BESLAN, Russia – A shaken President Vladimir Putin made a rare and candid admission of Russian weakness Saturday in the face of an “all-out war” by terrorists after more than 350 people – nearly half of them children – were killed in a hostage-taking at a southern school.
Putin went on national television to tell Russians they must mobilize against terrorism. He promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption.
“We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten,” he said in a speech aimed at addressing the grief, shock and anger felt by many after a string of attacks that have killed some 450 people in the past two weeks, apparently in connection with the war in Chechnya.
Shocked relatives wandered among row after row of bodies lined up in black or clear plastic body bags on the pavement at a morgue in Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, where the dead from the school standoff in the town of Beslan were taken. In some open bags lay the contorted, thin bodies of children, some monstrously charred.
In Beslan, people scoured lists of names to see if their loved ones survived the chaos of the day before, when the standoff turned violent Friday as militants set off explosives in the school and commandos moved in to seize the building.
Beslan residents were allowed to enter the burned-out husk that was once the gymnasium of School No. 1, where more than 1,000 hostages were held during the 62-hour ordeal that started Wednesday. The gym’s roof was destroyed, windows were shattered and walls pocked with bullet holes.
Regional Emergency Situations Minister Boris Dzgoyev said 323 people, including 156 children, were killed. More than 540 people were wounded, mostly children. Medical officials said 448 people, including 248 children, remained hospitalized Saturday night.
Dzgoyev also said 35 attackers – heavily armed and explosive-laden men and women reportedly demanding independence for the Chechen republic – were killed in 10 hours of battles that shook the area around the school with gunfire and explosions.
Putin made a quick visit to the town before dawn Saturday, meeting local officials and touring a hospital to speak with the wounded.
During his visit to Beslan, Putin emphasized that security officials had not planned to storm the school – trying to fend off potential criticism that the government side had provoked the bloodshed. He ordered the region’s borders closed while officials searched for anyone connected with the attack.
“What happened was a terrorist act that was inhuman and unprecedented in its cruelty,” Putin said in his speech later. “It is a challenge not to the president, the parliament and the government, but a challenge to all of Russia, to all of our people. It is an attack on our nation.”
Measures would be taken, Putin promised, to overhaul law enforcement agencies, which he acknowledged are infected by corruption, and to tighten borders.
“We are obliged to create a much more effective security system and to demand action from our law enforcement organs that would be adequate to the level and scale of the new threats,” he said.
With families gathering for wakes for the dead on Saturday, some were vowing vengeance.
“Fathers will bury their children, and after 40 days (the Orthodox mourning period) … they will take up weapons and seek revenge,” said Alan Kargiyev, a 20-year-old university student in Vladikavkaz.
Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) visits a hospital to meet victims of the school hostage crisis Saturday in Beslan, Russia.
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