Beslan school siege

Beslan school hostage crisis
File:Beslan survivors.jpg Mother and daughter comfort each other in the aftermath of the the Beslan hostage crisis.
Location	Beslan, Russia
Date	1 September 2004 ~9:30am – 3 September 2004 ~5:00pm (UTC+3)
Target	School Number One (SNO)
Attack type	Hostage taking, Suicide bombings
Deaths	365+
Injured	Hundreds
Perpetrators	Chechen secessionists, Islamists, Shamil Basayev; Magomet Yevloyev, and 31 others.
Motive	Chechen secession, Islamism

The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan Massacre) began when armed Muslim terrorists took more than 1200 school children and adults hostage on September 1 2004, at School Number One (SNO) in the Russian town of Beslan in North Ossetia.

On the third day of the standoff, shooting broke out between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. According to official data, 344 civilians were killed, 186 of them children, and hundreds more wounded.

Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev took responsibility for the hostage taking, reportedly led by his principal Ingush deputy Magomet Yevloyev.

Background

The Republic of North Ossetia in Russia

September 1 is the start of the school year in Russia and is traditionally called "First September" or alternatively "Day of Knowledge." Children accompanied by parents and other relatives put on their finest dress and attend ceremonies hosted by their school. Commonly, the first-year students give a flower to those entering their final year, and are then taken to class by the older children. Presumably the attackers chose this particular day for maximum impact, knowing they could involve a greater number of children.

SNO was one of seven schools in Beslan, and used to host some 900 pupils in the ages between 6-18, as well as 59 teachers and a small support staff. The gymnasium where most of the estimated 1200 hostages were to spend 56 hours was a recent addition, 10 m wide and 25 m long.

With older pupils and family members attending the festivities to do with the Day of Knowledge, the number of people in the school at the time of the attack was considerably higher than usual for a normal school day. And further increased after many mothers had brought their younger children to school as well because the town's kindergarten had been closed that day due to a problem with the gas supply.

Course of the crisis

Day 1

At 09:30 local time on September 1, a group of approximately 32 attackers arrived at SNO in a GAZel van and a GAZ-66, wearing black ski masks and carrying explosive belts.

After an exchange of gunfire with police, in which five officers and one attacker were killed, the attackers seized the school building taking more than 1,300 hostages. The Russian government initially downplayed the numbers, stating there were only 354 hostages, which reportedly angered the attackers. At first some mistook the attackers for Russians when they tried to lure the children playing in the school playground inside the school with kind words and chocolate bars. However they soon turned to sterner methods and started to shoot in the air and forced everybody in. During the initial chaos about fifty people managed to flee to safety and alert authorities.

The attackers herded the hostages into the school gymnasium, and stripped the hostages of all valuables and any means of outside communication. One of the female terrorists threatened the hostages that if she found a single phone on anyone, that person and three more people near him or her would be killed. Immediately after having gathered all the hostages in the gym, the attackers set about killing around twenty of the adult male hostages, reportedly the strongest in the group. The attackers forced other hostages to throw their bodies out of the building and set some children to wash the blood off the floor.

Overhead map of school showing initial positions of Russian forces

A security cordon was soon established around the school, consisting of Militsiya and Russian Army forces, OSNAZ including the Alpha Group of the FSB, and members of the OMON unit of the MVD.

Packed into the school gym with wired explosives attached to the basketball hoop

The attackers mined the gymnasium and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices, and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill fifty hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and to kill twenty hostages for every gunman injured. They also threatened to blow up the school should government forces attack.

The Russian government initially said that it would not use force to rescue the hostages, and negotiations towards a peaceful resolution did take place on the first and second days, led by Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician whom the hostage-takers had reportedly asked for by name. Roshal had helped negotiate the release of children in the 2002 Moscow Theatre Siege.

That night, the hostagetakers began exploring the area surrounding the school, preparing for an exit strategy once their demands had been met.

At Russia's request, a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened on the evening of September 1, at which the council members demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages of the terrorist attack". U.S. President George W. Bush made a statement offering its "support in any form" to Russia.

Day 2

On September 2, 2004, negotiations between Roshal and the hostage-takers proved unsuccessful, and they refused to allow food, water and medicines to be taken in for the hostages or for the bodies of the dead to be removed from the school.

On day two, many of the young children started to succumb to the effects of neglect after having being denied any form of food and water and often forced to stand up for long periods in the tightly packed and hot gym. Many fainted, the parents started to fear they would start to die. Occasionally the terrorists took out some of the unconscious children, and poured water on their heads before returning them to the gym. Some resorted to drinking their own urine and eating plants and the bouquets they had brought on their first school day. One boy said he found a bottle of vodka in one of the bomber's bags, which he shared with other children because they had nothing else to drink. Another boy was run through with a bayonet, after he asked one of the terrorists for some water. Later in the day, women and men also stared to faint from fatigue and thirst. When the bombs started to go off, many of the surviving children were so fatigued they were barely able to flee away from carnage.

Many children took off their clothing because of the sweltering heat within the gymnasium — which led to rumors of sexual impropriety, though the hostages later explained it was merely due to the stifling heat and being denied any water. However sexual impropriety allegedly did take place in the form of rape of several of the young children and adolescent girls, whose cries and screams according to some survivors could be heard echo through the school. Surviving hostage Kazbek Dzarasov reports that the terrorists would pick from amongst the prettiest adolescent girls and take them to another room with an excuse of having them fetch water, rape them and return them a few hours later.

In the afternoon, the gunmen agreed to release 26 nursing women and their infants following their negotiations with former Ingush President Ruslan Aushev, to whom they handed off a nursing infant whose mother refused to leave the school because of her other children . About a dozen of those mothers released were allowed by the terrorists to take only one child and forced to leave behind other children (a number of which were killed).

At around 15:30, two RPGs were fired by the hostage-takers at security forces outside the school, approximately ten minutes apart.

As the day and night wore on, the combination of stress and sleep deprivation (and possible as a consequence of drug withdrawal symptoms) made the terrorists increasingly hysterical and unpredictable. The crying of the children irritated them, and on several occasions children and their mothers were threatened that if they didn't stop crying they'd be shot.

Day 3

Rough plan of school showing removal vehicle and damaged gym

Around 13:04 on September 3, 2004, the hostage-takers agreed to allow medical workers to remove bodies from the school grounds. However when the medical workers approached the school the hostage-takers opened fire, and shortly after two large explosions were heard from the gymnasium. Two of the medical workers were killed, while the rest retreated. Part of the gymnasium wall was demolished by the explosions, allowing a group of about thirty hostages to escape, though a large number was killed when the hostage-takers fired at them and as a result of crossfire from the hostage-takers and army.

• Presidential advisor Aslambek Aslakhanov later said that the cause of firing and the subsequent storming of the school had been a spontaneous explosion — according to an escaped hostage, one of the bombs had been insecurely attached by an adhesive tape and had fallen and exploded.

• In a conflicting account, an anonymous employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the shooting began after the medical workers' truck arrived at the pick-up point. He did not know whether the armed fathers of hostages or the hostage-takers fired first (see the article in Izvestia below). Other witnesses reported hearing increasing automatic weapons fire before the blasts.

File:Beslan child running.jpg

A man dragging a child out of the chaos

These two accounts may be reconcilable. Ruslan Aushev, a key negotiator during the siege, told the Novaya Gazeta that an initial explosion was set off by a hostage-taker accidentally tripping over a wire; as a result, armed civilians, some of them apparently fathers of the hostages, started shooting. Reportedly, no security forces or hostage-takers were shooting at this point, but the gunfire led the hostage-takers to believe that the school was being stormed; in response, they set off their bombs.

The third version has it that a couple of female terrorist bombers blew themselves up as soon as they heard gunfire. This version is contradicted by the following sources.

• The surviving hostages' stories such as the one by the Alania soccer team's cameraman Karen Mdinaradze published by Newsru September 17 [1]. The man lost his eye and saw others hurt by the blast which killed the bombers long before the storm.
• The captured suspect hostage-taker Kulayev's story (see Investigations below).
• The September 17 statement attributed to Shamil Basayev where only 2 female perpetrators were mentioned.

The fourth version is that a special forces sniper shot the hostage-taker whose foot was on a dead-man detonator. Some, especially government sources, say that it was an unauthorized action that the sniper took upon himself, though others suggest that the shot was authorized in order to resolve the hostage crisis.

• Part of the task force was away from the scene at the urgent training exercise in a similar school.

• It was at this point that Russian special forces activated their action plan to storm the school to rescue any possible survivors. A chaotic battle broke out as the special forces sought to enter the school and cover the escape of the hostages. The task force members blew holes in walls to allow hostages to escape.

In addition to the special forces, army and Interior Ministry troops engaged, there were Mi-24 Hind and Mi-8 Hip gunships, and at least one tank (most probably two T-72s and one T-80) as well as several BTR armoured personnel carriers.

Many local civilians also joined in the battle, having brought along their own weapons. Afterwards, the Russian government defended the use of tanks and other heavy weaponry, arguing that it was used after surviving hostages escaped from the school. However, this contradicts the eyewitness accounts, as many hostages were seriously wounded and could not possibly escape by themselves.

The attack was followed by more large explosions of further detonating terrorist bombs, totally destroying the gym and setting much of the building on fire.

When the terrorists realised they were being stormed, they started to deliberately shoot at the fleeing hostages, making no distinction between men and women or adults and children. Many of the hostages were here shot in the back. Later one 18-month-old baby was found to have been repeatedly stabbed.

The Aftermath

By 15:00, two hours after the assault began, Russian troops claimed control of most of the school. However, fighting was still continuing in the grounds as evening fell, and three gunmen were located in the basement along with a number of hostages. They were eventually killed, along with the hostages they were holding.

During the battle a group of 13 hostage-takers, including two women, broke through the military cordon and took refuge nearby. The women reportedly tried to pass themselves off as medical personnel.

