Russian children hostage

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-29-2004
Russian children hostage
79
Wed, 09-01-2004 - 1:55pm
I have looked at many different boards, on many different sites on this and I am disturbed by the fact most people seem to be embracing hate. On one site people were advocating extermination of all musilims(sp?). Is any one else disturbed by this?

I think we can all agree that we want the children and other to come out of that school safely. Why don't we each spend a few minutes in prayer to our respective God or gods for the safety of these people and the sanity of our race. I find it so hard to understand anyone advocating the complete extermination of a religion, or group of people. We may not be able to change some of those attitudes, but we can sure as hell try. Compassion is indiginous to all isn't it?

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 12:02pm

Why do we do such horrible things to each other....


More than 100 killed in Russian school siege
Hundreds wounded after 3-day showdown erupts in a bloody climax


BREAKING NEWS

NBC, MSNBC and news services

Updated: 11:18 a.m. ET Sept. 3, 2004



BESLAN, Russia - More than 100 people were killed Friday in and around a Russian school as a three-day showdown between Russian security forces and suspected Chechen militants erupted in a bloody climax.


Amid a series of explosions, gunfire and screams of fleeing children, commandos stormed the building where militants strapped with bombs had held hundreds of captives since Wednesday. Most of the dead were children, and more than half of the 400 people hospitalized were students, Russian officials said.


Amid the chaos and rescue efforts, the Interfax new agency reported that three militants remained blockaded in the basement of the school, possibly including the head hostage-taker. An official said some children were still being held hostage in the building.


Russian officials said the violent conclusion was not part of a planned military operation, suggesting the events may have been triggered by the militants inside the school.


Rising toll
Reports from the scene varied on the numbers of hostages killed, although most reports suggested a gruesome toll.


Officials from Russian emergency services said the death toll was more than 100 while the head of the Regional Russian Federal Security Service said at least 60 bodies have been identified.


Separately, a reporter for Britain's ITV News reported his cameraman saw up to 100 bodies of hostages inside the school's gymnasium, where most of the hostages had been held.


"I was stopped by the Russian soldiers," ITV's Julian Manyon reported. "But our cameraman did manage to get through the door just for a few moments. He told me that in his estimation there are as many as 100 dead bodies, I am afraid, lying on the smouldering floor of the gymnasium where we know that a large number of the hostages were being held."


Interfax said the building's roof had collapsed -- possibly from the explosives some militants had strapped to their bodies -- and that dozens were killed.


The Russian regional health minister said 409 people were wounded, including 219 children.


Not planned
Russia's security chief said the storming of the school was not a planned operation.


"I want to point out that no military action was planned. We were planning further talks," the regional head of the FSB security service, Valery Andreyev, told RTR television.


His comments gave strength to earlier speculation the violent end to the siege in southern Russia may have been started by the Chechen militants inside the school.


Early news reports said the raid came after about 30 women and children broke out of the building, some bloodied and screaming.


Interfax said militants fired at children who ran from the building, and unconfirmed reports said some of the hostage-takers, possibly including women bearing suicide belts, may have taken hostages with them.


"Those children who remained in the school, in general, were not hurt," said a security official quoted by ITAR-Tass.


"The ones who suffered were the children in the group which ran from the school and on whom the fighters opened fire."


Women escaping the building were seen fainting and others, some covered in blood, were carried away on stretchers. Many children were only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gymnasium where they had been held since the militants took the building Wednesday.


The firing subsided after about 45 minutes, but then kicked up again later. ITAR-Tass said the soldiers blew a hole in the building to help with the raid and other reports said some of the raiders had escaped, possibly taking children with them, and were fleeing Beslan.


After seizing the school, the militants reportedly threatened to blow it up if troops tried to rescue the hostages and warned they would kill prisoners if any of their gang was hurt.



On Thursday, the militants had freed about 26 hostages, all women and children, and Russian officials had been in negotiations with the militants since the standoff began.


There were conflicting reports of the number of hostages who had been taken, with official saying about 350 and people among a small group freed on Wednesday saying there were about 1,500.


Militants' identities, demands unclear
The militants' demands had not been clear. Reports after the standoff began Wednesday said the attackers demanded the release of people jailed after attacks on police posts in June that killed more than 90 people in Ingushetia, a region between North Ossetia and the neighboring republic of Chechnya. However, officials said Thursday that the hostage-takers had not clearly formulated their demands.



After negotiations that ran through the night and into Thursday, Alan Doyev, a spokesman for the North Ossetia Interior Ministry, said that "so far we have not heard the terrorists' clearly formulated demands."


Authorities estimated 15 to 24 militants held the school.


The militants' identity was also murky.


Lev Dzugayev, a North Ossetian official, said the attackers might be from Chechnya or Ingushetia.


Law enforcement sources in North Ossetia and Ingushetia, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers were believed to include Chechens, Ingush, Russians and a North Ossetian suspected of participating in the Ingushetia violence.



Chechen rebels wage series of attacks
Russia was on edge following the nearly simultaneous bombings on two jetliners last week, a suicide bombing in Moscow on Tuesday and the school siege.


