yes, the car approached to pick up the two-day-old bodies - they agreed to return them - and then there was an explosion somewhere in the attic, the roof collapsed, hostages made an attempt to escape, terrorists started shooting. There are badly wounded among the former hostages. more or less quiet now. looks even calm.
horrible.
latest: practically the whole school is under special forces control.
Friday, September 03, 2004
The shooting has quieted down. Some locals have been wounded - one woman was shot in the head. Some terrorists tried to escape. NTV is live, just as CNN and BBC World (the main Russian channels STILL have some fucking bullshit, not news, on...) - the journalists don't know what's going on, don't want to comment on what the military's doing. Journalists are about 300 meters away from where it's all happening. Special forces are reportedly inside the school. Mass evacuation of the hostages. Choppers circling the scene.
1 pm news - live explosions and gunfire. Looks like it's something everyone's used to by now. CNN International is covering it better, with a videophone - but very few people have access to CNN here. One of the Russian two main state channels has a Soviet comedy on, the other has some pre-recorded interviews in Beslan. These two channels broadcast all over Russia. The third channel, NTV, relatively private, doesn't reach many of the regions, and they, just like CNN, caught the explosions live, though then they had some technical problems.
1:20 pm - allegedly, there are more explosions there. CNN is covering it live - on the Russian NTV, they have sports news. Unfuckingbelievable.
"This is not good, Jonathan," says the CNN reporter (Ryan Chilcote) to the guy in the studio.
More gunfire, helicopters, a wounded man.
"It appears as if the school is now being stormed..."
"An absolute horror."
The sound of gunfire, explosions and helicopters.
Okay, NTV is live now, too, thank God. But the state channels that EVERYONE can watch have some bullshit on.
An ambulance is driving away.
No one seems to know what's going on. Doesn't look like panic, though.
A Bavaria beer commercial on NTV... (Oh dear CNN please don't go off the air...)
A badly wounded man.
"Security forces are clearly not here - they've moved further in the vicinity of the school."
"We don't know where the wounded people are coming from - from inside the school or from around the school."
A report that the school roof has collapsed.
Many many kids, wearing just panties, drinking water - the soldiers are helping them. More gunfire....
1:40 pm - NTV is back on the air, CNN is taking a break to figure out what's going on - the school roof has collapsed partially when the terrorists blew up the explosives - when they were giving the bodies of the dead...
Some hostages have escaped. Some terrorists escaped with them - soldiers opened fire on them.
1:20 pm - allegedly, there are more explosions there. CNN is covering it live - on the Russian NTV, they have sports news. Unfuckingbelievable.
"This is not good, Jonathan," says the CNN reporter (Ryan Chilcote) to the guy in the studio.
More gunfire, helicopters, a wounded man.
"It appears as if the school is now being stormed..."
"An absolute horror."
The sound of gunfire, explosions and helicopters.
Okay, NTV is live now, too, thank God. But the state channels that EVERYONE can watch have some bullshit on.
An ambulance is driving away.
No one seems to know what's going on. Doesn't look like panic, though.
A Bavaria beer commercial on NTV... (Oh dear CNN please don't go off the air...)
A badly wounded man.
"Security forces are clearly not here - they've moved further in the vicinity of the school."
"We don't know where the wounded people are coming from - from inside the school or from around the school."
A report that the school roof has collapsed.
Many many kids, wearing just panties, drinking water - the soldiers are helping them. More gunfire....
1:40 pm - NTV is back on the air, CNN is taking a break to figure out what's going on - the school roof has collapsed partially when the terrorists blew up the explosives - when they were giving the bodies of the dead...
Some hostages have escaped. Some terrorists escaped with them - soldiers opened fire on them.
Neither food/water nor medications have been allowed in yet. No, really, what would they make of the fucking independence if someone gave it to them?
You know, when it was happening in Moscow, I could at least go there and be with the relatives physically. This time, it's half the world away. The TV programming isn't as upbeat as usual but they are still showing all those soaps and the news is only once every hour. People on St. Pete commuter trains are discussing some of it, briefly, among themselves but I found it quite awkward and couldn't join the discussion because all I wanna do is scream and it seems like some people are feeling the same way and some are just not paying attention or trying not to.
You know, when it was happening in Moscow, I could at least go there and be with the relatives physically. This time, it's half the world away. The TV programming isn't as upbeat as usual but they are still showing all those soaps and the news is only once every hour. People on St. Pete commuter trains are discussing some of it, briefly, among themselves but I found it quite awkward and couldn't join the discussion because all I wanna do is scream and it seems like some people are feeling the same way and some are just not paying attention or trying not to.