Several hostage-takers were believed to have entered a 2-story additional building. The building was destroyed by tanks and flamethrowers around 21:00, according to the Ossetian committee's report.

Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Fridinsky said that 31 of 32 attackers had been confirmed dead and one had been seized.

One suspected hostage-taker was beaten to death by the fathers of hostages when he was injured and driven to the hospital (see the article in Izvestia below). Another suspected terrorist was lynched on the scene, an event filmed by the Sky News crew.

At least one surviving female hostage committed suicide after returning home. Many other survivors remained in severe shock. Some injured survivors died in hospitals.

File:Putin-beslan-school-hostage-crisis.jpg

Vladimir Putin after the hostage crisis.

The Russian government has been heavily criticized by many of the local people who, days after the end of the siege, did not know whether their children were living or dead. Some human remains were even found by a local man in the nearby garbage dump several months later, prompting further outrage.

During the operation 11 fighters of the special groups Alpha and Vympel were killed, among them the commander of Alpha - the highest casualties in a single engagement in these units' history. Wounds of varying severity were received by more than 30 fighters of the OSNAZ special forces.

Days 6 and 7

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a two day national mourning for September 6, 2004 and September 7, 2004. The second of these days saw 135,000 people join an anti-terror government rally on the Red Square in Moscow. Putin then cancelled planned meetings with German chancellor Gerhard Schröder in Hamburg and in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.

See also: Timeline of the Beslan school hostage crisis

Casualties

Fatalities
Hostages	344
Emergency workers	4
Special forces	11
Total	359
-
Wounded
Hostages	700
Special forces	19
Total	719

344 of the hostages were killed during the crisis. Also, 3 emergency medical workers and 11 Russian special forces were killed. The first of the many funerals were conducted Saturday September 4 (day 4), the day after the final assault, with more the following Sunday, and mass burials of 120 people on Monday. The local cemetery was too small and had to be expanded to an adjacent plot of land.

File:Beslan hospital.jpg

A rescued girl in a Beslan hospital holds her crucifix tightly

The exact number of people that received ambulatory assistance immediately after the crises is not known, but is estimated at around 700. Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer in a September 7 2004 Moscow Times column concluded that 90% of the hostages had sustained injuries during their captivity. After their release, 437 people, including 221 children, were hospitalized. 197 children were taken to the Children’s Republican Clinical Hospital in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz, and 30, in critical condition, were in resuscitation units. Another 150 people were transferred to the Vladikavkaz Emergency Hospital. 62 people, amongst them 12 children, were treated in two local hospitals in Beslan. Saturday morning, six children with heavy wounds were flown to Moscow for specialist treatment. The majority of the children were treated for burns, gunshot and shrapnel wounds, and mutilation caused by mines and bombs . Some had to have amputations and eyes removed. Many children are permanently disabled by injuries sustained during their captivity. The sudden influx of a huge number of injured put a severe strain on the local health service. Soon there was an inadequate availability of hospital beds, medication, and neurosurgery equipment used to operate on head wounds. One month after the attack, 240 people (160 of them children) were still being treated in hospitals in Vladikavkaz and in Beslan .

Surviving children and parents have received psychological treatment at Vladikavkaz Rehabilitation Centre.

Later it was reported that an unknown number of survivors may have died as a result of a government-ordered vaccination called Nalaxon meant to counter the effects of Fentanyl-based poisons.

See also: Casualties of the Beslan school hostage crisis

Responsibility and motives

Responsibility

File:Shamilbasayev.jpg

Shamil Basayev in Dagestan, 1999

Chechen separatists

Initially the identity and origin of the attackers was not immediately clear. It was widely assumed from day one, that they were separatists from nearby Chechnya, but Aslambek Aslakhanov had denied it: "They were not Chechens. When I started talking with them in Chechen, they had answered: We do not understand, speak Russian". Freed hostages hostages however confirmed that many of the hostage-takers did speak Chechen amongst themselves and only spoke Russian with heavy accents.

The Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov immediately denied that his forces were involved in the siege. He condemned the action and all attacks against civilians via a statement issued by his envoy Akhmed Zakayev, currently resident in London. Aslan Maskhadov later on November 1 called Shamil Basayev a terrorist for his involvement in the Beslan crisis.

On September 17, 2004, Shamil Basayev issued a statement claiming responsibility for Beslan school siege, saying his Riyadus-Salikhin "martyr battalion" had carried out this and other attacks and further that the attackers were in heaven and the killed hostages in hell. Newspaper reports have also linked his Ingush deputy, Magomet Yevloyev, to the school attack.

The Beslan crisis was strikingly similar to the 1995 Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis and the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis in which hundreds civilians were held hostage by Chechen terrorists, also led by or answering to Shamil Basayev.

Arab and al-Qaeda involvement

Shortly after September 3, 2004 Russian official sources stated that the attackers were part of an international group led by Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev and including a number of Arabs with contact to al-Qaeda. Shamil Basayev in an interview with Canadian newspaper said two of the attackers were Arabs. At least two English/Algerians are among the identified terrorists partaking actively in the attack: Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia. And a third, UK citizen Kamel Rabat Bouralha, arrested while trying to leave Russia immediately following the attack, is suspected to be a key organizer. All three have links to the Finsbury Park Mosque of north London . Russian authorities also picked up phone calls in Arabic from the school to Saudi Arabia and another undisclosed Middle Eastern country.

