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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Full text of Basayev interview |
| 2005-02-05 |
| First question: The aim of our operation in Beslan was to stop the war, stop the genocide of the Chechen people, and withdraw the Russian occupying troops. The results achieved in Budennovsk were not reached because unlike that time the Russians were prepared for the operation, although in both cases the officers and soldiers and methods were practically the same. Paraphrase: (many storms at Budennovsk, 6 œ hours non-stop, only stopped for new ammunition, 130 people killed. More than 100 people civilians killed in the storm
Only difference that in Beslan more ammunition and more powerful. But also then more or less free press that could effect public opinion. When the choice was to stop or to destroy the hospital with people inside they had to stop because their every step was being watched by the press and the whole world. Said at Budennovsk not to kill but to stop the war) We came there not to kill people but to stop the war, and if it works out that way to force the Russian leadership to kill its own civilians, if only through this to force the lying and vain world to understand what is really going on, to lay bare our wound and pain, because people don't see what is happening in Chechnya. They see it only when huge actions like this one occur on the territory of Russia itself. To be honest I didn't plan Beslan. We planned the operation in Moscow or Leningrad, and wanted if we could to carry it out even in two places simultaneously. But the lack of finances didn't allow us to plan that operation in the centre of Russia. So we chose Ossetia, because Ossetia is Russia's fortpost in the North Caucasus, and all bad that comes to us comes from the territory of Ossetia, with the silent consent of its population. We're also not delighted by what happened there. To be honest I am even shocked by what happened there, and am still in a state of shock after it because I didn't expect that cruelty from the Russian leadership. I thought that if we work through all options, if we don't leave the Russian leadership with a single chance for a bloodless resolution of this problem, they won't kill children. This is what I thought and you can say I was cruelly wrong. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |