Beslan Report Preliminaries
// Alexander Torshin presents draft report on Beslan
Investigation
Chairman of the federal commission to investigate the terrorist act in Beslan Alexander Torshin presented the preliminary results of the commission's work. Without naming specific persons guilty in the tragedy, he accused “responsible Ingushetian and North Ossetian parties” and acknowledged the lack of coordination of the operational center. Victims of the act called the report “inspired optimism” and say that the report is not written “as strongly as it needs to be.”
The last hope for justice was with this commission. After Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Shepel and Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov established that the “grave consequences” of the terrorist act, in which 331 people died, were not connected with the actions of the security forces and operational center to free the hostages, and the commission of the North Ossetian parliament chose complete political correctness when looking for causes, the victims expected the deputy speaker of the Federation Council at least to name the officials whose inaction led to the bloodshed. The final results of the commission will be available in the spring, after the completion of investigations into the explosives and fire, but Torshin has already made it clear that he will not name names.
Torshin stated that the act was organized by rebel leaders Asalan Maskhadov, Shamil Basaev and Abu Dzeit and expressed doubt about the exact number of attackers, although the investigation found 32. The investigation uncovered information that, besides Nurpasha Kulaev, who is now n trial, two other suspects were detained. The commission laso expressed alarm that one of the terrorists killed at the school, Iznar Kadzoev, was killed later in a special operation in Ingushetia. The commission found tat local authorities ignored warnings of a terrorist threat and were ill-prepared for emergencies. The disorganization of the operational center was mitigated, in the commission's view, by the fact that the terrorists had not made provisions for a peaceful end to the situation and did not answer the telephones they were to negotiate on. Head of the department of the FSB gave the order to free the hostages after two explosions were heard in the school. Torshin denied witness claims that tanks fired on the school on the day of September 3. Commission member from the Fatherland Party Yury Savelyev hinted at disagreement within the commission on this point, however. Torshin did not touch on the explosions and fire at the school, citing unpreparedness.
Stanislav Kasaev, chairman of the North Ossetian parliament's investigatory commission commented that “The information presented by Mr. Torshin suits us fully. It confirms many of our positions.” Kasaev added that it still remains to discover who gave the order to give an inaccurate count of the hostages and whether the deception was intentional. Kasaev expressed some disagreement about the negligence of the local authorities. He also asked how federal forces could know that no more hostages were left before allowing the tanks to fire on the school.
Rita Sidakova of the Mothers of Beslan Committee told Kommersant that the committee continues to see the inability of the heads of the operations center to set up effective functions in 52 hours and she expressed satisfaction that Torshin came to a similar conclusion. Beslan Mothers leader Susanna Dudieva was less pleased, however. “The commission had all authority to conduct a strong investigation and could have listed the failings of the security forces with specific names,” she said. Instead of that, “hints are detected in place of what is left unsaid,” she thought.
Zaur Farniev, Vadim Tokhsyrov, Vladikavkaz; Alla Barakhova, Alek Akhundov
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 29, 2005
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