By Julius Strauss in Beslan
(Filed: 03/09/2004)
Islamic terrorists released 31 women and children yesterday from the provincial Russian school where they continue to hold more than 300 hostages.
With the siege entering its second night, the gunmen continued to refuse offers of food for the hostages, many of whom are surviving on tap water, dashing hopes of an early end to the stand-off. The authorities suggested force would not be used to end the crisis.
More than 120 children of varying ages are being held, with parents, relatives and teachers.
The terrorists, who still have not been publicly identified but are believed to be Chechen extremists or their allies, have demanded that Russian troops leave Chechnya. They have also said Moscow must cease all military operations in the war-torn republic and that rebels seized after a raid in June on nearby Ingushetia, which killed 90, be released from prison.
Outside School No 1, in Beslan, North Ossetia, where the hostages are being held in stifling heat in the gym, hundreds of soldiers, police and interior troops, with armoured personnel carriers, had formed a cordon.
There were harrowing scenes for a second day as exhausted parents and relatives broke down and wept. About 2,000 had gathered near a crisis centre.
President Vladimir Putin made his first public comments, saying that the safety of the children would be his first consideration. "Our main task is to save the life and health of those who have ended up as hostages," he told King Abdullah of Jordan in the Kremlin.
"All the actions of our forces. . . will be devoted to solving this task."
Valery Andreyev, the head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), in North Ossetia, said: "There is no question at the moment of opting for force. There will be a lengthy and tense process of negotiation."
The comments helped to calm nerves among relatives who fear the authorities plan to storm the building as they did when Chechens took 800 hostages in a Moscow theatre in 2002. Then 130 hostages died when special forces used a narcotic gas that disabled the rebels but killed many captives.
This time local officials were quick to reassure parents that force would not used at this early stage, although the children are growing weaker and the authorities may decide there is no option but force.
There were fears that an attack had begun in mid-afternoon when there were two explosions. It appeared that gunmen had fired shoulder-launched grenades at cars that came too close. Last night there were two further explosions.
An official in the joint-command crisis operation said that 16 people were killed on Wednesday - 12 in the school, two who died in hospital and two whose bodies still lay outside the building and could not be removed because of gunfire. Thirteen others were wounded.
At the request of the kidnappers a prominent Moscow doctor, Leonid Roshal, who treated captives during the theatre siege, arrived at the scene and assumed a leading role in the negotiations. He offered the rebels safe passage out of the school, but it was refused.
Dr Roshal said he was negotiating with "Shoikhu", the "press attache" for the group. "They are again refusing to give the children and adults there something to eat, medicine, water and food.
"Of course the freeing is a big victory, but looked at as a whole, it is a drop in the ocean. There is still a lot of work to do.
"In the event of a bad outcome, it will be war. War here, in this dangerous region between brotherly peoples - that cannot be permitted.
"I call for wisdom from the Ossetian, Ingush and Chechen peoples so that such a war never takes place. We would lose thousands of lives. We must prevent it."
The release of some hostages briefly raised spirits among parents and officials. Lev Dzugayev, an aide to the regional president, called the move "the first success".
A heavily-built soldier in camouflage kit was seen carrying a small baby to safety.
"It's all over, you're OK," the Spetsnaz special forces man whispered as he carried the wailing child, aged about three months, past an armoured vehicle.
The children were released after the intervention of Ruslan Aushev, a former president of Ingushetia republic, who is widely respected in the Caucasus.
An FSB spokesman said some terrorists had been identified and they were seeking their relatives to bring them to the school to negotiate.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, joined the condemnation of the hostage-takers and expressed sympathy with the parents and children, saying "their suffering is our suffering".
The way I see it, touch one kid and Chechnya will be turned to rubble.