World leaders expressed horror on Friday at the bloody end to the Russian hostage crisis, calling it a tragedy that resulted from a ”nauseating” and ”barbaric” terrorist attack.
United States President George Bush, speaking just days before the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, said the large-scale hostage-taking in Russia was ”another grim reminder” of terrorist tactics and mourned the loss of life in a raid to end the stand-off.
”We stand with the people of Russia, we send them our thoughts and prayers in this terrible situation,” he said.
European Union foreign ministers, whose back-to-work meeting after the summer holidays was overshadowed by the Russian drama, called it a ”deep human tragedy” but conceded that Moscow seemingly had no choice in the outcome.
The comments came after the fast-moving and unexpected end to the hostage crisis in the north Ossetia town of Beslan, where special Russian forces had been besieging militants holding more than 1 000 people hostage in a school.
According to the Interfax news agency, more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more wounded in the climax to the nearly three-day standoff.
In Washington, the US State Department condemned the hostage-taking, saying ”this was a particularly barbaric act of terrorism that put at risk the lives of dozens of children as well as their parents and teachers,” departmental spokesperson Richard Boucher said.
German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said ”terrorism must be fought wherever it presents itself”.
”Terrorists with no conscience tried to achieve political objectives by killing people,” he said.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned all terrorist acts.
”He was horrified to learn that a large number of children and others have lost their lives or were injured during the last few hours,” his spokesperson said.
The Vatican lamented the ”astonishing ferocity” with which the hostage crisis ended. Messages of condolences also came in from Greece, Israel, Egypt and Portugal, among other countries.
Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer spoke with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov to express his condolences and emphasised further cooperation is needed to combat terrorism.
”Nato condemns this and all acts of terrorism, and will continue to work with Russia to combat this menace,” De Hoop Scheffer said in a statement.
Polish Prime Minister Marek Belka said he was ”shocked and outraged” by the assault on the school by the Russian forces.
”I never imagined that an anti-terrorist unit could go so far. All the limits have been over-stepped. It’s impossible to go any further,” he said. But he also condemned the hostage-takers, saying: ”Terrorism is terrorism, and there is no justification for it.”
Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik called the hostage-taking ”a senseless and nauseating terrorist act”, while Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi expressed his ”horror and pain” at the denouement of the crisis.
In a statement he condemned the ”blind barbarism of terrorism”, but also acknowledged the ”relief of the hostages who were freed thanks to the actions of the Russian forces”.
The Dutch foreign minister, who broke off from the EU talks to address a hastily organised press conference on the Russian crisis, said: ”We are confronted with a deep human tragedy.”
He added he had ”learned with very great sorrow that many of the hostages have been killed and there are many wounded”.
He said Russian authorities, having tried in vain to keep negotiations going, ”saw no other way out but to take these measures”.
”It is very difficult to judge from a distance whether the right decision has been taken or not,” he said. ”But I think the Russian authorities have considered very carefully this situation before deciding to take this action.”
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, asked about the Russian hostage crisis as he went into the talks, expressed ”complete solidarity with President [Vladimir] Putin and the Russian government as well as profound sympathy and concern for those poor children and their teachers and their parents are relatives and friends.”
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said: ”I cannot imagine any reason which would justify taking children, babies and their mothers hostage. Of course the Chechen conflict can only be resolved by political means.”
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said though Moscow could be criticised for its handling of the Chechen crisis, nothing could justify taking children hostages.
”I am afraid that this was a means to attract the most attention,” she said. ”We have gone beyond all the limits of cruelty.” — AFP
