the world how young and handsome he is but he hasn't helped and he won't help and he can't stop this happening again."
"His visit was a publicity stunt," said Zoya, who could not find her niece. "They should have done everything so that not even one child died. But they didn't."
Russian officials said they had not planned to storm the school building, but were forced to do so when the rebels opened fire on fleeing children.
Zelim Dzeliyev held up photos of his neighbor's children -- four girls, all lost. His friend Albert, also missing, was pictured in a different time altogether with his wife and a monkey on Spain's Costa del Sol.
"My daughter escaped but my son, no one knows what happened to him. We have checked the hospitals, we have asked everyone, but we have no news," said one woman. "The bodies must be so burned that we may never recognize them."
The main doors were plastered with the names of victims and 15 color photographs showing headshots of wounded children in hospital beds, too young to explain who they were.
They appeared on the lists with brief descriptions like "unconscious girl" and "boy who cannot speak." (Additional reporting by Richard Ayton in Beslan)
."They should have done everything so that not even one child died. But they didn't." ...
A quote from Zoya...sort of like an AP report from Tom Hays?
Reuters...not one quote of anger against the monsters???
Reuters...go someplace and bury yourself..You are Putrid.
09/04/2004 20:13
It is difficult to speak.
Terrible tragedy has happened in our country. The past few days, every single one of us has suffered the pain for people in the Russian town of Beslan. There, we have not encountered mere murderers but those who used guns against innocent children.
And now, I first of all would like to express my condolences to those people who had lost the most something of most importance - their children, their relatives and loved ones.
Russia had faced quite a few tragic events and tough ordeals. Today we live in what"s been left after the collapse of a great empire. But despite all the hardships, we"ve managed to preserve the core of that giant-of the Soviet Union. We"ve named this country the Russian Federation.
All of us expected changes. Changes for the best.
However, we appeared to be not ready to a number of things that took place? Why?
We live in times of transitional economy.
We live in times of major internal conflicts and cross-ethnic antagonisms, which used to be suppressed by the existing ideology.
We have stopped paying proper attention to issues concerning state security, allowed corruption to destroy legal and law-enforcement spheres.
In addition, our country, which once used to possess the most powerful defense system, has suddenly become completely unprotected neither from the East nor from the West.
It will take years and billion of rubles to create up to date, safe borders.
However, we could have been more effective in solving this issue had we acted in a timely manner and more professionally.
Generally speaking, it should be noted that we failed to fully realize how difficult and dangerous the process in our own country really were.
We failed to react properly. We"ve demonstrated our weakness.
And the weak are the ones who get beaten.
This is an unprecedented crisis in terms of its brutality. This is not a challenge to the President or the parliament or the government. This is a challenge to the whole Russia. To all the Russians.
Our country has been attacked.
Terrorists consider themselves to be stronger than us. They think they could scare us with their brutality; that they could disable our will and break down our society.
As a President, head of the Russian government, as a person who has given an oath to protect the country, its territorial integrity, and simply as a Russian citizen, I am determined that in reality we do not have a choice. Once we allow to blackmail us, it will trigger millions of people to suffer bloody conflicts, analogues to Kharabakh, Prednestrovie and other well-known tragedies. We cannot ignore the obvious.
We are dealing with a whole intervention of international terror against Russia.
The world experience demonstrates that such wars unfortunately do not end in a flash. In such conditions, we simply cannot, should not live light-heatedly as always.
We must create a more effective security system, urge our law-enforcement to take actions.
Most importantly, our nation has to come together before the common threat. Events of other countries demonstrate that the most effective resistance to terrorism comes from a united society.
Dear countrymen,
I would like to say the following:
Firstly.
A set of measures aimed at strengthening the country"s unity will be prepared soon.
Secondly.
It is necessary to establish a new system of regulating forces and means at North Caucasus.
Thirdly.
It is necessary to create an effective anti-crisis governing system, including absolutely new approaches in the work of the law-enforcement.
Let me also emphasize that all these measures will take effect in accordance with the Russian Constitution.
We have been and we will always remain stronger than the enemy in terms of our morals, our courage and our humane solidarity. I have once again witnessed it last night.
Today we ought to be together. This is the only way we will be able to defeat the enemy.
Read the original in Russian:
http://news.pravda.ru/crime/2004/09/04/66901.html (Translated by: Anna Ossipova)
I will probaly be sorry I asked but what happened to their eyes?
Thank you for the ping. The picture of the body bags is just devastating. Good for the Russians who say that after the mourning period, the revenge. It won't bring back their babies, but it might eliminate a few terrorists.
Personally, I'm waiting for the cries of outrage against this heinous act by the mythical "moderate Muslim" community.
All I hear are crickets.
I never before realized that I have in myself the capacity for such fury.
Terrorists' capacity for evil has no bounds.
In 1945, the residents of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor and the Bataan Death March.
That did not save them
The rank-and-file HAD BETTER develop an interest in dealing with their Islamic terrorists, before it is too late for them
I sure hope that complete ID's are being done on these butchers. Fingerprints, dental records, DNA, etc, to try and tie them to any other attrocities that have occurred in the last 15 years.
