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Downloaded from the and Teachers to Gather in the School’S Gymna- Internet, Condemning the Hostage Taking FORUM Between Budennovsk and Beslan Zaindi Choltaev and Michaela Pohl Abstract: This article discusses the hostage tragedy in Beslan (North Ossetia) and its connection to Russia’s war in Chechnya and to Vladimir Putin’s do- mestic policies. The authors argue that Russia is embracing the war on terror, but Russia’s leaders are not really interested in putting an end to the terror. They have not made an effort to find out or tell the truth about its causes, to fight the all-pervasive corruption that is an important factor in all of the lat- est major attacks, nor to find convincing social and political solutions in Chechnya. The current initiatives leave society with lies and terromania and strengthen those who profit from a continuation of the war on terror and the war in Chechnya. Keywords: Beslan (North Ossetia), Chechen-Russian conflict, Chechnya, Vladimir Putin, Russia Statements to the effect that Beslan “became a 300,000) is as if in France one were faced with day of reckoning, which henceforth will di- a range of 6 to 20 million corpses (Glucks- vide the country’s modern history into ‘before mann 2003). The emphasis on Beslan as an ex- Beslan’ and ‘after Beslan’” (Kots 2004), or that traordinarily shocking event also shrouds its it was a ‘cataclysmic event’, comparable only connection to a long string of acts of terror in to September 11 or the collapse of the Soviet Russia, which have taken more than a thou- Union (Straus 2004), obscure one of the most sand lives since Shamil Basaev’s seizure of a devastating episodes in Europe’s recent his- hospital in Budennovsk in 1995. President tory: the war in Chechnya.1 This conflict has Putin told the nation that it is “dealing with lasted longer than any other war in Europe in the direct intervention of international terror the twentieth century (1994–6, 1999–present). against Russia, with total and full-scale war”, It has turned the Chechen capital, Grozny, but the roots of terror in Russia are not inter- into a bizarre landscape of ruins the sight of national. And indeed, Putin’s political initia- which shocked even Putin, who ordered the tives since Beslan continue the domestic poli- bombing of the city, and it has turned the cies that he has pursued since 1999. Chechen republic into a zone of chaotic and ultra-violent ‘special operations’ in which death, humiliation and torture are common- What happened in Beslan? place experiences. As the French philosopher André Glucksmann has argued, the range of On the morning of September 1, just after the estimates of civilian deaths (from 100,000 to school opening ceremony in School No. 1, a Focaal – European Journal of Anthropology 44 (2004): 155–162 156 | Zaindi Choltaev and Michaela Pohl still unknown number of terrorists (thirty- calls. On Friday morning Aushev planned to three to thirty-seven, among them two to make a repeat visit together with Aslak- five women) stormed the buildings and hanov to acquaint the terrorists with a state- forced more than 1,200 students, their parents ment by Maskhadov, downloaded from the and teachers to gather in the school’s gymna- Internet, condemning the hostage taking. sium, which they mined. After 11:00 AM, they Starting Wednesday night, army, Federal Se- purportedly issued a statement in which curity Service and Interior Ministry troops they threatened to blow up the building in and special equipment, including troops the event of a storming and demanded the from the special anti-terror units Alpha and presence of the Ingush president Murat Vympel, were concentrated in and around Ziazikov, the president of North Ossetia Beslan. At 1:05 PM on the third day, while Alexander Dzasokhov and pediatrician Dr. waiting for the arrival of Aslakhanov, sev- Alexander Roshal for the purpose of negoti- eral powerful explosions took place and ations. Around 2:00 PM, the terrorists sent chaotic shooting erupted near the school and out a videotape that showed the gymna- all around town, including fire from flame- sium’s interior, while officials announced throwers, tanks, helicopters above the school that about two hundred people had been and from what Aushev later called “a foolish taken hostage. The sole negotiator to arrive third force” (Muratov 2004), armed groups of in Beslan that day was Dr. Roshal, who late local men concentrated around the school. that night began to talk to the terrorists by While the terrorists fired from the school and phone, and never entered the school. Others some attempted to leave it, special force communicated with the terrorists as well, in- troops and soldiers entered the building and cluding the president of the Rusneft oil com- opened fire on terrorists who had managed pany. The hostage takers