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Moscow Times
September 8, 2004
Editorial
Beslan Probe Should Be Made Public

We may never learn exactly who or what set off the tragic chain of events at the Beslan school last Friday, but what was obvious from the outset was that the officials put in charge of the operation were not equal to the task.

After bombs went off and hostage-takers began firing at fleeing children, armed local men were allowed to storm the building. They hindered the trained commandos and even killed some of them by accident. No one seemed to be in control.

The law gives the Federal Security Service the lead in anti-terrorism operations, but there was no evidence the FSB was in command. FSB director Nikolai Patrushev flew to North Ossetia on Thursday, on President Vladimir Putin's orders, but he was nowhere to be seen when the situation began to unravel, and has not appeared in public since. Patrushev put one of his deputies in charge of the command center, and let regional FSB chief Valery Andreyev face the television cameras and lie about the number of casualties.

In a televised address to the nation the next night, a visibly distressed Putin admitted that Russia needs a more effective security system.

The issue now is what will be done to bring this about. The Kremlin's past policy of giving the security and law enforcement agencies more money and power to fight terrorism has not worked.

For starters, the government should form an independent commission to conduct a public and comprehensive review of what went wrong at Beslan, along the lines of the 9/11 commission in the United States.

Putin called for an "organized and united civil society" to confront the terrorist threat. A public review would help to engage the society that Putin has so successfully sidelined over the past four years.

This is unlikely to happen, however. Putin has ruled out a public inquiry, even by a parliament that he has brought to heel. He called instead for an internal investigation.

One can only guess what Patrushev and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev will recommend after reviewing their own actions and those of their subordinates.

There also is little hope that the State Duma will open an investigation. In a shameful display of indifference, the Duma Council refused to call deputies back from their vacations to hold an extraordinary session during the hostage crisis.

Yet such an investigation is needed to help prevent other cities and towns from experiencing the horror of Beslan. This would be the best tribute to the people killed in the school and the commandos who gave their lives to save as many as they could.