Russia has also claimed that al-Qaeda agent Abu Omar al-Saif was responsible for financing the attack and that foreign nationals such as Khattab, Abu Zaid and Abu al-Walid from different middle-eastern countries had been active in the region since the beginning of the First Chechen War. All have subsequently been destroyed by Russian special forces in anti terrorism operations.

Identities

Masked Chechen terrorist and a child during the Beslan school hostage crisis.

The number of attackers remains somewhat controversial. According to official sources 32 attackers participated directly, 2 of whom were women and 1 of whom was taken alive. However several surviving hostages and eyewitnesses claim there were many more attackers, unofficial numbers go as high as 52 attackers, with 4 women amongst them and 3 captured alive.

On Monday September 6 2004 the name and identity of seven of the assailants became known, after forensic work over the weekend and interviews with surviving hostages and a captured assailant.

In November 2004 Russian officials announced that 27 of the 32 attackers had been identified, however on September 12, 2005 the lead prosecutor against captured terrorist Nur-Pashi Kulayev stated that only 22 of the 32 bodies had been identified, leading to some confusion over which identities have been confirmed.

Also in November 2004 28-year-old Akhmed Merzhoyev and 16-year-old Marina Korigova of Sagopshi were both arrested by Russian authorities. Merzhoyev is charged with providing food and equipment to the hostage-takers, and Korigova with having possession of a phone that Tsechoyev had phoned multiple times - Korigova was released when her defence attorney Sharip Tepsoyev showed that she was given the phone by an acquaintance after the crisis.

In April 2005 the identity of the two female suicide bombers was revealed.

Forensic tests have later established that 21 of the terrorists took heroin and another three took marijuana

Planners and financiers not participating in the actual attack

• Shamil Basayev – has taken ultimate responsibility for the attack.
• Magomed ('Magas) Yevloyev - Ingush national also involved in the Basayev's attack on Nazran
• Abu Omar al-Saif
• Abu Zaid – Saudi national. Killed by Russian special forces February 16, 2005

Hostage takers

Some of the 32 hostage-takers, which included 2 women, are tentatively identified as:

• Polkovnik Ruslan Tagirovich Khochubarov (leader, disputed identity)
• Vladimir Khodov - nicknamed Abdullah, from nearby Elkhotovo where he was wanted for detonating a bomb in the marketplace. (leader, though terrorist leader Basayev has since said he was an FSB double agent - he was also a former pupil of the school)
• Magomed Yevloyev - nicknamed Magas, Ingush national also involved in the Basayev's attack on Nazran (leader)
• Ali Taziyev - Ingush ex-policeman, debate rages whether an alias/stolen identity of Khochubarov or Yevloyev. Assassinated along with Shamil Basayev in 2006.
• Doku Umarov - 42-year-old warlord that hostages reportedly claimed to recognise, saying he was the only one to not wear a mask. Named president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria following the assassination of Sheikh Abdul Halim, Umarov denies taking part in the Beslan crisis.
• Khizir-Ali Akhmedov
• Magomed Aushev
• Sultan Kamurzaev
• Magomet Khochubarov - had a prior conviction for possessing illegal firearms
• Iznaur Kodzoyev
• Nur-Pashi Kulayev - 24-year-old Chechen, the sole surviving hostage-taker who was sentenced to life in prison.
• Hanpashi Kulayev - one-armed brother of the above, a former bodyguard of Shamil Basayev, also called Khan
• Adam Kushtov - 17-year-old Ingush who fled the 1992 ethnic cleansing in North Ossetia to Ingushetia
• Abdul-Azim Labazanov - 31-year-old Chechen, born in Kazakhstan, initially fought on the federal side in the First Chechen War
• Arsen Merzhoyev - 25-year-old Chechen native of Engenoi
• Mairbek Shainekkhanov (also spelled Mayrbek Shaybekhanov) - arrested shortly before the school attack
• Buran Tetradze - 31-year-old Georgian, native of Rustavi in Georgia, disputed by security minister
• Issa Torshkhoev - 26-year-old Ingush native of Malgobek where he was unable to find work - five of his friends were killed in March 2004 after his house was raided by Russian police. Had a prior conviction for robbery.
• Musa Tsechoyev - 35-year-old Ingush native of Sagopshi, owned the GAZ-66 that drove the hostage-takers to the school, suspected.
• Bei-Alla Tsechoyev - 31-year-old brother of above, also spelled Bay or Ala. Had a prior conviction for possessing illegal firearms. Body identified in November 2004.
• Osman Larussi, a British Algerian, who had already been reported killed earlier
• Yacine Benalia, who had already been reported killed earlier.
• Slav nicknamed only Fantomas - thought to have also been a bodyguard to Shamil Basayev, his body was identified by Nurpashi as "a gorilla-like bald-headed man, dressed in a vest and black uniform trousers".

