Beslan School Hostage Crisis

 

This generation will lead us to freedom.

Shamil Basayev

 

The Beslan School Hostage Crisis was internationally condemned as one of the worst terrorist atrocities ever to take place. The fact that a large number of children were taken hostage and killed, and that a total of 344 civilians died, provoked outrage across the political spectrum. Any sympathy that onlookers around the world might have had for the Chechen rebels evaporated when the true extent of the terrorists’ brutality during the siege became known: children had been raped, tortured and murdered by the armed gunmen; mothers had been forcibly separated from their children, often forced to choose which ones to stay with and which ones to leave behind; infants, children, parents and teachers had been crammed into a hot, overcrowded gymnasium wired with explosives for days on end; and the terrorists had refused to allow the removal of dead bodies that lay rotting on the ground during the ordeal. The surviving hostages’ ordeal proved so appalling that some committed suicide after they were set free, while others suffered permanent psychological damage.

As many commentators pointed out, there could be no political cause that could possibly warrant such brutal behaviour, especially towards innocent children and infants. As UN Secretary Kofi Annan announced after the crisis was over:

 

The brutal and senseless slaughter of children only served to emphasize the need for the world community to come together in confronting terrorism.

 

Explosives Wired Up

 

The siege began on September 1, 2004, at School Number One in Beslan, a Russian town in North Ossetia. The school was no stranger to political unrest, having served as a detention centre for the Muslim Ingush people during a period of civil war in 1992. At that time, the Ossetians had killed several of the Ingush. The Ingush were closely allied to the Chechnyans, by religion, culture and a history of oppression. Thus, the stage was already set for further conflict.

In Russia, September 1 is traditionally celebrated as a ‘Day of Knowledge’ by children and their extended families. Parents and relatives often accompany their children to school to take part in a ceremony in which the younger children give flowers to the older children, and the older children take the younger ones into their classes. It was on this day in 2004, when the children and their families were enjoying this innocent ritual at School Number One, that a group of armed terrorists decided to strike.

At 9.30 a.m., 32 terrorists invaded the school, disguising themselves with black masks and wearing belts loaded with explosives. The police were called, and a gun battle immediately broke out, causing terror and panic among the staff, children and relatives at the school. During the battle, five policemen were shot dead, while only one terrorist was killed. The nightmare continued as the terrorists herded 1,300 hostages into the school gym, many of them children. Then, in front of the terrified staff, children and families, the gunmen mined the gym with explosives, circling it with tripwire so that nobody could escape.

 

Bodies in the Playground

 

About 50 hostages had managed to escape during the police shoot-out, but the others were now stuck in the gym, which was becoming hotter and hotter. Government security forces surrounded the school, but there was little they could do, since the gunmen were threatening to kill large numbers of the hostages should the soldiers attack. And their threats proved to have substance when, later that day, the terrorists killed 20 hostages (all of them men) and threw their bodies out onto the playground outside.

Terrified of further reprisals, the Russian government agreed to veto any show of force and attempted to negotiate a peaceful end to the crisis. Leonid Roshal, a paediatrican who had helped to negotiate the release of children in the Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis, was called in to help. The United Nations Security Council was convened at Russia’s request, to see if any conclusion could be negotiated in this way. But these efforts proved fruitless: the terrorists would not allow medicines, food, or even water to be taken into the school for the hostages. In addition, they refused to let medical workers in to the school grounds to dispose of the bodies.

 

Rape and Murder

 

Not only this, but the terrorists then began to abuse the children further. Many of them were by now sweltering in the heat and, becoming dehydrated through lack of drinking water, they took off their clothes. The terrorists then raped some of them, including adolescent girls, while their families were forced to listen to their screams ringing down the corridors of the school.

After negotiations with Ingush leader Ruslan Aushev, the terrorists agreed to release 26 breastfeeding mothers and their babies. In one case, a baby was released on its own, because its mother did not want to leave her other children at the school to suffer at the hands of the terrorists. In other cases, mothers with babies were given no choice in the matter and forced to leave their older children behind at the school. Tragically, some of these older children were later killed.