The upsurge in violence has been a blow to Putin, who pledged five years ago to crush Chechnya's rebels but instead has seen the insurgents increasingly strike civilian targets beyond the republic's borders.


Two major hostage-taking raids by Chechen rebels outside the war-torn region in the past decade prompted forceful Russian rescue operations that led to many deaths. The most recent, the seizure of a Moscow theater in 2002, ended after a knockout gas was pumped into the building, debilitating the captors but causing almost all of the 129 hostage deaths.


NBC’s Branislav Siljkovic, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.



URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5881958/


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 1:31pm

Chechnya want their independence from Russia.


You'll find some informative articles at this link about the abuses the Chechens are suffering at the hands of the Russians............


http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/russia/chechnya/


From the viewpoint of the children...........


http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/russia/chechnya/children/


I saw a documentary, on IFC, about the aweful conditions orphaned children are living under here.


Timeline of Key Events in Chechnya, 1830–2004.


http://www.infoplease.com/spot/chechnyatime1.html


Religion


>"The Chechens and the Ingush are Muslims-Sunnits. Approximately 90% of the Russians, Ukrainians and Belorussians of the Chechen Republic belonged to the Christian Orthodox church, while the others belonged to the Evangelical and the Baptist Churches. During the late 1990's, several Christian priests in Chechnya were kidnapped and murdered.
The intensity of religiosity in Chechnya can be measured by two important indicators. First, several thousand mosques, both regional and district ones, were built during the last 15 years to serve the spiritual needs of this community. Second, in the Russian Federation, only Daghestan exceeds Chechnya in terms of the number of pilgrims who journey to Mecca. One to two thousand Chechens participate in the hadj each year.
Spiritual governance of Checnhya since the early 1990s was in the hands of a body known as the Council of Ulems and of an individual known as the Muftiya. The former is a group of theological scholars and the latter is the head of Muslims. From 1995 until early 2000, the Muftiya was Ahmad Hadji Kadyrov, who has recently been appointed as the head of Administration of the Chechen Republic. In the summer of 2000, a new Muftiya was elected by the Council of Ulems. That individual is the former Iman of the Shatoi, region Ahmed Adji Shaman. "<


Quote from..............


http://www.jmu.edu/orgs/wrni/islam5.htm

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 1:34pm
Heart breaking is a mild term.
Avatar for independentgrrrl
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 2:46pm
Islamists in Russia – This is What They Did -- Don't Wait for Alphabet Networks to Cover This

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1206696/posts

I'd like to know why these children were naked. What did those muslim terrorists DO to them? I bet these children and this community were largely non-muslim.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-02-2004
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 2:58pm
Pas,

The hostage takers are believed to be Chechen rebels that have been commiting various terrorist attacks since 1995. They want to be seperated and freed from Russia and the Kremlin. They are primarily Muslim there whereas Russia is primarily Russian Orthodox. This is my understanding anyway. They were speculating the possibility of Al Quida being involved...but were not making any official word. It is said to be unclear as to whether parts of Al Quida are actually linked to this group.

None the less, it was a terrible, terrible ending to a devestating ordeal. I know it saddens all of us and I am sure that the death toll will rise as the clean up starts. Also I have heard reports that some of the rebels may have taken some of the children with them. Apparently several of the Chechen rebels escaped.

We shall hope for the best and wish the families well.

katlc

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 3:08pm

"I'd like to know why these children were naked."


According to an article, in this or the other thread, they were inside a gym. & the temp's was very high.

cl-Libraone~

 


Photobucket&nbs

Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 3:10pm
I believe the lack of clothing was due to the extremely warm conditions in the gym where they were being kept. I have not heard anything different.
Avatar for independentgrrrl
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 3:26pm
Yes. It was a form of controlling the children. The children used their clothing to trap their urine to drink when their thirst became unbearable.

Muslim terrorists are getting more brazen in their choice of 'soft targets'. Nothing is beneath them--nothing is off-limits anymore to those intent on achieving maximum punch, publicity and paranoia.

Will diplomatic negotiations through the UN stop them? I think not. This is the new world war. Muslim terrorists have no respect for the so-called "infidels". I bet they salivate at the thought of attacking vulnerable children.

Contrary to some government officials beliefs' about diplomacy, one cannot negotiate with psychos. It's either the psychos' way or not at all.

Avatar for baileyhouse
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 3:30pm
I am just saying what I read, I have no idea where you got your information, you didn't mention this when you posted. It appeared you were asking a question, I was just trying to help. I will wait a few days to pass judgement on what went on in there.
Avatar for independentgrrrl
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 09-03-2004 - 3:36pm
After I posted the question, I went to various sites and found a discussion of what the children had to endure. Most of the information I got came from others who had access to cable news and shared them to us non-cable people. The more I learn, the more I am disgusted and repulsed by the militant muslim terrorists.

Oh, and AP had a good article about Muslim terrorists and their increased use of soft-targets. Oh, the wonders of the internet. Instant information within seconds of one's fingertips!

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