- Title: RUSSIA: ANXIOUS RELATIVES WAIT FOR NEWS OF BESLAN SCHOOL SIEGE
- Date: 2nd September 2004
- Summary: (W1) BESLAN, REPUBLIC OF NORTH OSSETIA, RUSSIA (SEPTEMBER 2, 2004) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SCENES) 1. SLV SECURITY POLICE BLOCKING ENTRANCE TO SCHOOL 0.05 2. WIDE OF ENTRANCE TO CULTURAL CENTRE, RELATIVES MILLING ABOUT 0.11 (INTERIORS) 3. VARIOUS OF RELATIVES WALKING INTO CENTRE 0.18 4. VARIOUS OF WOMEN SEATED WAITING 0.28 5. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE SITTING AT TABLES LOOKING EXHAUSTED 0.47 6. SCU SOUNDBITE (Russian) BEROYVA GALINA, RELATIVE, SAYING: "I have three nephews inside there. One of them went for the first primary class and two of them went for the fourth year. My daughter took them there and my sister is working there as a teacher." 1.04 7. WIDE OF RELATIVES SEATED 1.11 8. VARIOUS OF RELATIVES WAITING FOR INFORMATION 1.23 9. VARIOUS OF DOCTOR TAKING BLOOD PRESSURE OF WOMAN IN CULTURAL CENTRE 1.47 10. VARIOUS OF WOMEN WAITING FOR NEWS 2.00 11. WIDE OF PEOPLE SEATED AROUD TABLES 2.09 12. CLOSE OF WAITING WOMAN 2.17 (NIGHT SCENES) 13. VARIOUS OF SECURITY ON THE ROAD LEADING TO THE SCHOOL 2.36 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 17th September 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NATURAL WITH RUSSIAN SPEECH
- Country: Russia
- Reuters ID: LVA1ZJJU018X5KC2GPPHLL738G3L
- Story Text: Sleepless, anxious night for relatives of Russian
school hostages.
Desperate for news, families and friends of some 400
Russian hostages, nearly half of them children, waited
anxiously on Thursday (September 2) in the North Ossetian
town of Beslan, near the war-torn republic of Chechnya.
Their loved ones have been held captive by a heavily
armed gang believed to number 17 who took over a local
school in Beslan on Wednesday (September 1), the start of
the new school year in Russia.
The hostages are now pawns in a violent political game
- but it is not clear who the gunmen are and what exactly
they want.
The assault in North Ossetia province bore the signs of
a Chechen rebel operation and was the latest in a recent
spate of deadly attacks in Russia which have killed more
than 100. Yet Chechen separatists said they had nothing to
do with it.
Groups of armed Chechens have acted independently
before, most notably taking an entire Moscow theatre hall
hostage in October of 2002. That seige was broken by
Russian forces who stormed the building with a potent nerve
gas that disabled the gunmen, but also left over 129
hostages dead.
In 1995 Chechen separatists took hundreds of hostages
in a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk.
More than 100 died during the assault and a botched Russian
commando raid.
These gunmen have warned officials not to attempt
another rescue shoot-out. They have reportedly told
authorities that they will execute 50 hostages for each one
of them that would be killed.
For now, it's a stand-off. A renowned children's
surgeon has arrived in the area, reportedly at the gunmen's
request, to open talks. But shots continued to ring out
through the night. And officials say the gunmen rejected a
request to supply the hostages - perhaps 200 of them
children - with food and water.
It is a test of nerves and political test for President
Vladimir Putin who broke off his seaside holiday to meet
with security officials in Moscow. The Russian leader,
however, made no public comments for the relatives to hear.
Putin, whose hardline tactics over separatists helped
propel him to power in 2000, has also refrained from
commenting on a bomb explosion at a Moscow underground
station on Tuesday evening which killed at least nine
people.
He is, however, apparently talking to George W. Bush.
The Kremlin said he spoke to the U.S. President and
that he received pledges of support from Washington.
Like his U.S. counterpart, Putin has said that his
nation is being attacked and fighting against an
international terrorist network.
Chechen separatist information web site
kavkazcenter.com said that Putin's hardline policies in
Chechnya were ultimately to blame.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
