Russian parliamentary inquiry: Beslan tragedy could have been avoided
Local security forces are accused of errors and shortcomings in the initial findings of a Russian federal inquiry. Everyone in Beslan is sure that they will never know the truth.
Moscow (AsiaNews) Operations to free hostages in the Beslan school were full of "errors and shortcomings." This according to the initial results of the inquiry led by a Russian parliamentary commission on the attack which took place in North Ossetia on September 3, 2004, in which 331 persons, including 186 children, were killed. Meanwhile the results of an investigation by the Vladikavkaz judiciary, mandated by Russian president Valdimir Putin, did not find federal special security forces negligent in preventing the massacre of hostages.
According to local media, no one in Belsan is interested in this latest inquiry. Residents are in fact convinced that no one will ever tell them the whole truth. The Committee of Belsan Mothers, for example, does not agree with today's public statements according to which flamethrowers and tanks were used by the Russian army only during the blitz's final stage and could not have caused harm. The Committee is instead convinced of the contrary.
Alexandr Torshin, the man heading the federal inquiry, has nonetheless stated that the bloodbath could have been avoided if the local security forces had followed Moscow's orders to strengthen surveillance. "The list of failures and shortcomings is long," he added. Torshin explained that two weeks prior to the siege carried out by a commando of Chechen terrorists, the Russian Interior Ministry had sent warning telegrams to Northern Ossetian police departments, which gave orders to increase security in view of the first day of school (September 1). "There was no information on terrorist attack plans," the Senator specified, "but warning telegrams were sent on August 21 and 31." "In those telegrams," he went on to say, "based on intelligence information, there was an order to the Interior Ministry branch in North Ossetia to strengthen protection of all educational facilities on September 1st."
"That could have prevented the terrorist attack, but they were not fulfilled," Torshin added, also criticizing authorities for not having provided from the beginning the exact number of hostages in the school. "The exact number of hostages," he pointed out in his accusations, "was announced only in the afternoon of September 1st and, in any case, officials were still talking about 354 hostages the following day." The exact number, as was later ascertained, was 1,100 persons.
In late November, the results of an inquiry conducted by an Ossetian parliamentary commission pointed out the errors committed by Russian security forces in the September 3rd blitz.
Most of the hostages in Beslan's School no. 1 were killed by explosions and gunfire that brought the drama, which had lasted 3 days, to an end. In order to reach the school, terrorists who were calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops for Chechnya had carried a large number of arms across an area which was under tight surveillance by Russian security forces. Relatives of victims are convinced that this could have happened only with the help or indirect consensus of corrupt officials.
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