Unidentified

• A Negroid
• A Russian-Korean

Shahidkas (black widows)

• Roza Nagaeva – Chechen from the village Kirov-Yurt in Chechnya's Vedeno district. Sister of Amnat Nagaeva, who is suspected of being the suicide bomber having blown up one of the two Russian airliners brought down on August 24, 2004 (see: Russian aircraft bombings of August 2004). Roza Nagaeva has previously mistakenly been named as having carried out the bombing of Moscow's Rizhskaya metro station on August 31, 2004..
• Mairam Taburova – Chechen from the village Mair-Tub in Chechnya's Shali district.

Motives

Chechen independence

Russian negotiators say the attackers never explicitly stated their demands. Though they did released some rather ad-hoc notes handwritten by one of the hostages on a school notebook, in which they spelled out demands of full troop withdrawal from Chechnya and recognition of Chechen independence as well as demands that Chechnya should remain in the ruble zone and be part of the CIS.

Islamism

However Shamil Basayev stated goals were not limited to merely Chechen nationalism and independence. He had the more far reaching objectives of establishing an Islamic Emirate across the whole of the North Caucasus (incl. predominantly Christian North Ossetia) stretching from the Red Sea to Caspian Sea.

And the only surviving attacker Nur-Pashi Kulayev, claims that attacking a school and targeting mothers and young children was not merely coincidental, but that the whole operation was deliberately designed for maximum outrage with the specific purpose of igniting a war in the Caucasus. That the attackers relied on the (Christian) Ossetians seeking to revenge their murdered families by attacking their (Muslim) Ingushetian and Chechen neighbours, fermenting ethnic and religious hatred and strife throughout the North Caucasus. North Ossetia and Ingushetiya had previously been involved in a brief but bloody conflict in 1992 over disputed land in the North Ossetian Prigorodny district leaving an estimated 600 dead and up to 50,000 refugees.

On this occasion the Chechen nationalist leader Aslan Maskhadov worked with his Russian enemies in denouncing the school siege, with which he denied any Chechen involvement and later characterised as “terrorism”.

It has been suggested that the Russian governments' insistence that it was a transnational al-Qaeda related group of terrorists rather than Ingushetian and Chechen separatist, was motivated in part by an attempt to avoid such regional ethnic strife.

So far the expected backlash against the neighboring has failed to materialise. Russian orthodox patriarch Alexius II later said the Ossetians had saved the Caucasus by showing restraint.

The choosing of precisely North Ossetia for the location of the attack may also have something to do with it being the only Christian majority republic in the area as well as the republic most loyal to Moscow.

Demands

The hostage-takers in Beslan were reported to have made the following demands:

• Withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.
• Presence of the following people in the school:
  • Aleksander Dzasokhov, president of North Ossetia,
  • Murat Ziazikov, president of Ingushetia,
  • Ruslan Aushev, former president of Ingushetia,
  • Leonid Roshal, a renowned pediatrician.

The 1 September 11:00-11:30 letter sent along with a hostage ER doctor

Source: the case papers of the Nur-Pashi Kulayev's criminal trial. File pages 196-198, the vetting protocol. Cited at the trial session January 19, 2006. The hostage who was made to write the note misspelled doctor Roshal's name.

8-928-738-33-374 [according to pravdabeslana.ru; the federal committee reported 8-928-728-33-74]

We request the republic's president Dzasokhov, the president of Ingushetia Ziazikov, the children's doctor Rashailo for negotiations. If anyone of us is killed, we'll shoot 50 people. If anyone of us is wounded, we'll kill 20 people. If 5 of us are killed, we'll blow up everything. If the light, communication are cut off for a minute, we'll shoot 10 people.

The 1 September 16:00-16:30 letter brought by the same female hostage

According to the federal committee report this note contained a corrected phone number (ending with 47) and addition of Aushev to the list of requested persons.

The 2 September 16:45 letter sent along with Aushev

A note hand-written on a quad ruling notebook sheet sized 32 by 20 cm. Source: ibidem. Pages 189-192, the vetting protocol. Pages 193-194, a photocopy of this note.

From Allah's servant Shamil Basayev to President Putin.

Vladimir Putin, it wasn't you who started this war. But you can finish it if you have enough courage and determination of de Gaulle. We offer you a sensible peace based on mutual benefit by the principle — independence in exchange for security. In case of troops withdrawal and acknowledgement of independence of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, we are obliged not to make any political, military or economic treaties with anyone against Russia, not to accommodate foreign military bases on our territory even temporarily, not to support and not to finance groups or organizations carrying out a military struggle against RF, to be present in the united rouble zone, to enter CIS. Besides, we can sign a treaty even though a neutral state status is more acceptable to us. We can also guarantee a renunciation of armed struggle against RF by all muslims of Russia for at least 10 to 15 years under condition of freedom of faith. We are not related to the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, but we can take responsibility for this in an acceptable way.

