RUSSIA: Russia last night called an emergency session of the UN security council to address the four "terrorist attacks" on its territory in the past eight days
Mr Andrei Denisov, the Russian ambassador to the UN, requested the evening meeting to secure formal condemnation from the international community following the atrocities committed by suspected Chechen militants. Analysts said the move aimed to shore up international support for any military action Russia might take.
Prior to the meeting of the council, the UN's Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan said he "condemns in the strongest terms" the seizure of the hostages, according to a UN spokeswoman. Mr Annan "calls for the immediate release of the children, their parents and teachers," said Ms Marie Okabe.
"Children must never be used for political purposes, and schools must never be degraded to places of violence," said Ms Carol Bellamy, who heads the UN children's agency UNICEF. "If we don't respect the sanctity of childhood, then we have nothing."
The 15-nation Security Council planned to convene at 5 p.m. New York time and was expected to issue a statement at the meeting's close condemning the attacks as a threat to international peace and security, council diplomats said.
Russia is unlikely to approach the UN for logistical support, given its proud assertion that the Russian military can deal with the Chechen problem. Yet a UN security council resolution backing its right to take military action to secure its population from the terrorist threat would silence critics of its continuing military actions in Chechnya.
It could place any future military activity on a par with Washington's decision to invade Afghanistan after September 11th, with which last week's double plane crash has been compared.
The Foreign Minister, Mr Sergei Lavrov, told the Interfax news agency: "Such phenomena as terrorism cannot be fought by holding forums. Rather it is necessary to combine the efforts of all countries and step up interaction among their special services."
The Kremlin had remained silent for hours after news of the attack on the Beslan school, struggling to square its fiery rhetoric about vanquishing terrorists with the potential public outrage at a bloody outcome to its second major hostage crisis in two years.
Just before the news broke President Vladimir Putin and his Defence Minister, Mr Sergei Ivanov, reiterated that Russia would have no truck with terrorists. Reacting to the suicide bombing in Moscow, President Putin said he was prepared to talk to anyone in Chechnya, bar separatists and terrorists.
"There can be no dialogue with those who wanted to fight and who made war a way of earning money," he said. "We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them."
Mr Ivanov said: "In essence, war has been declared on us, where the enemy is unseen and there is no front. This is regrettably not the first and I fear not the last terrorist act." President Putin's top law enforcement ministers, security service head Mr Nikolai Patrushev and Interior Minister Mr Rashid Nurgaliyev were sent to Beslan to take command of the rescue operation.
The Kremlin faced considerable criticism for its handling of the October 2002 Dubrovka theatre siege in which more than 800 theatre-goers were taken hostage. The siege was ended when special forces released gas into the building, killing 129 hostages and the gunmen.
Mr Putin's rating slumped recently to its lowest since he sought re-election in March. His image as a man of stability and order lifts him above his competitors, yet he cannot afford another show of Russian force to end in hundreds more dead hostages.
- (Guardian/Reuters)