Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Russia Buries Its Dead; Toll Rises To 394, 260 Others Missing

Moscow, Sept. 5 (NNN): Russia on Sunday buried some of the victims of hostage crisis in Beslan in North Ossetia with three more children succumbing to injuries taking the toll in school tragedy to 333 as parents and relatives continued to search for the 260 missing.

However, reports quoting morgue officials said the toll in the bloody drama in Beslan city climbed to at least 394.

In a parallel development North Ossetia's Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev has resigned accepting the responsibility for flaws in security leading to the Beslan school siege.

President Vladimir Putin has declared national mourning on Monday and Tuesday, when most of the other terror victims would be buried.

Flags will fly at half-mast and all the entertainment programmes will be cancelled throughout the country, the Kremlin press office said.

The authorities have nabbed three suspected accomplices of school hostage-takers in Beslan,, including a woman. One of them was on wanted in connection with two terror blasts in North Ossetia earlier this year and daring militant raid on the capital of neighbouring Ingushtia's capital Nazran on June 22, ITAR-TASS reported.

The number of dead hostages in Beslan has reached 333, ITAR=TASS quoted the North Ossetian Public Health Ministry as saying. Three children died in hospital on Saturday night, it added.

Earlier the ministry noted that the bodies of 323 people were carried out by rescuers from the school building while another seven victims died in hospitals.

Parents and relatives of 260 hostages of the bloody drama in Beslan school are still unable to trace their dear ones.

In all there were 1,184 hostages inside the school. Four forty eight are still in hospitals of which 69 were in critical condition, official spokesman for the North Ossetian administration Lev Dzugayev said.

Dzugayev did not rule out that many injured were still unconscious and they could not be identified. Scores of dead bodies, taken away to nearby regional capital Vladikavkaz for forensic analysis are also yet to be identified.

Meanwhile, first hostage victims were buried in Beslan today.

Addressing the nation on television yesterday, a day after the school hostage crisis in southern Russia ended in carnage, Putin admitted failings by law enforcement agencies and said he would act to bolster the country's security.

"We have shown weakness in the face of danger and the weak get beaten up," said Putin, who had flown to the North Ossetian town of Beslan.

"We have not paid due attention to defence and security issues. we will, in the near future, take steps aimed at strengthening the unity of the country," the President said in the 10-minute address shown on both state television channels on Saturday.

Putin asked his people to repulse terrorism and announced a three-pronged approach in strengthening security of the multiethnic nation.

"This is not a challenge to the president or Parliament, it is a challenge to Russia... This is an aggression on our country," he said.

Putin blamed the disintegration of the USSR and collapse of the Soviet security machinery for modern Russia's inability to cope with "intervention of the international terrorism".

He said international terrorism wanted "to disintegrate the unity of the country".

The president announced introduction of a system of interaction and coordination of the whole defence and security structures in the North Caucasus, and installation of anti-crisis governance, including functioning of law enforcement bodies on new principles.

He, however, said that it would be done strictly within the framework of the constitution. "The terrorists think... they can scare us with their cruelty, that they will be able to paralyse our will," he said, adding: "We are faced with a choice -- either to fight them off or to agree with their claims."

It is worth mentioning here that children at the school had been celebrating the start of the new school year with parents and staff on Wednesday morning when they were seized by an armed group demanding independence for Chechnya.

The crisis ended in carnage on Friday as Russian troops moved in to end the siege after explosions were heard inside the building.