The Chechen people is leading a nation-liberating struggle for its freedom and independence, for its self-protection rather than for destruction or humiliation of Russia. We offer you peace, but the choice is yours.

Allahu Akbar

Signature

30 August

Investigations

ITAR-TASS reported that a territorial law enforcement source had told them that militants disguised as repairmen had concealed weapons and explosives in the school in July 2004 after visiting three schools in Beslan, but this version was later refuted.

The convicted terrorist Nur-Pashi Kulayev, 24, born in Chechnya, was captured and identified by former hostages. The state-controlled Channel One showed fragments of his interrogation. Kulayev said the group was led by a Chechnya-born militant nicknamed "Polkovnik" (Colonel) and by Khodov, 28, who was a suspect in the May 15, 2004, Moscow-Vladikavkaz train bombing.

According to Kulayev, Polkovnik shot a militant and detonated two female suicide bombers because they objected to capturing children in the midst of the siege.

Kulayev recognized the body of a short man with a barrel-like torso, a fiery red beard and a freckled face as Polkovnik. The official investigators identified Polkovnik as Ruslan Tagirovich Khochubarov born in the village of Galashki of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic in 1972 [2]. However this has been denied by a message attributed to the notorious Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, whom insists Polkovnik was a colonel of the Ichkeria forces Orstkhoyev

The authorities linked a third body to Magomet Yevloyev nicknamed Magas. Magas was an Ingush from the Chechen capital Grozny who, together with Basayev, prepared an attack on Ingushetia on June 22, 2004, in which 98 people were killed.

Kulayev recognized the body of a bald-headed man dressed in a vest and black uniform trousers as belonging to a militant nicknamed Fantomas.

At the press conference with foreign journalists Vladimir Putin rejected the prospect of an open public inquiry, but cautiously agreed with an idea of investigation (parliamentary commission) led by the Duma. He warned though that the latter might turn into a "political show".

On November 27, 2004, the Interfax news agency reported Alexander Torhsin, head of the parliamentary commission, as saying that there was evidence of involvement by a foreign intelligence agency. He declined to say which, but said "when we gather enough convincing evidence, we won't hide it".

On January 28, 2005 the parliamentary commission revealed their investigation found that Russian and Beslan government officials did not do all there best to prevent the attack.

Russian authorities claimed that the hostage-takers had "listened to German hard rock group Rammstein on personal stereos during the siege to keep themselves edgy and fired up."

On May 17, 2005, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, the sole survivor of the suspected hostage-takers, was put on trial in Vladikavkaz. He has been charged with terrorism, murder, hostage-taking and other crimes. Nur-Pashi Kulayev is represented by Umar Sikoyev.

On December 26, 2005 Russian prosecutors investigating the siege on the school claimed that authorities had made no mistakes.. Family members of the victims of the attacks have claimed the security forces of incompetence, and have demanded that authorities be held accountable

Criminal trial

File:Nurpashikulayev.jpg

First day of his trial

In May 2005, the only known terrorist to survive the Beslan massacre, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, was a defendant in Russian court in the republic of North Ossetia. He pleaded not guilty. All local lawyers refused to defend Kulayev. Albert Pliyev was appointed, reluctantly, as his lawyer. The local people at the time wanted to either lynch the defendant or sentence him to death penalty. 1,343 people act as the injured party on the trial. Kulayev has been charged with murder, terrorism, kidnapping, and other crimes and has pleaded guilty on seven of the counts. In May 2006, he was found to have committed an act of terrorism as well as murder. Ten days later on May 26th 2006, Nur-Pashi Kulayev was sentenced to life in prison. Judge Tamerlan Aguzarov said Kulayev deserved the death penalty, but was spared because of a moratorium on that sentence. No appeal was filed by either defendant or prosecutor

Domestic repercussions

Allegations of incompetence and official inquiries

The handling of the siege by Vladimir Putin's administration has become a subject of criticism by a number of observers and grassroots organisations, amongst them the Mothers of Beslan and Voice of Beslan, as well as initially the European Union – though the latter later backtracked saying it had been misunderstood.

Foremost is the criticism that the storm of the school was needlessly brutal, alleging heavy weapons, flame-throwers and tank guns, had been used while there were still captive and alive hostages. Officials have also been confronted with the accusations that they not in earnest tried to negotiate with the attackers and moreover provided incorrect and inconsistent reports of the situation to the media. The local provincial leaders are further criticized for through corruption having allowed the attack to take place. Also questioned is the professionalism of the Russian special forces, and in particular that they failed to keep the battleground secure from entry by civilians or exit by the militants.

On the whole the censure is denied by the Russian government, though Vladimir Putin has admitted to a certain lack of professionalism and understanding in handling the crisis, and Alexander Dzasokhov, the head of North Ossetia resigned his post in May 31, 2005 after pressure from Mothers of Beslan on Putin to have him dismissed. North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiev also resigned shortly after the crisis. At the same time, Vladimir Putin fired the head of the republic's Federal Security Service (FSB) branch, Valery Andreyev. In addition, to address the lingering doubts, the Russian government launched an independent parliamentary investigations led by Alexander Torshin, which in December 2005, resulted in a report which put partial blame on local authorities, for “a whole number of blunders and shortcomings" . Another separate public inquiry headed by Stanislav Kesayev concluded November 29, 2005 that “government officials and military leaders handled the situation poorly”, while a third investigation headed by General Nikolai Shepel acting as deputy prosecutor at the trial of the surviving terrorist Nurpashi Kulayev found no fault with the security forces in handling the hostage crisis.

