First victims of Russian school siege buried

THE sound of weeping mothers who lost their sons and daughters in Russia’s school siege drifted out of the homes of Beslan on Sunday as the first burials were held for some of the 338 people killed.

Alina Khubechova celebrated her 11th birthday the day before Chechen separatists seized her school last week. Four days later her grief-stricken parents buried her, grasping a picture of the pretty brown-haired girl with white ribbons in her hair.

The president of North Ossetia, a southern province where the hostage drama unfolded, apologised for failing to avert it. “I fully understand my responsibility,” Alexander Dzasokhov told doctors and relatives of the wounded children in a hospital in the regional capital Vladikavkaz not far from Beslan.

“I want to beg your pardon for failing to protect children, teachers and parents,” said the regional leader, who looked distressed with tears in his eyes.

Meanwhile, the regional Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev offered his resignation. It was not accepted.

Official accounts say forces moved on the school gymnasium on Friday after Chechen separatists holding 1,000 people hostage started firing on children fleeing in panic from two explosions.

It was the bloodiest end to a hostage crisis in decades.

Half the dead were children. The rest were teachers, parents and relatives attending festivities on the first day of term.

North Ossetian spokesman Lev Dzugayev said 428 people remained in local hospitals and 260 were unaccounted for. A number of serious cases were taken to Moscow and other cities.

The carnage has thrown President Vladimir Putin’s policy in the turbulent Caucasus region into disarray and raised serious doubts about whether he can end Chechen separatism.