Troops fled, borrowed bullets from locals
BESLAN, Russia: Russian soldiers fled as shooting broke out in the spasm of violence that ended the school siege here, and unprepared special forces were forced to borrow bullets from armed locals, residents said yesterday.
As Beslan buried more victims a week after the siege ended, questions lingered over authorities’ handling of the three-day standoff that left at least 330 hostages dead.
“One of the most painful questions that that whole world is asking – why all the events surrounding the Beslan school No. 1 looked so out of control ... probably has an answer: Because nobody was in charge of the operation,” the Russian daily Russkiy Kuryer said in an editorial yesterday.
People from around the Caucasus region of North Ossetia continued to come to Beslan and added to a growing mass of flowers and wreaths at the school.
Mourners also have left piles of food and bottles of water – which the captors denied the hundreds of children, parents and teachers who were there Sept. 1 to mark the first day of a new school year when gunmen seized the building.
Not a single room at the school was left untouched by the attack. Down the hallways, shrapnel from grenades and blood spattered the walls along with hundreds of bullet holes both inside and outside the building.
Town children have been collecting rocket-launcher tubes used in the battle and left scattered around the school.
Residents said they had rushed to the scene after hearing officials drastically understate the number of captives at 350 – when they knew there were really more than 1,200 inside.
Locals feared it meant authorities would storm the building and then lie about how many people were killed, also possibly provoking the terrorists.
“From the start, (authorities) weren’t doing things right,” said Artur Belikov, 35, attending a wake at the graves of his relatives Albina Budayeva, 38, and her 3-year-old daughter, Valeria. He said armed locals charged ahead of special forces troops to prevent them from moving in.
But Katya Tsikayeva, 69, also at a wake at Beslan’s cemetery, argued that troops should have immediately stormed the building. “Why did they wait a second day, a third day – to let so many die?”
Another Beslan resident who called himself Robert said he arrived soon after the siege started and stood guard throughout the entire standoff.
He demurred when asked how he got the gun he used since private citizens aren’t normally allowed to keep weapons in Russia. However, the myriad of conflicts that have erupted here since the 1991 Soviet collapse have made weapons easily available.
Robert, who didn’t give his last name, said rescue workers were retrieving bodies that lay outside the school Sept. 3 when an explosion inside sent children fleeing. Terrorists began shooting them in the back – prompting the forces gathered outside to open fire.
He said conscript soldiers fled as the fighting began.
“They were worried about their own lives,” said Robert, 31, who had several relatives inside.
Locals handed their clips of ammunition to elite troops who didn’t have enough bullets, Robert said. “They weren’t ready,” he said of the special forces.
The arrival of some of the elite troops also was delayed because they didn’t have bulletproof vests, residents said.
The siege left 11 soldiers from Russia’s elite special forces units dead, according to official statements – their largest number killed in a single battle. Some reports have said they were shot in the back by overanxious locals at the scene.
Gena, an Interior Ministry warrant officer from a nearby region who wasn’t involved in the battle, also said it appeared authorities had no plans for what to do when mayhem broke out.
– AP
Last update on: 11-9-2004