Beslan Massacre: One Year Later

Today is the one-year anniversary of the Beslan school massacre, in which more than 330 Russian men, women, and children were murdered by terrorists. ABC has interviewed the terrorist leader, Basayev, and the Russian government promptly told ABC where they could stick their media requests in the future. Basayev is rightfully called the Butcher of Beslan for his murderous intent - he slaughtered 187 children, along with their parents, teachers, and some of their rescuers.

So kudos to the Russian government to tell ABC where to stick it. They are aiding and abetting a known mass murderer by giving him facetime. Perhaps ABC should have done the decent thing and called the Russians to tell them where to find Basayev.

Do not forget what they did. Do not forgive the terrorists for what they did either.

And remember, those victims could just have easily been you, or your loved ones.

On August 8, 2005, the 331st official victim of the terrorist attack died of her wounds. Also, the new school, meant to replace the one destroyed in the terrorist attack, had been ransacked by vandals.

Beslan's children recall their terrifying ordeal. Meanwhile, the butcher of Beslan would like to blame Russia for the slaughter.

In the statement on the KavkazCenter Web site, Shamil Basayev said a Russian double agent had been among the hostage-takers. He also claimed that a second attacker had survived the three-day siege and was now with Basayev's men and prepared to testify.

Russian prosecutors, however, say all but one of the 32 attackers were killed; the sole survivor is on trial.

The authenticity of Basayev's statement could not be confirmed independently. However, the KavkazCenter site is considered a mouthpiece for his faction and he has never disavowed previous statements that have appeared there under his name.

One of the best sources on the Beslan massacre can be found at Stan's Logic and Sanity. His archives contain lots of information translated from Russian.