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The
hostage-taking ended in a bloodbath
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ESLAN,
Russia
, September 4 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – More than 322
people, including 155 children, were killed and at least 700 others were injured
in the three-day hostage siege,
Russia
's deputy prosecutor general said Saturday, September 4.
"We
are still identifying the bodies. We have recovered 322 bodies, 155 of
them are children," Sergie Fridinsky told reporters.
"These
are not the final figures, and they will probably grow, but not by too
much," Fridinsky was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as
saying.
He
also said that 26 hostage-takers were killed in the attacks.
Press
reports said that more than 13 of them are at large from the school,
as the militants divided themselves into three groups as part of
escape plans – much to add to what experts call a grave failure of
Russian forces to end the crisis.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin has ordered the closure of
North Ossetia
's borders, reportedly to hunt down the fleeing militants.
More
than 1,000 children and parents are reported to have been inside
Beslan's No 1 school when the hostage-takers seized the building
Wednesday, September 1.
The
toll marks the highest in any single hostage-taking in the history of
Russia
, which has gone through a decade of warfare in separatist
Chechnya
.
The
three-day siege ended in scenes of horror that the press described as
the "worst possible scenario", with half-naked, bloodied
children fleeing from the school and the mutilated bodies of the dead
rushed out on stretchers.
Dozens
of unexploded bombs remained in the building, hampering efforts to
bring out burned corpses still in the school gymnasium where the
hostages were held, an interior ministry official said.
Many
adults and children remain unaccounted for, and some relatives of
hostages are still at the scene.
Questions
Remain
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Putin ordered Ossetia borders closed (AFP)
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"All
of Russia suffers for you and prays together with the people of the
republic," said Putin during his unannounced pre-dawn visit to
Beslan, in the Caucasian republic of North Ossetia, where he visited
some of the 700 wounded in the storm of the school building by crack
troops.
Questions
remained about the circumstances of the assault, but Putin insisted
that special forces had not planned the action to free the hostages,
held without food or water by armed militants demanding independence
for
Chechnya
.
"We
examined all possible courses of action at Beslan, but use of force
was not planned," the ITAR-TASS agency quoted Putin as saying
during his meeting with local and national officials.
But
European Union foreign ministers meeting in
Brussels
said the EU would ask
Russia
to explain how such a tragedy could have been allowed to happen.
The
EU statement implies concern not only about the behavior of Russian
security forces at the siege, but also about
Moscow
's reliance on harsh military force in
Chechnya
, the BBC News Online.
The
hostage takers reportedly asked for independence of
Chechnya
as a condition for releasing hostages.
Chechnya
has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, with just three years of
relative peace after the first Russian invasion of the region ended in
August 1996 and the second began in October 1999.
Moscow
has refused to withdraw from
Chechnya
, as human rights groups have accused Russian soldiers of committing
aggressions and abuses in the republic during the two massive
invasions.
At
least 100,000 civilians and 10,000 Russian troops are estimated to
have been killed in both invasions, but human rights groups have said
the real numbers could be much higher.
International
human rights watchdogs said in a
joint statement released in April that rape, torture and
extrajudicial executions by Russian troops have become everyday
occurrences in
Chechnya
.
What
Happened?
Some
experts and analysts speaking to the media blamed Russian forces for
precipitating the use of force to defuse the crisis.
Polish
Prime Minister Marek Belka said he was "shocked and
outraged" by the Russian assault on the school.
Officials
said before the shooting broke out that they were not for the moment
contemplating use of force to end the standoff.
Only
minutes before the bloody operation went under way, President of
Northern Ossentia state, scene of the school crisis, told the families
of hostages that military solutions for the crisis were ruled out by
Moscow, at that stage.
But,
on Friday morning, negotiations between the authorities and the
hostage-takers were under way and it seemed the crisis might be
controlled.
The
violence began as medical workers drove into the school complex on a
pre-arranged mission to collect the bodies of those who had been
killed when the school was first seized, the BBC News Online said.
Two
explosions, which reports suggest came from inside the heavily mined
school, seem to have prompted hostage-takers to begin shooting
indiscriminately.
Hostages
panicked and tried to flee, while Russian special forces stormed the
school in what they later said was an unplanned operation.
The
assault quickly developed into nightmarish scenes of chaos with
screaming, bloodied and half-naked children wailing in the arms of
running soldiers as artillery and automatic weapons fire burst around
them.
The
regional interior ministry said that most of the victims died when the
school's roof caved in following massive explosions, which survivors
said were caused by bombs hung from the ceiling falling down.
Russian
officials said militants staged a well planned attack after first
scouring the area and then disguising themselves as workers rebuilding
a gym.
They
said explosives were stashed in the base of the school before the
hostage taking, amid press reports the militants could have bribed
road police for moving across the city.
On
October 23, 2002
, Chechen fighters seized a theater in southeast
Moscow
, taking the entire audience hostage, including several dozen
foreigners.
More
than 129 hostages died in the theater when Putin ordered troops in
during a 2002 siege
of a Moscow theater.