first asked for to take up positions in adjacent houses. water and food, then refused to accept it, Around 3:30 PM, the speaker of the North and moreover threatened to shoot fifty hos- Ossetian parliament called on local resi- tages for every terrorist killed. During the dents to scour Beslan for terrorists. Around take-over and when the building’s electric- 5:00 PM, a group of men found and beat to ity was turned off, they shot over a dozen death a man presumed to be one of the men and some of the older schoolboys. hostage takers. The shooting and search for At 6:30 AM on the morning of September 2, terrorists went on until late in the evening officials announced that 354 people were in- of September 3. The official count of vic- side the school. A number of former hostages tims, which has been contested, remains at have stated that from that point on nobody 329, about half of them children. was allowed to drink, not even the water that This very rudimentary narrative of the was available in the school’s toilet. On the af- events, based largely on eyewitness accounts, ternoon of the second day, former Ingush including that of Aushev, leaves out the an- president Ruslan Aushev arrived in Beslan, guish and fear of the hostages, the pitiless and, after talking to the hostage takers by determination of the terrorists, the stench, phone, decided to enter the school. He was the feces and blood on the floor of the gym- allowed to take out a small group of eleven nasium, the bodies of the murdered hostages women and fifteen infants, as well as a letter in and around the school, the chaos that en- addressed to President Putin that demanded sued after the storming of the school began, the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya. the empty looks on the faces of the children According to Aushev, the terrorists were carried from the school, their naked, emaci- willing to negotiate with the former Chechen ated bodies, the panic on the faces of the president Aslan Maskhadov and invited tele- townspeople. For all the bareness of this de- phone calls from “any federal minister”. scription, however, very few people in Rus- During the night from Thursday to Friday sia can say more about the events in Beslan negotiations continued in the form of phone with any certainty. This leaves us with an Between Budennovsk and Beslan | 157 enormous amount of questions. Who was re- did the investigating officer in charge of the sponsible for operative decisions in Beslan, case – while other policemen involved in and what were their plans? Did they plan to Pumane’s detention were rewarded with storm the school, and when? Why the ap- prizes and medals for their ‘professional pearance of complete paralysis before Sep- conduct’ and for saving people from yet an- tember 3? Why did the authorities lie about other terrorist attack. Another case was the the number of hostages, and why did they lie unsuccessful recent attempt to blame the about the absence of demands from the ter- murder of Paul Khlebnikov, the editor of the rorists? Why did the presidents of Ingushetia Russian edition of Forbes Magazine, on two and North Ossetia refuse to negotiate, and Chechen men. why was Putin silent throughout the events? The country has been seized by terroma- Why were the local men not kept from inter- nia. Gangs of young men roam the subway, fering? How many terrorists have actually beating ‘Caucasian nationals’, others burn perished, and how many are in custody? down Armenian and Azeri kiosks and res- The investigation that has taken place so taurants, shouting: “This is for the terror!” A far raises even more questions. The parlia- wave of attacks on foreigners and dark- mentary commission headed by Alexander skinned people in St. Petersburg this year Torshin, made up of members from the State has resulted in at least three deaths (a Tajik Duma and the Federation Council, has been girl, a Syrian student and a Vietnamese stu- unable to interview senior Federal Security dent). Russians seemed unmoved: almost ex- Service and Interior Ministry officers who clusively foreign students attended a recent were present in Beslan. Its members have demonstration to protest ethnic and xeno- talked to Beslan townspeople, former hostages, phobic violence and the inaction of the au- medical personnel and ordinary soldiers. Some thorities. The airports have been seized by an of them, perhaps out of frustration, have con- epidemic of passenger self-justice. People in ducted themselves rather unprofessionally – public transport eye each other suspiciously. for example, Iurii Savelev, who announced Chechen students told us that small groups in a recent interview that he planned to ask of passengers regularly leave the car when- Ruslan Aushev why the terrorists let him go ever they get on a bus or subway.
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