World shocked, furious over Russian tactics

Catholic New Times, Sept 26, 2004

CAIRO -- An Islamic online site took a decidedly different stance to the horrific hostage-taking and murders in Beslan.

IslamOnline.net showed a negative stance against President Putin's handling of the crisis and its "lies" coming to the fore.

The Russian government admitted that it lied to its people about the scale of the hostage crisis, that ended with almost 400 children, parents and teachers dead in the school of the southern Russian state of North Ossetia.

The Washington Post, a leading U.S. daily, said the extraordinary admission on state television came after days of intense criticism from citizens, seeing the move as marking a sharp turnabout for the government of President Vladimir Putin.

The broadcast included no apology and referred only to the most blatant misstatement by officials, the claim that only 354 hostages were inside the school.

The Kremlin-controlled Rossiya Network, also aired gripping, gruesome footage it had withheld from the public for days and said government officials had deliberately deceived the world about the number of hostages inside School No. 1.

The Europeans were reported by The Guardian newspaper to have joined the fray, with the first muted criticisms of Russia's handling of the siege--and the protracted Chechen crisis--amid outpourings of humanitarian sympathy. The Dutch government, which holds the European Union presidency, asked the Russian authorities to explain "how this tragedy could have happened." Diplomats at Valkenburg in the Netherlands, where EU ministers met, said Latvia, the former Soviet republic, had also pressed other states to react more strongly to Russia's conduct of the security operation.