Russian authorities braced for Beslan siege revenge attacks as mourning period ends
Tanik Koizev vows that tomorrow he will kill a member of the rival Ingush ethnic group to avenge the more than 330 people - more than half of them children - who died in the maelstrom of gunfire and explosions. Last week, he finally buried his niece, after a delay in identifying her disfigured body.
The September 3 attack was carried out by militants with links to Chechen rebels, some of whom came from the province of Ingushetia, which borders the province of North Ossetia where the siege took place.
Ossetians say the end of the mourning period could herald an outbreak of inter-ethnic violence among Ossetians and ethnic Ingush who live there.
“There will be violence. It will be quiet - one person at a time,” said Kuizev as he wandered through the burned-out husk of the school, stepping over flowers and stuffed animals left in memory of the victims.
Kuizev’s 12-year-old daughter was among the hostages but she survived.
“They say, ‘Forgive, forgive.’ How do you forgive something like this? How do you explain this? Forgive? No way,” Kuizev said.
“It’s not a secret that we are waiting” for the end of the mourning period, said 67-year-old Sergei Tandaleyev of the village of Sunja. “We will demand that (the Ingush) leave. All of them,” he said. If they don’t, “there will be war,” he says.
Russian authorities have vowed to prevent revenge attacks, dispatching hundreds of extra police and troops to the region. President Vladimir Putin has said anyone who commits revenge attacks would be siding with the terrorists.
At School No 1 in Beslan, the gymnasium walls are lined inside and out with wreaths, and scrawled with graffiti including: “Answer for the children.”
Georgi Kozarev, 34, said: “The elders are saying, ‘No, no, there’s no need for violence’.”
“But an eye for an eye. How does one understand this? How do you forgive it?”
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