RUSSIA: Russian security forces were blamed for negligence contributing to the massacre of children at Beslan high school in a parliamentary report released yesterday.
In unexpected and stinging criticism of local leaders and police, inquiry chairman Alexander Torshin said regional police failed to follow orders that could have stopped the attack.
The report contradicts another report - released just two days before - by the Russian Prosecutor's Office which found security forces blameless.
Mr Torshin's report blames local leaders for failures in security which allowed rebels to seize the school and hold children and teachers hostage for three days prior to a massacre that left 331 dead in September 2004.
He told MPs in Russia's parliament, the Duma: "The list of failures and shortcomings is long."
Negligence and carelessness by officials allowed the hostage-takers to cross the supposedly guarded provincial border with Ingushetia, he said. Also, regional officials in North Ossetia had ignored instructions from the interior ministry to upgrade security around schools, despite warnings that an attack was being planned in the region.
Relatives of the dead say the report is too skimpy: "We had the right to expect something more weighty from Torshin," said Ella Kesayeva of the Beslan Mothers Committee.
This report contrasts with preliminary findings earlier this week by deputy prosecutor general Nikolai Shepel, which found nothing remiss in the conduct of the authorities. The fact that this is the third official report into what is the worst massacre of the six-year-old Chechen war shows the depth of controversy that Beslan still causes.
Last September, an inquiry by the local North Ossetian parliament - while ruling that the terrorists were the culprits responsible for letting off mines hung over the heads of children kept as hostage - also savaged federal officials. Further controversy has come following the trial, which began in May, of the one surviving terrorist, Nur-Pashi Kulayev. His account has contradicted that of security forces.
Local people are demanding an explanation about the extent to which armoured cars and napalm-style weapons were used in the battle with the terrorists. They want to know whether these could have contributed to the fire that engulfed school buildings.
President Vladimir Putin has said that if officials are found to be to blame, action will be taken.
However, the final versions of the various inquiries are not due to be released until next year.
These inquiries are about more than a blame game: the past year has seen the Chechen conflict broaden into other Muslim Caucasian provinces. In North Ossetia, the one remaining loyalist Moscow province, people are worried that security forces are unprepared for a new attack.