It's slightly past noon here and no significant changes.
The terrorists' demand is the independence of Chechnya. It may sound simple - but it's not. (An obvious question is what people like that would make of that independence, even if it was possible...)
Yesterday, there was a rumor that all the male hostages had been killed already. Then the authorities denied it.
Today, even the AP and Reuters, not just gazeta.ru and other Russian dailies, are reporting that there may be over a thousand hostages in there (not 350). 1,500 people is one figure. The relatives outside are updating their lists. Here's one quote:
And this:
I wish these were just signs of panic - but when reporters go live from Beslan, the crowd on the background doesn't look demented, no one is running up to reporters and shout things. That would have been edited out anyway, of course, but there'd still be some indications...
The terrorists' demand is the independence of Chechnya. It may sound simple - but it's not. (An obvious question is what people like that would make of that independence, even if it was possible...)
Yesterday, there was a rumor that all the male hostages had been killed already. Then the authorities denied it.
Today, even the AP and Reuters, not just gazeta.ru and other Russian dailies, are reporting that there may be over a thousand hostages in there (not 350). 1,500 people is one figure. The relatives outside are updating their lists. Here's one quote:
They are giving us this low figure (of hostages). If troops storm the building, the government won't have to say that it killed a 1,000 people," Fatima Kanukova, whose nephew is among the hostages, said.
And this:
Izvestiya said 860 pupils attended School No.1 in Beslan, North Ossetia. But the number of people on the campus would have been swelled by parents and relatives attending the first day ceremony traditional in Russian schools.
I wish these were just signs of panic - but when reporters go live from Beslan, the crowd on the background doesn't look demented, no one is running up to reporters and shout things. That would have been edited out anyway, of course, but there'd still be some indications...
The Chief Rabbi's condemnation is nothing - no one would've noticed if he hadn't said it. The news people were probably just trying to imitate some activity, an update for an update's sake.
With Maskhadov it must be different, though I didn't think about it yesterday. I doubt the TV people will report his condemnation so the online place posted it partly because nothing else was going on, and partly because he did make that statement, which isn't a big deal since he's a "usual suspect" (and rightly so, I guess; maybe he's not directly behind it, but could have been a source of inspiration; this is pure politics, though, and I'm not good at figuring it out).
Anyway, to me those two little updates looked too anti-climactic - you are waiting for the shit to end and instead you get all this empty talk.
With Maskhadov it must be different, though I didn't think about it yesterday. I doubt the TV people will report his condemnation so the online place posted it partly because nothing else was going on, and partly because he did make that statement, which isn't a big deal since he's a "usual suspect" (and rightly so, I guess; maybe he's not directly behind it, but could have been a source of inspiration; this is pure politics, though, and I'm not good at figuring it out).
Anyway, to me those two little updates looked too anti-climactic - you are waiting for the shit to end and instead you get all this empty talk.
This is the second night when nothing's happening - and I can't sleep. I keep checking the online paper, till 5 am yesterday, and it's 4:30 am now - but there are no updates. What's it like for the relatives outside; what's it like for the people inside; are they still without food; and other thoughts that are too scary to touch.
A very subjective observation, possibly wrong and definitely irrelevant:
The Chechens are so "unlucky" - those dimwits do a theater siege in 2002, and everyone in the States is preoccupied with the D.C. sniper; they do a school siege now, and everyone in the States is focused on the Republican Convention. No luck in getting the world's attention. Plus now it seems like they've succeeded in disgusting everyone (including Saudi Arabia) - can't be something they were hoping for. With Moscow it was slightly different - Moscow has more billionaires than NYC (33, I guess, while in NYC there are 31) and even most Russians kind of hate Moscow - it's a different planet, people are too rude there, etc. So there was more room for sympathy in 2002, despite everything, despite common sense. Now, it's the kids, in a tiny, God-forgotten place. Couldn't be worse.
I wonder how some of those heartless, brainless, xenophobic Russians are perceiving it all: some people here are so allergic to everyone from the Caucasus, the blacks, as they call them, the black-assed. And on TV, you see those dark-haired Osetian people, speaking Russian but with that heavy, peculiar accent, all too familiar, and then there are the names, the names of the 25 people who've been released, for example: most of the names are Muslim, even though the majority of Osetians are Christian (history is such a mess). So I'm wondering - do those neo-Nazi-minded people feel any pity. Which way are they trying to bend now. Do they even notice.
