Russian school siege town buries first of its dead

BESLAN, Russia – The sound of weeping mothers who lost their sons and daughters in Russia’s school siege drifted out of the homes of Beslan yesterday as the first burials were held for some of the 338 people killed.

In the first sign of officials taking responsibility for the bloodbath, the North Ossetia region’s Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev offered his resignation, although it was not accepted. “After what happened in Beslan I have no right to hold this post, both as an officer and a gentleman,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted Dzantiyev as saying.Official accounts say forces moved on the school gymnasium on Friday after Chechen separatists holding 1 000 people hostage started firing on children fleeing in panic from two explosions.It was the bloodiest end to a hostage crisis in decades.Half the dead were children.The rest were teachers, parents and relatives attending festivities on the first day of term.North Ossetian spokesman Lev Dzugayev said 428 people remained in local hospitals and 260 were unaccounted for.A number of serious cases were taken to Moscow and other cities.The carnage has thrown President Vladimir Putin’s policy in the turbulent Caucasus region into disarray and raised serious doubts whether he can end Chechen separatism.The siege followed bombings aboard two airliners and by a Moscow metro station.Weeping parents bore the first coffins to the cemetery where gravediggers had excavated row on row of holes and lined them with bricks.Grieving relatives left front doors and windows open, according to local custom.Others pressed on in search of missing relatives, forced to tour local hospitals in hope, and morgues in trepidation.Rimma Butueva, a doctor, spent days looking for her cousin Rosa, missing along with her nine-year-old son.”We did not give up hope until the end,” she said.”But when we saw her body we understood we wouldn’t find her eldest son.The worst was recognising him by his clothing.”Putin, who flew into Beslan for a few hours early on Saturday, later told Russians the security forces needed to rethink their approach to tackling such emergencies.”We must demand that our security forces act at a level appropriate to the level and scope of the new threats,” he said in a televised address more than 24 hours after the siege ended.”I think the latest series of terrorist acts was aimed at Putin and authorities closely dependent on Putin,” said Sergei Markov, an analyst close to the Kremlin.”They were intended to show that Putin is not in control of the situation.”Orthodox churches across Russia held memorial services and Putin declared Monday and Tuesday days of national mourning.Soslan Bidoyev, 23, was relieved to find his brother in a Vladikavkaz hospital, but shocked by his account of events at the school when it was initially seized last Wednesday.”He told us that when the hostages were brought in, the gunmen made the adults pry open the gymnasium floor.They took out supplies of weapons from underneath the floor,” he said.”He told me the first explosion was right there.”Such accounts strengthened the view that the gunmen were well prepared and had local help, and fuelled the anger of residents who accused Putin of making only a token visit to the town and failing in his duty to protect them.Valery Andreyev, local head of the FSB security service, was quoted by Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy as saying the militants may have received help from local police, possibly because they were coerced.- Nampa-Reuters”After what happened in Beslan I have no right to hold this post, both as an officer and a gentleman,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted Dzantiyev as saying.Official accounts say forces moved on the school gymnasium on Friday after Chechen separatists holding 1 000 people hostage started firing on children fleeing in panic from two explosions.It was the bloodiest end to a hostage crisis in decades.Half the dead were children.The rest were teachers, parents and relatives attending festivities on the first day of term.North Ossetian spokesman Lev Dzugayev said 428 people remained in local hospitals and 260 were unaccounted for.A number of serious cases were taken to Moscow and other cities.The carnage has thrown President Vladimir Putin’s policy in the turbulent Caucasus region into disarray and raised serious doubts whether he can end Chechen separatism.The siege followed bombings aboard two airliners and by a Moscow metro station.Weeping parents bore the first coffins to the cemetery where gravediggers had excavated row on row of holes and lined them with bricks.Grieving relatives left front doors and windows open, according to local custom.Others pressed on in search of missing relatives, forced to tour local hospitals in hope, and morgues in trepidation.Rimma Butueva, a doctor, spent days looking for her cousin Rosa, missing along with her nine-year-old son.”We did not give up hope until the end,” she said.”But when we saw her body we understood we wouldn’t find her eldest son.The worst was recognising him by his clothing.”Putin, who flew into Beslan for a few hours early on Saturday, later told Russians the security forces needed to rethink their approach to tackling such emergencies.”We must demand that our security forces act at a level appropriate to the level and scope of the new threats,” he said in a televised address more than 24 hours after the siege ended.”I think the latest series of terrorist acts was aimed at Putin and authorities closely dependent on Putin,” said Sergei Markov, an analyst close to the Kremlin.”They were intended to show that Putin is not in control of the situation.”Orthodox churches across Russia held memorial services and Putin declared Monday and Tuesday days of national mourning.Soslan Bidoyev, 23, was relieved to find his brother in a Vladikavkaz hospital, but shocked by his account of events at the school when it was initially seized last Wednesday.”He told us that when the hostages were brought in, the gunmen made the adults pry open the gymnasium floor.They took out supplies of weapons from underneath the floor,” he said.”He told me the first explosion was right there.”Such accounts strengthened the view that the gunmen were well prepared and had local help, and fuelled the anger of residents who accused Putin of making only a token visit to the town and failing in his duty to protect them.Valery Andreyev, local head of the FSB security service, was quoted by Moscow radio station Ekho Moskvy as saying the militants may have received help from local police, possibly because they were coerced.- Nampa-Reuters