 Reuters Photo
|
|||||||
Posted on 09/05/2004 9:16:08 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - The sound of weeping mothers who lost their sons and daughters in Russia's school siege drifted out of the homes of Beslan on Sunday as the first burials were held for some of the 338 people killed.
|
|
|||||||||
Alina Khubechova celebrated her 11th birthday the day before Chechen separatists seized her school last week. Four days later her grief-stricken parents buried her, grasping a picture of the pretty brown-haired girl with white ribbons in her hair.
In the first sign of officials taking responsibility for the bloodbath, the North Ossetia region's Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev offered his resignation. 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 (news - web sites)'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 near a Moscow metro station.
FUNERAL PROCESSIONS
Ambulances that on Friday ferried the injured to hospital, spent Sunday standing by at the funerals to help relatives overcome with grief. Grieving relatives left front doors and windows open, according to local custom.
"Beslan is such a small town," said Zoya, who attended Alina's funeral. "What did we do to deserve all this?"
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 recognizing him by his clothing."
Orthodox churches across Russia held memorial services and Putin declared Monday and Tuesday days of national mourning.
Putin, a former KGB spy who came to power four years ago promising to stamp out separatism, said the security forces needed to rethink their approach to tackling such emergencies.
Questions have persisted about the storming of the school and how the gunmen managed to transport huge quantities of explosives and ammunition into the school.
Soslan Bidoyev, 23, was shocked by his brother's account of events at the school when it was 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.
Such accounts strengthened the view that the gunmen were well prepared and had local help, and fueled 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.
The Russians did not cause this.
ISLAMIC TERRORISTS did.
Of course, Reuters has never heard of an Islamic terrorist.
Well it does look like WWIII is upon us. We had better be prepaired to fight and to hit the muslims with everything weve got. Thats what it seems like they are willing to do to us. To Quote a fellow Freeper "It takes an islamic terrorist to raize a village". Hes right.
"Invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity."
-- Ann Coulter, 2001
Say it again!
We tolerate Muslims at our own peril.
If they could be 'reasoned with' it would have happenened centuries ago.
Jesus loves you. Allah wants you dead.
Ok, I still don't get it. Can someone explain this "Religion of Peace" thing to me again?
I was away from any news yesterday but come back to see this? How long had the supplies been under the floor? Surely the janitor would have known if there was something different about the flooring. This is bigger than what everyone imagined.
I don't think they're done counting the number of dead. This could acutally get worse.
Thou only Creator Who with wisdom profound mercifully orderest all things, and givest unto all that which is useful, give rest, 0 Lord, to the soul of Thy servant who has fallen asleep, for she has placed his trust in Thee, our Maker and Fashioner and our God.
Look through the threads yesterday... one of them explained that the terrorists cased three schools and then chose Beslan because there were construction projects underway. I think it said that they got jobs there and hide the weapons/explosives as they worked on gymnasium.
"It takes an islamic terrorist to raize a village".
The Muslime Islamist bastards infiltrated via the work men during the school renovation in July, they brought in the heavy weapons and explosives hiding them beneath the very floor the scum helped build.
I have been feeling very inhumane as to the fate of the Muslim religion and the freaks of death whom follow it's tenets. In short, if this pestilence and it's practitioners were removed from the face of the earth in the next ten minute I would not have the slightest remorse.
These brutish thugs may think they have a monopoly on cruelty, they have no idea how cruel and resolved to wipe them out when otherwise normal and peaceful peoples are aroused to make unconditional war upon inhuman monsters.
I for one am now of the mind to allow any measures to eliminate insidious enemies who commit such acts. My actions would make theirs appear to be benevolent and gentle. When pushed over the edge, civilized peoples do uncivilized things to creatures from hell.
This is the biblical Armageddon, it is the war of good versus true evil, for the sake of the civilized world we must be victorious no matter the means or actions taken, no quarter, this war is to the death.
OMG! This is beyond sick. What about all the stories of shady ME characters taking videos of buildings and going through city records where there's access to blueprints and the very city managers themselves (Dallas, NY) who have terrorists ties to Hamas et al? Not only that but the border patrol has reported hundreds of thousands of ME'ers have crossed over in the past year and are trying to blend in with the "hard working looking for a job" illegal Mexicans. Those ME can't pass for Mexican around the border, but for someone who isn't familiar with them in the north, they might be able to get a construction or day job on a crew. How many thousand schools, youth centers, civic centers, churches, or malls have had contruction work done to them in the last six months in America???
BUSH, CLOSE THE FREAKIN' BORDERS!
Some insight through the Haddiths:
Ishaq:308 “Muhammad halted on a sandhill and divided the booty Allah had given him. They congratulated him on the victory Allah had granted. But one of the warriors replied, ‘What are you congratulating us about? We only met some bald old women like the sacrificial camels who are hobbled, and we slaughtered them!’ The Apostle smiled because he knew that description fit .”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
