Russia mourns hostage killings, questions mount for Putin
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-06 09:02

Flags flew at half-mast across Russia on Monday at the start of national mourning for 338 people killed when Chechen rebels seized a school, while questions mounted over President Vladimir Putin's policies.

Officials appealed for calm in the Caucasus region, a volatile mix of religious and ethnic groups with old hatreds, as anger welled up amid grief on Sunday at the first burials of those killed in last week's bloody hostage crisis.

Relatives and neighbors carry the bodies of two sisters Irina,13 and Alina,12 Tetova, during their funeral in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya on September 5, 2004. The sound of weeping mothers who lost their sons and daughters in Russia's school siege drifted out of the homes of Beslan as the first burials were held for some of the 338 people killed. [Reuters]

"If I see a Chechen or an Ingush, I will kill him, or his mother, or his son," said a young man searching for his sister who went missing in the siege. He declined to be named.

Putin has declared two days of national mourning on Monday and Tuesday over the deaths in the hostage crisis, which ended in a fierce battle on Friday between the rebels and Russian troops. Television entertainment programs will be canceled.

Osetian police officer patrols the cemetery in Beslan, North Ossetia. The first funerals for the some hundreds killed in the Russian hostage siege took place in Beslan. More than 300 people were killed as a result of the three-day school siege in southern Russia. [AFP]

Wailing mothers mourned -- half of those killed were children -- as burials began on Sunday in a soccer-field sized patch of wasteland cleared for graves in Beslan in the mostly Orthodox North Ossetia province, bordering Muslim Chechnya.

The shock and grief of the town's residents was clear at the funeral of Alina Khubechova, who celebrated her 11th birthday the day before the rebels -- some with bombs strapped to them -- seized more than 1,000 hostages at the school.

WHITE RIBBONS

A Russian woman crosses herself in front of candles during a memorial service in Moscow for the victims of the three-day school siege in the southern Russia town of Beslan. [AFP]

Her parents grasped a picture of the pretty girl with white ribbons in her brown hair.

"Beslan is such a small town. What did we do to deserve all this?" said one mourner, who gave her name only as Zoya.

Her question struck a chord with many Russians and some officials expressed remorse or offered to quit over the carnage.

A worker leaves the dome as the Russian state flag flies at half staff over Moscow's Kremlin, early September 6, 2004. Russia will observe two days of mourning on Monday and Tuesday for 338 hostages who died in the school siege in Beslan, as uncomfortable questions started arising about how the hostage drama could have happened. [Reuters]

"I want to beg your pardon for failing to protect children, teachers and parents," North Ossetian President Alexander Dzasokhov said with tears in his eyes as he visited wounded children in hospital.

The province's interior minister, Kazbek Dzantiyev, went even further and submitted his resignation. It was rejected.

But the burning issue was how Putin, a former KGB spy, would handle the fallout.

In just over two weeks, rebels -- who have waged a 10-year armed uprising in Chechnya for independence -- have also been blamed for bringing down two airliners, killing 90 people, and a suicide bombing in which nine people were killed in Moscow.

Hug in Beslan : Two girls hug while they stand at the destroyed school gym in Beslan, North Ossetia. [AFP]

This has prompted serious questioning about whether Putin can deliver on a pledge he made on taking office in 2000 to restore order in Chechnya.

REBELS BLAMED

Official accounts of the bloodiest hostage crisis in decades say Russian troops stormed the school only after the rebels started firing on children fleeing in panic from two explosions.

Putin said on Saturday Russian forces needed to rethink their approach to tackling such emergencies.

Relatives cry at the funeral of victims of the school siege in Beslan, north Ossetia, Sunday, Sept. 5, 2004. Wails of mourning echoed through the streets of this southern Russian town on Sunday in the wake of the school hostage taking that left at least 350 people dead. [AP]

But questions persist about the way the storming was conducted and how the rebels managed to get huge quantities of explosives and ammunition into the school.

"(My brother who was at the school) 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," said Soslan Bidoyev, 23.

The fact that the gunmen were widely believed to have come from North Ossetian neighbor and territorial rival Ingushetia was another huge headache for officials.

Dzasokhov urged Ossetians not to give in to their emotions.

"We should not give a present to those who want the worst for our country, who want to see it split," he said, a call echoed by leaders in Chechnya, Ingushetia and other regions.

North Ossetian officials said 428 people remained in local hospitals and 260 were unaccounted for. Some of the seriously wounded were taken to Moscow and other cities.

Russian television showed footage of a handcuffed, unshaven man, described by officials as one of the hostage-takers, being escorted by masked commandos.

Officials initially spoke of a 32-member group including 10 Arab fighters and said three of the hostage-takers had been captured alive. Later they said all the hostage-takers were killed and three suspected accomplices had been detained.

"This man directly took part in the attack, he is a member of the gang," said Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky.

The man, dressed in a dirty black shirt, said: "I swear by Allah I did not shoot. I swear by Allah I want to live."

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