Allegations of censure

Two reporters known as openly critical to the government could not get to Beslan. Andrey Babitsky, a journalist with the Russian service of Radio Free Europe — Radio Liberty, was indicted of mischief after an alleged conflict with security guards in the Moscow Vnukovo Airport and sentenced to a five-day arrest (see external links). The Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya fell into a coma in the airplane bound to Rostov-on-Don and had her health seriously damaged. There are concerns that the incident with Babitsky was provoked by the "request of a militsiya member" and that the Rostov-on-Don airport's medical test results were "destroyed", though there are no conclusive evidence and the cases remains speculative.

Regional medical workers were stripped of their mobile phones and forbidden to leave local hospitals at the end of their shifts, in what is suspected to be a move to suppress leaks of casualty figures and related information.

Raf Shakirov, chief editor of the Izvestia newspaper, was forced to resign after criticism by the major shareholders of both style and content of the Saturday, September 4, 2004, issue [3]. In contrast to the less emotional coverage by other Russian newspapers, Izvestia had featured large pictures of dead or injured hostages; it also expressed doubts about the government's version of events (listen to CBC's The Current).

This together with an inadequate information management during the crisis, has led to accusations of censorship, though private news agencies published articles critical of the authorities, during and after the crisis, and no actual evidence exists of President Putin trying to interfere with any independent media institution.

According to a poll by Levada-Center conducted a week after Beslan crisis, 83% of polled Russians believe that the government has been hiding at least a part of the truth about Beslan events from them.

Increased security measures have been introduced in Russian cities. More than 10,000 people without proper documents have been detained by Moscow police. At least one incident of police violence has been recorded. Magomet Tolboev, an aide to Duma deputy from Dagestan, was beaten on a street in Moscow by two policemen because of his Chechen-sounding name.

Russian president Vladimir Putin had proposed changes to the political system. According to his plan, governors of Russia's oblasts, which were directly elected under the current system, are now appointed by the president. The election system for Russian Duma has also been changed. The reform plans drew criticism from the United States and European countries, as well as from Russia's liberals. Some critics have alleged that Putin is trying to increase his personal power, using the Beslan crisis as an excuse.

At the same time Putin suggested to create the Public Chamber that would control state bureaucracy, law enforcement and task force bodies.

Russian public appears to be generally supportive of increased security measures. Levada-Center poll found 58% of Russians supporting stricter anti-terrorism laws and death penalty for terrorism. 33% would support banning all Chechens from entering Russian cities

Charity efforts

File:UK Sun Front Page,Beslan School Terror, 2,Sept 6,2004.jpg

Charity effort by The Sun, a tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom

Countries and charities around the world donated to funds set up to assist the families and children that were involved in the hostage-taking. As of the end of 2004 the International Foundation For Terror Act Victims had raised over $1.1 million with a goal of $10 million.

The Beslan town council, itself having organised a charity fund, announced that it would donate $36,000 to aid the victims of the December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean Earthquake. The council stated that "The whole world reacted to our tragedy, so we cannot remain indifferent either".

In January 2005, an international group representing the organization "Children As the Peacemakers" travelled to Moscow and Beslan on a Peace Mission. The group consisted of 9 Americans, 2 Canadians and 1 Japanese in addition to guides and translators. There were four children in the delegation. The mission was to create a new section of the 'Banner of Hope' dedicated to the victims.

Croatian capital Zagreb offered a free vacation to the Beslan children on the Adriatic. The former mayor of Zagreb Vlasta Pavić was one of the first foreign polititians to visit the school hostage site.

During Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's visit to China in November of 2005, the Chinese Health Ministry announced that they were sending doctors to Beslan, and offered free medical care to any of the victims who still needed treatment.

Main article: Beslan charity efforts.

International response

The attack at Beslan was met with international abhorrence and universal condemnation.

The UN Security Council, in a Presidential Statement of September 1 2004, condemned the attack in the strongest terms and urged States actively to cooperate with the Russian authorities in efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. The UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on September 7 2004 further condemned it as a "brutal and senseless slaughter of children" and "terrorism, pure and simple".

The Romano Prodi on behalf of the European Commission on September 3 2004 responded by calling the: "Killing of these innocent people is an evil, despicable act of barbarism.".

President Bush of the United States in a speech to the UN General Assembly September 2004 said of the terrorists at Beslan that they: "measure their success [...] in the death of the innocent, and in the pain of grieving families". And further in 2005 called it "the terrorist massacre of schoolchildren in Beslan".

