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| Caucasus |
| Russia Hostage Crisis Toll 358 |
| 2004-09-05 |
| The death toll in the hostage crisis in the southern Russian town of Beslan rose to 358 yesterday as President Vladimir Putin called for a new approach to law enforcement in the country. Regional Emergency Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev said 323 victims, including 156 children, had been killed in the violence. Russian Deputy Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky said that all 35 attackers had been eliminated. Medical officials said 448 people, including 248 children had been hospitalized as a result of the crisis, which ended in a wave of violence Friday. Commandos stormed the school and battled militants as crying children, some naked and covered with blood, managed to flee through explosions and gunfire after 53 hours during which the hostage-takers herded them into the gym, denied them food and water and threatened to kill them by detonating explosives they had rigged up. Most of the dead had been in the school's gymnasium, officials said. They were killed either by explosions that brought down the roof or by the fire and the battles between soldiers and captors that followed... Putin said international terrorists had declared "a full-scale war" against Russia, and that due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, the nation was weakened and unable to respond as effectively as it must. "In general, we need to admit that we did not show an understanding of the complexities and dangers of the processes occurring in our own country and in the world," he said. "In any case, we couldn't adequately react ... We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten." |
| Posted by:Fred |