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Ossetians warn of revenge attacks
"In Beslan, I visited several families who lost relatives in the hostage-taking. I told these families: prevent the young people from taking revenge, from murdering yet more innocents", General Kim Tsagolov, a leading member of the Ossetian Community Council in Moscow, told reporters. "This custom [of vendetta or blood feuds] still exists and represents a very great threat" in the Caucasus, said Tsagolov, who formerly served as Russian deputy minister on regional and national policy. "As we bury the victims [of the siege in Beslan, North Ossetia], we must block all attempts to go down that road."It is vital for the authorities to quickly find and judge those responsible for this terrorist act. Unless they do so, it is very likely that certain families will go looking for them on their own", added Ashot Ayrapetian, director of the Center for Inter-Ethnic Cooperation in Moscow. Several families bereaved in the tragedy have warned that they would consider seeking revenge at the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period. "We need a fresh look on Chechen politics and on the use of negotiation. Cleansing operations alone will not solve the situation", argued Alexander Brod, who heads the Moscow office for Human Rights, said in reference to military sweeps in Chechnya. Sergei Arutyunov, a top Caucasus specialist at Russia's Academy of Science, also blamed Putin for his staunch refusal to sit down for talks with Maskhadov, including during the Beslan hostage crisis. "Negotiations with Maskhadov would have undermined the position of Basayev", he told reporters in Moscow. Arutyunov added that many children could have been saved if Maskhadov had been asked to negotiate with the hostage-takers, who were demanding Chechnya's independence. Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-09-28 |
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