Beslan 'cover-up' - cop

2005-11-16 10:12

Vladikavkaz - A policeman has accused Russian authorities of concealing the number of people who were held hostage in the Beslan school massacre.

The massacre claimed the lives of 331 people in September 2004.

The fire fight between government troops and the guerillas, killed 186 children and 31 of the 32 hostage-takers who demanded Russian forces leave Chechnya.

On Tuesday, Chermen Khachirov told the trial of the only surviving supposed hostage taker that he had tried to present the authorities with a list of 900 people he believed to have been held captive at the school.

Russian authorities initially said the number of people taken hostage by pro-Chechen guerillas in Beslan, a town in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, was 354.

However, on September 3, the last day of the three-day siege, they revised the figure to 1 200.

Authorities are accused of a cover up

"On September 1, we carried out a door-to-door check (in the Caucasian town) to find out how many children and parents were being held in the school," Khachirov told the Vladikavkaz supreme court. "We drew up a list of 900 names,"

He said he presented the list to the "crisis cell" dealing with the incident but the list was never mentioned again.

Families of the victims have repeatedly accused the authorities of covering up details of the siege, playing down the number of hostages until the final day of the stand-off.

Several other witnesses also testified in the trial of Nurpashi Kulayev, claimed to be the only surviving hostage taker, on Tuesday.

Alexandre Tsiban, a police officer in the special cell set up in response to the crisis, said he could not remember any debate about the number of children being held at the school.

He also denied having participated in a meeting of local anti-terrorist officials about a week before the siege to discuss fears of a terrorist attack.

"I don't remember the thing you're talking about," he told a lawyer for the victims' families, who presented him with a document said to show his participation in the meeting.

- AFP