It was now becoming obvious that the government was dealing with terrorists who were cruel, barbaric and possibly insane. The terrorists now agreed to the removal of bodies by medical workers, but proceeded to shoot two medical workers dead when they entered the school. They also began to fire at the security personnel surrounding the school. A bomb then went off in the gymnasium, and a wall collapsed. In the chaos that ensued, dozens of hostages escaped, but others were killed in the shoot-out between the terrorists and the security forces.

 

Tanks and Flame-Throwers

 

As mayhem broke out, local citizens joined in the fray, appearing at the school with guns and other weapons. The explosives that had been set up in the gymnasium began to detonate, and the building caught on fire. Meanwhile, the Russian army began to deploy tanks and flame-throwers against the terrorists, and a major battle took place. Many hostages were trapped inside the school, unable to escape; others were killed and wounded as the hostilities escalated. Fighting continued into the evening, until the majority of the terrorists were dead; one of them was reported to have been ambushed and beaten to death by angry parents as he was being taken to hospital.

In the aftermath of the battle, the true extent of the damage was assessed, and it became clear that hundreds of hostages, both children and adults, had died during the siege. The Russian government came under criticism for attacking the school with heavy artillery while the hostages were still inside; they argued, however, that the main attack had not commenced until most of the hostages were safe. Be that as it may, an enormous number of innocent civilians, many of them children, had been killed; and also, there was a disturbingly high casualty rate among the security forces.

 

Arab Operatives?

 

After the siege was over, two days of national mourning took place. Thousands of people joined a rally organized by the government in Moscow, to protest at the scourge of terrorism. Yet there was still some confusion as to who, exactly, was behind the attack. A couple of weeks after the crisis, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for it; Magomet Yevloyev, an Ingush terrorist, was also suspected of involvement.

On the face of it, the Beslan school siege was very similar to the Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis and the Kizlyar Hospital Siege, both of which Basayev had been involved in. Yet some suggested that the terrorists in the Beslan incident were not Chechens, because they did not understand the Chechen language and asked to communicate in Russian. The Russian government believes that Arab al-Qaeda operatives were among the terrorists, but this claim is yet to be substantiated.

 

Lynch Mob

 

The only person to be tried in a court of law for the crime was Nur-Pashi Kulayev. He was thought to be the only terrorist who had survived the siege (although Chechen warlord Basayev claimed that several more had escaped). Kulayev was a 24-year-old unemployed Chechen carpenter, whose brother Han-Pashi had once worked as a bodyguard for Basayev. Nur-Pashi had attempted to escape after the siege by posing as a hostage, but he was recognized by members of the crowd, who tried to beat him to death. Security forces eventually came to his rescue.

Kulayev’s defence rested on the claim that he had been recruited by Chechen rebels to attack a military target and had no idea before the siege that he would be asked to take children in a school as hostages. He also claimed that he had not shot anyone during the siege and had saved the life of one young girl. However, there were reports that he had intimidated the hostages, running around with his gun and shouting curses at them. Eventually, he was convicted of committing an act of terrorism and murder, and given a sentence of life imprisonment.

 

Brutal Killer

 

Whatever Kulayev’s true role, it is clear that he was not one of the major players in the drama. It is thought that, although he did not take part in the actual attack, the Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev organized and financed it. Basayev had claimed responsibility for this and numerous other horrific terror attacks in Russia and elsewhere, and was one of the world’s most wanted terrorists. On July 10, 2006, he finally met a fitting end, at the village of Ekazhevo, Ingushetia. As he rode along in a truck packed full of explosives, about to commit another terrorist attack, a bomb detonated, killing him instantly. His remains were identified by DNA analysis. The Russians claimed that their agents had planted the bomb, while Chechen rebels declared that the explosion was an accident. Whatever the truth of the matter, there were few who mourned the passing of such a brutal killer.