Computers have certainly helped LEO's with finding troublemakers world-wide. Fingerprints are stored and widely cross matched.
Travel funds seem to be more available to these terrorists than ever before. They can be anywhere in the world in 48 hours or less, it seems.
Sure would be wonderful to tie them to the Madrid bombings or other attrocities, which would make the world see that these are NOT isolated incidents of anger. It is all organized.
It looks like local communities everywhere will have to be more aware of what is going on around them. The authorities simply don't have the resources if the people are sleepwalking.
As the children passed out from fear and thirst, the terrorist Muslims Laughed.
I would think construction companies and trucking companies should be especially wary when hiring. And EVERYONE should keep their eyes out for unusual things where you work. It will never be Sept. 10,'01 again....
I'm sorry but you are wrong. Every Terrorist act today is Muslim, Those who dont commit the acts. tacitly endorse them, secretly endorse them, or are too afraid to condem them. ( and those who are too afraid,dont matter anyway because they do nothing) The Koran says all Jews and Christians are "People of the book" and that eventualy, they must submit and convert to islam, or be put to the sword. That is from the Koran, their BIBLE. That is what it says. Islamic nations have the most intollerant Religious
rules..ie. no other worship of any kind. the most Racist beliefs...Oppressing all others. so Take a stand and call it like it is.
Some do. Most don't. But, a few good eyes here and there should do.
 |
| People carry a stretcher with a victim from a seized school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Friday, Sept. 3, 2004. Commandos stormed a school Friday in southern Russia where hundreds of hostages had been held for three days, sending hostage-takers and their captives fleeing in a scene of chaos amid explosions and gunfire. More than 100 children were wounded in the assault, some running from the building naked and covered in blood. Victim's condition is not known. |
An earlier thread from a Russian news agency instead of Reuters said that when Putin tried to talk to a young girl at the hospital, she turned away in her bed. Putin walked away.
That says it all.
Reuters spins again.
This is a war against all islam.....
It is not. The war is being brought by a misguided segment of reactionaries who think the only way to return to the pure ways is to abandon the present and wrench history backward.
The rank and file have no real interest in that battle.
I disagree. It is a war against Islam. Do you see Islams denouncing such actions? No. This country can turn a blind eye to Muslims getting a foot in this country and then their dictating to us what we should be. By then it will be too late and the war will be on our land. Wake up America. Sleep and there will be a price to pay.
By Richard Ayton
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - When gunmen first herded them into the gymnasium and strung explosives from wires above their heads, things were not so bad, pupils at Beslan's Middle School No. 1 said.
But their treatment rapidly deteriorated.
"At first, they treated us okay and gave us water," Azamat Ktsoyev, 14, said of the Chechen separatists who stormed into the building on Wednesday during festivities marking the first day of school.
"But after that they started to treat us like dogs, shooting above our heads and beating people.
"There was nothing decent to drink. So we drank our own urine."
Nearly naked and humiliated, hundreds of pupils sat silent for nearly three days in soaring temperatures, too terrified and exhausted to move.
With explosives wired to both ends of the gym over their heads, most sat motionless, removing many of their clothes to cope with the heat.
In a nearby hall lay the rotting corpses of up to 20 fellow hostages, killed soon after the militants stormed the school.
"At first I felt fear, I was really, really afraid," said Azamat Bekoyev, also 14. "Then we all hoped. Just sat there and hoped. And then, we suddenly felt numb."
Bekoyev was scanning the lists of survivors plastered on hospital walls a day after Russian troops stormed the school. More than 320 people, including classmates and their parents and teachers, died in the chaotic operation.
As time passed in the stifling heat, and the gunmen refused pleas from negotiators to allow in food, drink and medicines, dehydration gripped the frightened, weakened children. Many fainted as the standoff entered its third day.
The pupils' torpor ended abruptly when a deafening blast tore through the gym, Bekoyev said. Bullets whistled overhead. Many thought a full-scale war had broken out.
"Everyone started to scream. It was unbearable. It was total carnage," Bekoyev said.
"The terrorists screamed: 'You will never leave this place! Pray to God, we've come here to die for Allah along with you!"'
"Everyone started to fire randomly. Then I saw a 10-year-old boy riddled with bullets lying on the floor."
Like many of his friends, Bekoyev scampered through clouds of smoke to one of the shattered windows and leaped through it.
"I feel lucky not to have been killed," Bekoyev said.
He knows of two classmates who survived the carnage.
"I haven't been able to find any of my other friends," he said. "I am still looking for them. But that school -- I am just not going back there."
We may have some volunteers in the area. I was watching NewsWorld International last night and saw a guy that was assisting that was wearing a navy blue shirt with a NYC logo on the back.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1207411/posts?page=38
"Thirdly.
It is necessary to create an effective anti-crisis governing system, including absolutely new approaches in the work of the law-enforcement "
Contact Tom Ridge about the color-coding system...
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