Beslan victims face trial over protest

In a clear sign that prosecutorial extremism is not solely a Charlotte County, Virginia, phenomenon, Beslan victims face trial over protest

Dmitry Solovyov writing for Reuters Thursday, Jan. 10, notes Russian prosecutors of Ingushetia, Russia, the southern region near Beslan, charged a protest group with “extremism.”

In a legal maneuver much like, oh, perhaps charging a protest group in America with, oh, dumping, perhaps, the political pressure is on for Beslan protestors to shut up.

The protest group, the one in Russia, that is, began a campaign to alert their public about how the 2004 school hostage siege and raid was bungled by responding officials. It’s a matter of Inconvenient truths garnering negative responses from government officials – sound familiar?

Islamist insurgents seized more than 1,000 people in a school in Beslan, southern Russia, starting a three-day siege that ended in carnage. Half the dead were children.

[The] group Golos Beslana (Voice of Beslan) led by women who lost relatives in the siege, said prosecutors filed charges over a 2005 appeal the group issued…

The Nazran, Ingushetia court scheduled the trial for Monday, the group said on its Internet site www.golosbeslana.ru. Beslan is in the neighboring region of North Ossetia.

"It is self-evident they are carrying out an order from Moscow...They may now declare our organization an extremist one and shut it down altogether," Ella Kesayeva, who co-chairs Golos Beslana, told Reuters by telephone…

"We are a thorn in the flesh for authorities because we are holding an investigation of our own and point to the culprits of the tragedy, including top-level officials," Kesayeva said.

Ingush prosecutors declined to comment.

Campaign groups say officials should stand trial over their role in a cover-up after the negligence.

In its open letter in November 2005, the group said the Kremlin, including President Vladimir Putin, was hiding the truth to protect top officials blamed by Beslan mothers for use of heavy weapons in a chaotic rescue attempt.

Gunmen seized more than 1,000 children and parents at a ceremony in Beslan to mark the new school year in September 2004…

"We believe that tanks and flame-throwers fired on the school at a time when the hostages were held there. We believe our children were deliberately killed," Kesayeva said.

Kesayeva's daughter, aged 12 at the time, survived the hostage drama, while her sister lost two children and her husband in the siege.

Yes, we should be so bold…before these terrorists holed up at RED HOUSE, and at 34 other terrorist cell guerilla-warfare training camps unleash their planned attacks on our children.  

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