<em>(Author's Personal Impressions after a visit to Moscow from September 1-3, 2004) <br /> <br /> </em> From the available facts of the jihadi terrorist carnage at the North Ossetian town of Beslan in Russia on September 3, 2004, the following reconstruction is possible: </font> </p> <ul> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">All Russian schools re-open on September 1 after the summer vacation. On the re-opening day, the parents accompany their children to the school. The children carry flowers and other gifts for their teachers. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">In view of the terrorist strikes by Chechen terrorists in Moscow since August 24,2004, the Russian authorities had issued a general alert and ordered special protection for sensitive establishments, including for schools in the Caucassus area. An armed guard of four police officers had been posted at the Beslan school, which became the target of the terrorist attack. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Shortly after the children and their parents had entered the school, a group of 25 to 30 terrorists reached the gate of the school in a stolen police van. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">As the police guards at the gate tried to check their identity, the terrorists opened fire killing two of them and injuring the other two. They also killed six parents, who rushed to the assistance of the police guards. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">They then entered the school building and took everyone inside as hostages. There were over 1,000 persons inside, including the children, their parents and teachers. They forced the children into one hall and the parents and the teachers into another. They placed some of the children near the windows in order to discourage any attempt by the security forces to raid the building to free the hostages. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">As the security forces, including special commandos, took up position outside the building, the terrorists announced two demands, which they wanted to be complied with before they would release the children. These were: Suspension of all counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency operations in Chechnya and Ingushetia and the withdrawal of all federal security forces from there. They also warned that they would kill 50 non-Muslim children for every jihadi terrorist killed by the security forces and 20 non-Muslim children for every terrorist injured. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">The Russian authorities then persuaded the Mufti of the local Muslim community to act as a mediator and persuade the terrorists to release the children. The terrorists refused to negotiate with him or with any other member of the local Muslim community. They said that they would negotiate only with the local officials or with representatives of the local non-Muslim community. After some time, they insisted that they would negotiate only with Alexander Dzasokhov, the North Ossetian President, or Murat Zyazikov, the President of Ingushetia or Leonid Roshal, a Russian doctor, who had in the past played the role of a hostage negotiator with the Chechen terrorists. The security authorities agreed to this and brought these three persons to the scene of the incident. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">The jihadi terrorists rejected the requests of the authorities and the intermediaries to let them send food, water and medical assistance for the hostages, particularly for the children. They warned the hostages not to use the toilet. Some of the parents and teachers managed to spread word amongst the students that in order to protect themselves against dehydration, they should eat the flowers which they had brought for their teachers. As the jihadi terrorists noticed the children doing so, they snatched the flowers from them and threw them away. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Many children collapsed and died of dehydration. Others managed to remain alive by drinking their own urine when the jihadi terrorists were not watching them <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Even as the negotiations went on for two days, small numbers of children kept escaping from the school. As they did so, the jihadi terrorists used to fire in the air from the windows in order to scare the other children and prevent them from trying to escape. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">On September 3, a large group of children managed to escape from the custody of the jihadi terrorists. As they did so, the terrorists started firing at them killing or injuring some of them, who fell on the ground. On seeing this, some of the Russian special commandos rushed towards the fleeing children and took them to safety. Other commandos gave them covering fire by firing on the terrorists, who had taken up position near the windows. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Apparently fearing an attempt by the commandos to enter the building, the terrorists started throwing hand-grenades not only at the commandos, but also at the hostages inside the building, in order to prevent any attempt at a mass escape. They also set off some of the explosive devices, which they had with them. The explosions caused the collapse of the roof of one of the halls. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">The commandos thereupon entered the buildings, killed or captured the terrorists and rescued the surviving hostages. About 350 innocent civilians and members of the security forces were killed, a half of them children. While some children died of dehydration, many others died of sheer fright or the injuries sustained by them.</font> </div> </li> </ul> <p align="justify" class="greytext1"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Among the suspected ring leaders of the terrorists, who were present on the spot, were: </font> </p> <ul> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Magomed Yeyloyev also known as Magas, the leader of an Ingush terrorist organization, whose name is not known. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord. A man, who called himself Gorets, meaning man from the mountains and who conducted the negotiations with the three intermediaries. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">A man, who called himself Gorets, meaning man from the mountains and who conducted the negotiations with the three intermediaries </font> </div> </li> </ul> <p align="justify" class="greytext1"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">It is not known whether these three persons managed to escape or were killed by the commandos. <br /> <br /> The series of terrorist strikes in Russia since August 24 have been as great a traumatic experience for the Russians as the 9/11 terrorist strikes were for the Americans. In this connection, the following observations should be of interest:</font> </p> <ul> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Lack of panic: Unlike in the USA where the terrorist strikes led to considerable panic, there was a remarkable absence of panic in Russia. There were no cancellations of air, train or metro travel, the restaurants continued to do brisk business and the people went about their daily routine normally. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Courage of the emergency services staff: Just as in the US on and post 9/11, in Russia too, the members of the security forces and the emergency services staff rose to the occasion and tried to handle the situation in as effective a manner as possible. It would be unfair to blame the security forces for the disastrous finale. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Lack of intelligence: Just as in the USA, in Russia too, while there was considerable general intelligence regarding the possibility of terrorist strikes around this period, no specific intelligence as to how, when and where the terrorist strikes would come was available. The security agencies would also appear to have been unaware of the fact that the terrorists, posing as construction workers, were clandestinely storing arms and ammunition, hand-grenades and explosives in the school premises. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Weak physical security: In the US, physical security was weak before 9/11, but it has been considerably tightened up post 9/11. In Russia, it continues to be weak despite repeated spectacular terrorist strikes. Weak physical security is largely to be blamed for the success of the jihadi terrorists in smuggling the explosive devices into the two planes. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Lack of sharing of intelligence with the public: In the US, since the Pan Am Lockerbie crash of 1988,intelligence agencies share with the public intelligence indicating a serious threat to the public so that the people could be more careful and assist the security forces. In Russia, the Soviet era practice of keeping the public in the dark about the likely serious threats to their security persists. It was being alleged by many that the authorities knew from the first moments of the two air crashes on August 24, that they had been brought down by explosive devices planted by the terrorists, but they avoided admitting this for nearly three days. Similarly, the fact that some of the trained Chechen suicide bombers were still at large in Moscow and could indulge in more serious acts of terrorism were not told to the public till after the Metro entrance explosion of August 31. The public was not alerted to the possibility of a terrorist strike on the school re-opening day. The Russian security authorities avoid sharing information with the public on the ground that too much of sharing could create unnecessary panic and encourage copy-cat terrorism. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Lack of transparency, accountability and open post-mortem into national security failures: In the US, every instance of a major national security failure is followed by innumerable open enquiries by the concerned Congressional committees as well as enquiry commissions appointed by the Executive. Thanks to such enquiries after 9/11, not only the US public, but also the international community knows what went wrong, where and how, who was responsible, what action was taken against him or her, what deficiencies were there, how to correct them, what reforms in the national security management machinery are required etc. In Russia, while in-house enquiries might have been held into past security disasters, the public has not been taken into total confidence about these enquiries, their results and the corrective follow-up action taken. In the absence of information and knowledge, there is hardly any meaningful public debate on internal security management. Unlike in the US, where non-governmental experts play an active role in such matters, in Russia the role of the non-governmental experts continues to be limited. <br /> <br /> </font> </div> </li> <li> <div align="justify"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">Absence of a fusion of the counter-terrorism and counter-terrorist approaches: There is an over-emphasis on the counter-terrorist approach, which believes that if one goes on eliminating the terrorist leaders and their foot soldiers one after the other, the problem will disappear. There is not adequate emphasis on the need for a simultaneous counter-terrorism approach, which treats terrorism as a phenomenon with many dimensions such as the political, economic, social etc and deals with it comprehensively. </font> </div> </li> </ul> <p align="justify" class="greytext1"> <font size="2" class="greytext1">In the Russian population as a whole, there is a belief that Russia would have been able to deal with the brutal terrorism of the Chechen and other jihadi groups but for what is perceived as the double standards followed by the US and other Western countries, which, even while condemning the brutality of the jihadi terrorists, at the same time try to rationalize their bestial acts by talking of the causes for their anger and irrationality, which , in their view, need to be addressed. It is pointed out that while the acts of retaliation of the US and other Western agencies against the jihadi terrorists are projected as legitimate acts of self-defence, retaliatory action taken by the Russian security forces are sought to be projected as acts of vengeance or retribution and allegations of human rights violations are made against Moscow. <br /> <br /> Even well-informed Russians, not known for any prejudice against the West, suspect that the US and other Western powers do not want Russia to emerge as a strong power. It is alleged that they would prefer that Russia remains in a state of weakness and instability and, for this purpose, they do not view the terrorism directed against Russia and its people with the same eyes as they view the terrorism directed against them. <br /> <br /> They view Pakistan as the root source of all jihadi terrorism and accuse it of not taking any action against the Chechen and Uzbek terrorists operating from the Pakistani territory. They point out that the focus of Pakistan's counter-terrorism operations is totally directed at terrorists posing a threat to US nationals and interests. It does not share with Russia and Uzbekistan intelligence relating to the activities of the Chechen and Uzbek terrorists from its territory. It is alleged that whenever Pakistani security forces arrest Chechen and Uzbek terrorists, Uzbekistan and Russia are not informed and the terrorists are not handed over to their agencies for interrogation and trial. They are kept in detention for a few weeks and then quietly released. As against this, whenever terrorists posing a threat to the US are arrested, the US is immediately informed and the terrorists are handed over to the US agencies. <br /> <br /> Despite increasing criticism of President Vladimir Putin's counter-terrorism policy from sections of the media and academic circles, who advocate a more flexible approach, which does not rule out a political dialogue with the indigenous terrorist organizations, the population as a whole continues to support Putin's hard line approach. Their criticism is not of his hard line, but of the ineffectiveness of it. They want a hard line, which is effective and produces results. <br /> <br /> There is a sudden interest in and admiration for the manner in which Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel has effectively implemented a hit-with-no-holds-barred counter-terrorism policy against the jihadi terrorists. Immediately after the Beslan incident, Putin was reported to have telephoned Sharon and sought Israeli advice and expertise in dealing with the jihadi terrorists. <br /> <br /> It is too early to say what changes Putin would introduce in his counter-terrorism policy post-Beslan. More of the same inflexible policy or more nuanced? <br /> <br /> <strong>Mr B Raman is Distinguished Fellow, ORF Chennai.</strong> <br /> <br /> <em>* Views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Observer Research Foundation.</em>
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