At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II condemned the attack as a "vile and ruthless aggression on defenceless children and families"

Nelson Mandela of South Africa called the attack an "inhumane and barbaric act of terrorism”, saying that "in no way can the victimisation and killing of innocent children be justified in any circumstances, and especially not for political reasons".

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the terrorist attack as "a barbaric act".

The Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi responded saying the international community should pool efforts in the face of the blind barbarity of international terrorism.

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that no aim or situation could justify taking children hostage.

The Israel government offered help in rehabilitating freed hostages. Immediately after, an experienced Israeli trauma team was sent to Beslan and later Russian psychologists working with the victims of the massacre received help on training by Israeli experts in Israel.

A group of international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, condemned it as an “abhorrent [...] action” and a “displays [of] callous disregard for civilian life" and further that it was “an attack on the most fundamental right - the right to life; our organizations denounce this act unreservedly.".

Media

Books

• Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools (ISBN 0976775301)
• The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-Terrorism (ISBN 389821608X)
• Black Widow. Fictional crime story by Sandy McCutcheon. (ISBN 1920769749) (McCutcheon's personal blog on the book)

Films

• Beslan (2009). Feature film produced by Firefly Films. Producer: Matthew Hobbs. Currently in development.
• Children of Beslan (2005). Produced and directed by Ewa Ewart and Leslie Woodhead. HBO Documentary Films and BBC co-production.
• Three Days in September (2006). Directed by Joe Halderman, narrated by Julia Roberts. Full Credits Trailer

See also

• Yanis Kanidis
• Nur-Pashi Kulayev
• Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis (June 1995)
• Moscow theater hostage crisis (October 2002)
• Russian apartment bombings
• School massacre
• List of hostage crises

External links

News articles and features

• "The School." Feature by C.J. Chivers. Esquire, June 2006, Volume 145, Issue 6. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Killers Set Terms, a Mother Chooses." A 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner by Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "One little boy was shouting: 'Mama.' She couldn't hear him. She was dead." The Telegraph. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Beslan Children Testify". By Yana Voitova, St. Petersburg Times. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "School siege timeline" BBC News, September 4, 2004. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
  • "Attackers storm Russian school BBC News, 1 September 2004. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
  • "Force ruled out in Russian siege", September 1 2004 BBC News. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
  • "Group released from siege school", September 2 2004 BBC News. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
  • "Bloody end to Russia school siege", September 3 2004 BBC News. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
  • "Siege school yields more bodies", September 4 2004 BBC News. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
  • "Graphical timeline and basic overview", September 4 2004 BBC News. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Eyewitness accounts" BBC News. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Hostages murder detailed report", September 2 2004, Caucasus Times. Preserved by Internet Archive. Last accessed July 17 2006.
• "Kazbek Torchinov saw bodies thrown out early morning September 2", Novaya Gazeta. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Where could the missing persons have gone", Izvestia, September 6, 2004. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Preserved by Internet Archive. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "On the Moscow Vnukovo airport conflict", Radio Free Europe, September 3, 2004. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "on Anna Politkovskaya falling into a coma", Novaya Gazeta, September 4, 2004. Anonymous translation. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "On medical workers having phones removed, Gazeta.ru, September 4, 2004. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "On the investigation", Lenta.ru, September 7, 2004. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Report on Ruslan Aushev's September 28, 2004 press conference in Interfax", newsru, September 28, 2004. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Russian press review. English overview of Russian press reaction", The Guardian, September 6, 2004. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Global press review examining how Putin should respond", The Guardian, September 6, 2004. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Angry Putin rejects public Beslan inquiry", The Guardian, September 7 2004. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Missing hostage photos", Novye Izvestia. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Grieving in Beslan" by Anastasiya Lebedev, MosNews, September 14, 2004. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Beslan: The Sick Sense", Analysis of the logic behind choosing Beslan as a target. By Gary Brecher, The eXile alternative newspaper. Last accessed July 17, 2006.

Memoirs, tributes and obituaries

• "Web site made by hostages. Some sections in English.", Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com". Last accessed July 17, 2006.

Photos and videos

• Terror in Russia. An interactive feature, New York Times. Last accessed July 24, 2006
• "In pictures. The Beslan School Siege", September 2004, The Guardian. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• Photo reports [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Russian TV broadcasts siege video" BBC News, September 7 2004. Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "http://www.utro.ru/gallery.shtml?20040903storm,1,147,,240 List of screen shots from BBC News & CNN". Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Shamil Basayev: "We have got much to tell much about Beslan..."". Last accessed July 17, 2006.
• "Photos at MosNews". September 15 2004. Last accessed July 17 2006,
• "Beslan. To remember school siege victims", BBC News. Last accessed July 17 2006.
• Dispatches Beslan, Documentary with interviews of people directly involved and affected by the siege.
• Life after Beslan. Kevin Sites photo essay (15 images). Last accessed August 7, 2006.

Investigation and trial

• Day-by-day transcriptions from criminal trial Template:Ru icon, Template:En icon. [9]. Last accessed July 17, 2006.

Charity

• Fund for victims of Beslan attack (www.MoscowHelp.org). Last accessed July 17, 2006.