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Beslan victims mourned in Russia two years after tragedy
Two years. Condolences to all the families, and hoping that the terrorists are rotting in hell.
MOSCOW - Hundreds of people converged on Friday on the ruins of school Number One in the southern Russian town of Beslan to mourn the 333 victims killed in the 2004 terrorist attack on the building.

Relatives laid wreaths, lit candles and left photographs of the dead in the gymnasium, where Chechen-led gunmen took more than 1,100 children, teachers and parents hostage on September 1. The Kremlin’s envoy for southern Russia, Dmitry Kozak, also laid a floral tribute at the site of the country’s worst terrorist attack.

“The tragic events of September 2004 are another page that cannot simply be turned or not spoken about,” Kozak said amid lingering questions about the official account of events.

Many Beslan families hold the Russian authorities responsible for the high number of hostages killed, including 186 children, claiming that the crisis was mismanaged and that excessive force was used in the chaotic rescue operation.
Mismanaged no doubt and a lesson to hostage-response teams everywhere, but put the place where it squarely belongs: on the 32 terrorists who took the children hostage. They were planning to die there and taking as many children as they could with them, and they succeeded.
Shortly before the anniversary, Russian media quoted a member of the investigating state commission as saying the commando assault and ensuing shoot-out was triggered by the use by security forces of heavy weapons, including flame-throwers and rockets. As the charges exploded in the sports hall, the gunmen opened fire on the hostages as they tried to flee the building.
Which they were going to do the instant the Russian rescue team moved, flamethrowers or not.
The order to launch a full-scale assault was given by officers of Russia’s FSB security service, the inquiry member, parliamentarian Yury Savelyev, said. Other members of the Kremlin-controlled commission accused him of ”political intrigues.”

Meanwhile, the general prosecutor’s office in Moscow said the inquiry into the events in Beslan would be extended from the September deadline until January 2007.

Thirty-one terrorists were killed in the fighting, according to official accounts. The sole survivor of their group, Nurpashi Kulayev, was sentenced in May to life imprisonment despite calls for the reinstatement of the death penalty in Russia.
Never forget. Never forgive. Never 'understand'.

Posted by: Steve White 2006-09-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=164763