Thousands rally in Moscow against terror after Beslan tragedy (07/09/2004)
MOSCOW (AFP) Tens of thousands of Russians massed outside the Kremlin to say no to terror after the Beslan school hostage tragedy, as families pressed on with an agonising search for loved ones still missing.
A sea of people, brandishing banners and Russian flags stood in grief at the deaths of the 335 hostages and rescuers killed in the hostage siege and the 100 killed in plane attacks and a Moscow suicide bombing in past weeks.
But while the emotion was genuine, the officially-approved rally was also brief and felt choreographed, prompting unfavourable comparisons with the uninhibited outpouring of grief seen in Spain after the March 11 attacks.
The Interfax agency cited official police figures as saying 130,000 turned out for the demonstration, an unashamedly patriotic event which took place to the accompaniment of stirring Russian traditional music.
'Terror Is Worse Than Plague', 'The Enemy Will Be Defeated', 'The Victory Will Be Ours', read some of the slogans on banners carried by the demonstrators, who braved the same driving rain that marked funerals in Beslan the day earlier.
Many of those who turned out in front of Saint Basil's Cathedral for the demonstration, which lasted barely an hour, carried images of Saint George slaying the dragon.
"We are not weak we are strong, strong, strong ... We will be victorious," said Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, in an impassioned speech, shaking his fist.
"How can you kill children and shoot them? I came because Russia was slapped in the face and we will not take it," said Valery, a pensioner with a row of medals proudly strapped to his lapel.
However there were some dissenting voices, expressing concern that it needed a rally blessed by the Kremlin and organized by the Moscow authorities to bring people out on the streets, four days after the bloody end to the siege.
"I would have preferred if it the Russians reacted like the Spanish, who didn't wait to be called out and went out onto the street altogether to say no to terror," said Elena Frantsuskaya, 48.
Meanwhile, there was no let-up to the agony of Beslan.
More families buried their dead, while relatives whose missing loved ones have yet to be accounted for as dead or wounded held an emotional meeting with local authorities.
These relatives, clutching photographs of loved ones, exist in the torture of uncertainty. Some claim they even glimpsed their children in the anarchy after the hostage siege ended.
Mzivinari Ochishvili, whose 12-year-old daughter Bella is missing, said: "We have been everywhere, in all the hospitals and in all the morgues. A classmate of hers saw her being taken away in an ambulance and we haven't heard of her since."
"Right now, he's not alive and he's not dead," said Boris Tigiev, the father of 14-year-old Soslan, whose fate remains unknown.
Amid Russia's grief, questions remained over how the siege ended in mayhem and carnage when security forces were forced into an unplanned assault on the school building.
French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin echoed international concerns that the circumstances of the raid, triggered after two massive explosions in the gymnasium where over 1,000 hostages were held, were still unexplained.
"We wish to express both our solidarity in the face of this terrorist act against Russia, but we also wish to have all the necessary information," Raffarin said on RTL radio.
President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with British newspapers, however ruled out a public inquiry into the events and scoffed at any notion that the authorities would negotiate with militants from Chechnya.
Criticism of the authorities, largely relayed through the liberal press, has focussed on how Moscow ministers kept their distance from the town of Beslan, preferring to let local officials handle the siege and take the flak.
So far the only political victim has been the North Ossetian interior minister, Kazbeck Dzantiev, who stepped down at the weekend.
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