Putin admits weakness as hundreds die in one of Russia's worst terrorist incidents, reports Ahmed Reda At least 335 people, including 156 children, died at a school in southern Russia during the bloody end to one of the world's most shocking hostage-taking incidents. The catastrophe will serve as sobering reminder of the barbarism that potentially goes hand- in-hand with political conviction. It is also a reminder of the failures of the post-Soviet political system. The siege at Beslan's principal school ended in a bloodbath when security forces thought that terrorists holding more than 1,000 hostages were starting to detonate explosives stuck with tape around the walls of the school's gym. Despite the fact that the chronology of events is not clear -- typical of the veil of secrecy surrounding such events in Russia -- the world held the Chechen rebels responsible for the massacre and condemned the atrocity in the strongest terms. The official number of people killed, according to regional emergency situations minister, Boris Dzgoyev, was 323, including 156 children. Medical sources said more than 542 people, including 336 children, were in hospital after the crisis ended in explosions and gunfire, but officials have given contradictory accounts throughout. Some estimates put the death toll at around 360. There was equal confusion over the number and identity of the hostage-takers. Dzgoyev said that 35 men and women with explosives and weapons had been "eliminated" after the 10-hour battle, which erupted shortly after 1pm local time on Friday. His statement was in sharp contrast to claims by a senior prosecutor, who said there were only 26 terrorists, and that all were killed. Earlier claims that three had been captured, and that three or four others had escaped, appeared to have been forgotten. In a rare address to a grieving nation, President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the school siege in the southern city of Beslan was an attack on the whole of Russia and called for the mobilisation of society to resist what he called "a total and full-scale war" to splinter the country. Threatened by a wave of terrorist attacks, Putin sought to answer the seething anger that many here have expressed after a series of terrorist acts that in 10 wrenching days have killed more than 500 people. Putin called the siege "a horrible tragedy". Then, speaking of the sweep of Russia's post-Soviet history, he criticised corruption in the judiciary, the inefficiency of law enforcement and the difficult transition to capitalism that he acknowledged had left few resources to secure Russia's borders in a changing and dangerous epoch. "We have to admit that we failed to recognise the complexity and danger of the processes going on in our country and the world as a whole," said Putin, who spoke for 10 minutes, standing alone in front of Russia's flag and a wood-panelled backdrop. "At any rate, we failed to react to them adequately. We demonstrated our weakness, and the weak are beaten." The taking of civilian hostages has been part and parcel of the Chechen rebels' combat strategy ever since the first Chechen war started in 1994. Both in 1995 and 1996, Chechen militants held hundreds of civilians hostage in high-profile operations in southern Russia. In return for the release of the hostages, then President Boris Yeltsin chose to grant free passage to the hostage-takers. His successor, Putin, opted for a different approach. Putin's words reflected determination to show that the government would and could act swiftly. He said he would soon propose measures to strengthen the nation's unity, to coordinate the political and security structures of Russia's Caucasian republics, and to create a new emergency management system. The failures of the existing system were painfully obvious in the government's confused and contradictory responses after the bombings of two passenger airliners on 24 August and during the siege in Beslan. The Beslan massacre highlighted a loose security grip on Chechen and Arab terrorists who claim to be fighting for a just cause and an independent Chechnya. Arab commentators, appalled by the loss of life, quickly condemned the perpetrators and stressed that such actions tarnish the image of Islam at a time of grave sensitivity. But despite Arab condemnations, it is unclear whether even this incident will stem the flow of financial and moral support to Chechen rebels. The portrayal of Chechen rebels as people who fight for Islam not only harms the religion besieged since the 11 September attacks but also indicates a failure to grasp global changes and political facts. The unusually high number of casualties, especially children, indicates also a failure by the Russian Special Forces to handle the hostage crisis. Despite given explanations that ranged from surprise to fear for the safety of the hostages, it appears that elite forces -- better known as the Alfa Brigade -- were caught off-guard and without a plan to deal with the situation. If the Chechen terrorists were prepared, the Russian elite security forces were not. These forces, who claimed they had the school surrounded, had not done so. Neither had the security forces sealed off the surrounding area or evacuated the town. Beslan instantly became a bedlam of armed Chechens and hostages all trying to get out of the school and special forces, armed Ossetians, emergency workers, firemen, camera crews and relatives all trying to fight their way in during the unplanned attack. No one could have identified friend or foe. At one point in this frenzied melee, an angry crowd set on a hostage-taker who had surrendered and was being led out of the building. Six hours after the initial storming, gunfire was still coming from one part of the school and there was a report that some children were still being held hostage. The bloody mayhem that took place in the town of Beslan stresses that the unmatched challenge to Putin is terrorism and how to end the Chechen rebellion that is causing Russia untold grief and rocking its very foundations.
