$20M in Charity Fails to Reach Russia

[emad]

Thursday September 23, 2004 5:31 PM
The Guardian

By MARIA DANILOVA

Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW (AP) - Ongoing confusion over exactly how many people were taken hostage during a deadly siege at a southern Russia school is delaying the distribution of more than $20 million in charity aid, officials said Thursday.

In the three weeks after the school in Beslan was seized by Chechen rebels, leading to the deaths of more than 330 people, nearly $20.4 million was collected from corporate and private donors in Russia and abroad, according to the Web site of the Regional Development Bank, which is handling the money.

But none of that money has been given to survivors, said Fatima Khabalova, spokeswoman for the North Ossetian parliament. Beslan is in North Ossetia.

The payments have been delayed because of confusion over the exact number of people held inside the school during the deadly Sept. 1-3 siege, said Timur Butayev, a member of the school teachers' committee set up to aid hostage victims.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4509775,00.html

Maybe Jeffrey Archer was put in charge??????????

[JuniorPlankton]

1. Why is it not surprising?

Still, this is peanuts compared to all the theft and looting of the foreign aid that happened in the USSR in the 90s.