A very subjective observation, possibly wrong and definitely irrelevant:
The Chechens are so "unlucky" - those dimwits do a theater siege in 2002, and everyone in the States is preoccupied with the D.C. sniper; they do a school siege now, and everyone in the States is focused on the Republican Convention. No luck in getting the world's attention. Plus now it seems like they've succeeded in disgusting everyone (including Saudi Arabia) - can't be something they were hoping for. With Moscow it was slightly different - Moscow has more billionaires than NYC (33, I guess, while in NYC there are 31) and even most Russians kind of hate Moscow - it's a different planet, people are too rude there, etc. So there was more room for sympathy in 2002, despite everything, despite common sense. Now, it's the kids, in a tiny, God-forgotten place. Couldn't be worse.
I wonder how some of those heartless, brainless, xenophobic Russians are perceiving it all: some people here are so allergic to everyone from the Caucasus, the blacks, as they call them, the black-assed. And on TV, you see those dark-haired Osetian people, speaking Russian but with that heavy, peculiar accent, all too familiar, and then there are the names, the names of the 25 people who've been released, for example: most of the names are Muslim, even though the majority of Osetians are Christian (history is such a mess). So I'm wondering - do those neo-Nazi-minded people feel any pity. Which way are they trying to bend now. Do they even notice.
(Fucking insomnia.)
In the middle of the night, they like to post some rather ridiculous updates:
Yesterday, at around 4 am, Russia's Chief Rabbi condemned the siege. Very strange timing.
Today, around 5 am, Aslan Maskhadov, "the other" President of Chechnya, has condemned it, too. (Maskhadov considers himself the legitimate president of Chechnya - but is considered an illegitimate one by Putin and the rest of the guys.)
In the middle of the night, they like to post some rather ridiculous updates:
Yesterday, at around 4 am, Russia's Chief Rabbi condemned the siege. Very strange timing.
Today, around 5 am, Aslan Maskhadov, "the other" President of Chechnya, has condemned it, too. (Maskhadov considers himself the legitimate president of Chechnya - but is considered an illegitimate one by Putin and the rest of the guys.)
I was too overwhelmed with all the baby images to pay much attention to this piece of news:
Two journalists, Anna Politkovskaya and Andrei Babitsky, have not been able to make it to the town of Beslan today.
Politkovskaya landed in Rostov-on-Don and was hospitalized with an acute poisoning there - lost consciousness, was put on IV and all - someone must have thrown something nasty into her airplane meal to prevent her from unearthing the more profound reasons why a tragedy similar to 10/23 has happened again. Politkovskaya is an amazing person who has a long long history of pissing off the regime and everyone else involved with her stories about Chechnya, in which she really manages to show all sides of the story: corrupt Russian and Chechen officials, poor Chechen civilians, Chechen thugs and kidnappers, sadist Russian soldiers, poor elderly Russians in Chechnya, miserable and underfed Russian conscripts, etc.
Babitsky is a Radio Liberty correspondent; at the airport, they started by searching his bags for explosives, didn't find anything; he was released after an hour and a half, but then two guys tried to pick up a fight with him and he was detained again; allegedly, the guys later told him they were the airport employees and had been ordered to provoke him. Babitsky also has a good deal of Chechnya-related notoriety with this regime (it's 3:30 am here and I'm too lazy to try to remember what happened to him a few years back when he was kidnapped and then exchanged, something very murky, I need to go back to some of my notes to remember; but what I do remember is his confrontation with the late Akhmad Kadyrov during a live political talk show shortly before Kadyrov's death this year: in that episode, Kadyrov revealed himself as a very dangerous man as Babitsky was recounting his experience among the Chechen fighters somewhere in the mountains... I know I'm not making much sense to anyone but myself - but I also know that all this stuff that I'm writing here is more like a personal diary than anything else... It just feels nicer when I can pretend that someone hears me screaming.)
Anyway, these two journalists have been barred from entering the scene - and no one seems to have noticed. Even I have almost missed the significance of it.
There must be a million things that they are willing to hide.
Two journalists, Anna Politkovskaya and Andrei Babitsky, have not been able to make it to the town of Beslan today.
