School attacks could further inflame tensions in Caucasus

[Cascadian]

I know some of you are tired of hearing about this but this had to be posted in my view as this is not going to go away.

This is something that I have been reading a little bit about today. After viewing the funerals of the loved ones and friends of those murdered in the school in Beslan, Russia, do not think that the surviving members of the families are not going to go out for blood. If you know the history of that particular region, you will know that they go by the "eye for an eye". They take that very seriously. The majority of people in the town of Beslan are Ossetian peoples. The Ossetian people are primarily Orthodox Christians. The Chechens and Ingush are Muslim. The history of hatred for each other runs deep in this part of Russia. This attack could raise the spectre of a wider conlfict.

The mourning period for the Orthodox faith is 40 days. Watch what happens after that.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/13015039?source=Evening

http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1298637,00.html

[bobbieinok]

1. thank you for these links...pictures at 1st, many reports at 2nd

guardian has good articles on Chechnya

[rhite5]

2. Related Story

A few hours ago CommonDreams put up a related story from the Guardian

Published on Monday, September 6, 2004 by the Guardian/UK

Bombers' Justification: Russians are Killing Our Children, So We Are Here to Kill Yours

by Jonathan Steele

 Details began to emerge yesterday as to what may have driven the school siege militants, as yet unidentified, to commit such a horrifying act against children. Witnesses reported that the hostage-takers had attempted to justify their brutality by claiming it was an act of revenge for the killing by Russian forces of Chechen children.

Margarita Komoyeva, a physics teacher released the day before the terrible climax in Beslan, said: "One of them told me: 'Russian soldiers are killing our children in Chechnya, so we are here to kill yours'."

The words were amplified yesterday on a website that is close to Shamil Basayev, the most extreme Chechen commander, whom Russian officials think was the mastermind behind the Beslan atrocity. "However many children in that school were held hostage, however many of them will die (and have already died) ... it is incomparably less than the 42,000 Chechen children of school age, who have been killed by Russian invaders," said the statement on www.kavkazcenter.com.
.........
There are suspicians that weapons caches were laid during the summer holidays when some remodeling was done at the school. Some evidence of false walls. Interesting possibilities.

Several former hostages report that they were forced to dig up the floor at the school to unveil a cache of weapons underneath. This has led to suspicion that they were hidden when the school was remodeled during the summer holidays, possibly even by Chechen workers. .... (more)

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0906-22.htm

[Cascadian]

4. I was reading in the paper that the terrorists argued over doing this.

It was in the Seattle Times. Some of the captors did not want to hold children hostage. The ringleader of the group had some of his own cohorts killed to make his point. The ringleader called "The Colonel" wanted to spark a wider war in the Caucasus.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002028443_russia07.html



He may get his wish. :scared:


John

[allemand]

3. And that was the intention of the terrorists: to inflame the whole region

The cruelty and barbarity of the attack were cynically calculated.