As he stepped blinking into the glare of the cramped courtroom, a crowd of bereaved mothers confronted Nurpashi Kulayev, the last surviving militant from the gang that seized School Number One in Beslan, screaming: ”Beast! Child-killer!” More than 330 died in the standoff — half of them children — and relatives are still racked by grief and anger.
Yet since that first day of his prosecution on murder and terrorism charges last month, a remarkable change has come about on the narrow pine benches of North Ossetia’s supreme court in Vladikavkaz, crammed at every hearing with black-clad women in headscarves. In a phenomenon some Russian media dubbed ”Beslan syndrome”, some mothers have begun to protect Kulayev, a Chechen, and turn their anger on the Kremlin.
”The only charge he is guilty of is the seizing of the school”, one of the bereaved, Marina Pak, told a hearing. ”He should go through this process as a witness, not as the accused.” Their adoption of Kulayev (24) reflects anger among victims’ relatives who say the state has covered up incompetence or corruption in the siege last September. Many feel the prosecution of Kulayev, expected to get a life sentence, is a distraction from official blunders.
”Everything is already clear with Kulayev,” says Susanna Dudiyeva, fiery head of the Beslan Mothers’ Committee, whose son Zaur (13) died in the siege. ”What we want to see is the heads of the security and law enforcement agencies on trial.” She has criticised prosecutors for asking Kulayev irrelevant questions while calling for him to be protected in prison, to safeguard his testimony.
”I’m afraid that he might have a sudden heart attack or fall down some stairs,” said Dudiyeva. ”Because if he tells the truth about what happened, it will be very inconvenient for some important people.” Dudiyeva has said that, if Kulayev told all he knew, she would ask for him to be pardoned. She and other relatives dismiss a parliamentary commission due to report in October as a sop.
Some witnesses claimed that a sniper’s bullet fired by a soldier outside the school sparked the bloodbath which ended the 53-hour siege, with hundreds of hostages killed by explosions and gunfire.
Others have indicated that an arms cache was hidden in the school before the siege and retrieved by the militants after they stormed it. One former hostage who was preparing to give controversial evidence told the court last week he was approached at night by unidentified security agents and told to ”shut your mouth, or be killed”.
Furious, the committee wrote to prosecutors last week demanding they open a criminal negligence case against Nikolai Patrushev, head of the federal security service (FSB), and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, among others. ”There are many more places for people to sit in the dock next to Kulayev, starting with Putin, down to our local officials,” said Zalina Guburova (41) who sat on the public benches holding up portraits of her mother, Vera, and her son, Soslan (10) who was shot in the head by a militant. Vera (69) died in the fire that some believe was started by incendiary devices fired by soldiers. ”The authorities want to close our eyes to reality,” said Guburova. ”Prosecuting Kulayev was like throwing us a bone, as if to a dog.”
Deputy prosecutor general Nikolai Shepel, replying on Friday to the calls for officials to be prosecuted, said: ”The question about the role of each of them will be considered.” Few expect action. But the mothers are undeterred. ”Our search for truth will continue until the day we die,” said Guburova. – Guardian Unlimited Â