Politkovskaya landed in Rostov-on-Don and was hospitalized with an acute poisoning there - lost consciousness, was put on IV and all - someone must have thrown something nasty into her airplane meal to prevent her from unearthing the more profound reasons why a tragedy similar to 10/23 has happened again. Politkovskaya is an amazing person who has a long long history of pissing off the regime and everyone else involved with her stories about Chechnya, in which she really manages to show all sides of the story: corrupt Russian and Chechen officials, poor Chechen civilians, Chechen thugs and kidnappers, sadist Russian soldiers, poor elderly Russians in Chechnya, miserable and underfed Russian conscripts, etc.
Babitsky is a Radio Liberty correspondent; at the airport, they started by searching his bags for explosives, didn't find anything; he was released after an hour and a half, but then two guys tried to pick up a fight with him and he was detained again; allegedly, the guys later told him they were the airport employees and had been ordered to provoke him. Babitsky also has a good deal of Chechnya-related notoriety with this regime (it's 3:30 am here and I'm too lazy to try to remember what happened to him a few years back when he was kidnapped and then exchanged, something very murky, I need to go back to some of my notes to remember; but what I do remember is his confrontation with the late Akhmad Kadyrov during a live political talk show shortly before Kadyrov's death this year: in that episode, Kadyrov revealed himself as a very dangerous man as Babitsky was recounting his experience among the Chechen fighters somewhere in the mountains... I know I'm not making much sense to anyone but myself - but I also know that all this stuff that I'm writing here is more like a personal diary than anything else... It just feels nicer when I can pretend that someone hears me screaming.)
Anyway, these two journalists have been barred from entering the scene - and no one seems to have noticed. Even I have almost missed the significance of it.
There must be a million things that they are willing to hide.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
No news, just a few corrections and stuff...
25 people were released, not 26. One woman, mother of three children, was allowed to go with one child but she chose to return and stay with the remaining two.
Five citizens of Armenia and two of the Republic of Georgia (a woman and her 7-year-old daughter) are among the hostages.
Two Turkish citizens were released - an Osetian woman married to a Turk and one of her daughters. Her other daughter is still there, inside the school, as a hostage.
Someone trustworthy - a doctor, Leonid Roshal, who became known during the 2002 Moscow theater siege when he assisted and negotiated and acted as a saint in general - said that if it all doesn't end well, there might be a war between the brotherly peoples, the Chechens, Ingush and Osetians...
25 people were released, not 26. One woman, mother of three children, was allowed to go with one child but she chose to return and stay with the remaining two.
Five citizens of Armenia and two of the Republic of Georgia (a woman and her 7-year-old daughter) are among the hostages.
Two Turkish citizens were released - an Osetian woman married to a Turk and one of her daughters. Her other daughter is still there, inside the school, as a hostage.
Someone trustworthy - a doctor, Leonid Roshal, who became known during the 2002 Moscow theater siege when he assisted and negotiated and acted as a saint in general - said that if it all doesn't end well, there might be a war between the brotherly peoples, the Chechens, Ingush and Osetians...
A Russian TV reporter in Beslan says there are no signs whatsoever that the special forces are intending to storm the school - and then he spent about five minutes telling us how he is saying less than he knows because the terrorists allegedly have TV sets and are following all that's being said about the situation. This is so fucking scary. There's always a temptation "to read between the lines" in this country - and what he said may mean that there are actually some plans to do something that would piss the terrorists off. I'm sure there are - but no one knows when they decide to actually do something decisive and, possibly, fatal. Or maybe I'm just too paranoid. Still, I hope the terrorists are too dumb or haven't been paying attention to the news. God, please, let it end quickly and bloodlessly...
On the news now they're saying that the infants were naked because the weather's very hot and it was even more unbearable inside the gym where the hostages are being held, so the mothers took the clothes off their kids. The reason why the special forces guys, not mothers, were carrying most of the kids out is because many of the mothers are still inside as hostages - many of the mothers were there with both their younger and older kids.
There are allegedly four or five Armenian nationals inside, and maybe a few Turks; there are demonstrations in Chechnya and Ingushetia - people there are demanding the release of the hostages; the terrorists refuse to take medicines, food and water for the hostages; the population of Beslan is about 30,000 - everyone outside knows someone inside.
This is so unbearably heartbreaking.
There are allegedly four or five Armenian nationals inside, and maybe a few Turks; there are demonstrations in Chechnya and Ingushetia - people there are demanding the release of the hostages; the terrorists refuse to take medicines, food and water for the hostages; the population of Beslan is about 30,000 - everyone outside knows someone inside.
This is so unbearably heartbreaking.
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