Russian Dead Hostages May Have Exceeded 1,000

The hostage crisis that happened in the Beslan gymnasium of the Republic of North Ossetia in southern Russia ended by blood-shedding suppression on September 3, remained as the worst hostage-taking tragedy in history with a death toll of more than 1,000.

The Russian prosecution announced that “330 people died in this bloody affair, including 155 children.”

However, the final death toll seems to increase considering the Russian daily newspaper Izvestiya’s report that “the number of casualties will be more than 500.”

A total of 60 out of around 420 injured people are seriously wounded, and even the number of missing, whose life or death has not been confirmed has reached about 260. The AFP reported that there are at least 349 dead bodies in a state morgue, quoting the words of a staff member.

The number of hostages the Russian authorities understood at the time of the crisis was 1,181. They confirmed only 240 dead bodies out of 330 found at the site have been identified.

The investigation authorities said, “We shot 26 hostage takers to death and captured three alive out of around thirty. Some of the hostage-takers succeeded in escaping, and the Russian authorities are chasing them.

It is known that ten Arabic and one Black Muslim are included among them. Izvestiya reported that they are likely to be al-Qaeda members.

Russian president Vladimir Putin visited the scene of accident on September 4 and said “Russia will not yield to terror.” But there is much blame both at home and abroad over the number of victims due to unreasonable operations in a situation where most hostages were children.

Counterterrorism specialist John Mcaleese, who was once in the Special Air Service (SAS) of the U.K., said “There are strong impressions that the Russian army focused on shooting hostage-takers to death rather than on saving hostages while performing their operation.”

Meanwhile, the Russian authorities explained, saying, “there was no planned operation, and the forces entered the site in order to save hostages when the noise of shots was heard and explosions were seen inside the school.

The analysis that this affair will remain as a heavy political burden for Putin in the future is predominant.

North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev resigned, the first Russian high official to do so over the crisis, on September 5.

Ki-Hyun Kim kimkihy@donga.com