(A Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty article on GlobalSecurity.org provides the following backdrop to the release of the report and later, AIA discusses the controversy surrounding it):
[...] the independent investigation of explosives expert Yury Savelyev, a member of Motherland (Rodina), veers sharply from the official explanation [expected to be released by the Kremlin later --ed.]. Excerpts of Savelyev's 700-page report were published yesterday in "Novaya gazeta" and on the website "Pravda-Beslana" (pravdabeslana.ru).However, while Pravda-Beslana editor Marina Litvinovich claims to cite Savelyev's conclusions, Axis Information and Analysis (AIA) seems to counter the said conclusions as officially belonging to Mr. Savelyev:"Pravda-Beslana" editor in chief Marina Litvinovich explained the main findings in an interview with RFE/RL's Russian Service.
"The main conclusion of Savelyev's report concerns the first explosions in the gymnasium on September 3, which set off of the storming of the school," Litvinovich said. "In his report, Yury Petrovich Savelyev [says he] found out that the first shots against the gymnasium were made from a certain weapon -- the first shot was made from an RPO-A thermobaric flame-thrower, or a similar weapon, and the second shot was made from an RShG-1 rocket-propelled grenade."
Savelyev told Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio station that his investigation was initially based on the premise that the first two explosions resulted from the hostage takers' homemade explosives. However, he said the scientific evidence simply did not support that scenario.
He said that in conducting his investigation he found that surviving hostages were talking about explosions in parts of the school other than those referred to by officials.
Savelyev concluded that the authorities decided to storm the school building, but wanted to create the impression they were acting in response to actions taken by the hostage takers. Thus, Savelyev believes, the military may have initiated the bloody conclusion to the siege.
"It is known where the shots were fired from," Litvinovich said. "The first shot was fired from a five-story building at 37 Shkolny Pereulok, the second shot was fired from 41 Shkolny Pereulok. Those buildings are adjacent to the school. Accordingly, it is also known where the shots were fired at. The first shot was fired at the gymnasium's attic above the hostages, and the second shot was fired under a gymnasium window. However, it remains unclear who exactly fired the shots, but this question is less important. The more important question is who ordered it."
Daily Vzglyad specifies that in the report the member of the parliament has stated his version of the act of terror at a Beslan school and a number of mass media and online resources have hastened to name it different from the official viewpoint. AIA reported on Savleyev’s conclusions earlier yesterday.Some are dismissing Savelyev's report as nothing but a means for personal political gain,Vzglyad claims Savelyev has confirmed that the content of his report had been obviously deformed by those writers. The paper refers to the online site Pravda Beslana (The Truth of Beslan) edited by the political analyst Marina Litvinovich, that had attributed to Savelyev a point of view that those are officials and siloviki, the security forces leadership, who were are guilty in an ostensibly provoked explosions in the Beslan school and subsequently the destruction of the majority of the Beslan hostages.
Vzglyad disagrees with the Pravda Beslana and alleges Savelyev himself has confirmed talking to the paper that his report might have been obviously deformed. In fact, Savelyev said to the Vzglyad that he had not familiarized with the conclusions made by Marina Litvinovich on the basis of his report and published on the online site Pravda Beslana. He said he had not read materials published on the site and did not know anything about them. Savelyev has reportedly told Vzglyad that he is not going to give any political and legal estimation of the actions of the security forces and officials in Beslan. However, he repeats that he has stated his point of view only on the basis of the technical expertise he had provided.
Arkady Baskayev, a fellow member of the Duma's investigative commission, told Ekho Moskvy that Savelyev's conclusions are based on personal opinions that "do not match the actual events at all." He said expert examinations were carried out to determine the causes of the initial explosions, and that the scenario Savelyev's has forwarded was ruled out.Meanwhile, the Beslan Mothers Committee, according to Beslan journalist Murat Kobyev, said,
"We have known for a long time that security services were to blame for killing many of the hostages. It does not matter whether they did it intentionally or unintentionally. But the Prosecutor-General's Office flatly refuses to listen to the testimony of eyewitnesses who saw it."Though the truth may never be known, Savelyev's report is provided below for you to determine for yourselves. I will try to furnish a link (preferably in English!) to the Kremlin's official report when it is released sometime around the end of September.
Sources:
- Russia: Independent Beslan Investigation Sparks Controversy
- Moscow newspaper claims different view on Beslan events does not exist
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The following is a web-translated English version of Yury Savelyev's 700-page, six-part report investigating the September 2004 Beslan hostage crisis and the events surrounding it. It is titled, "Beslan: The Truth About the Hostages."
This is NOT all 700 pages in one file, rather, it is an live hyperlink-active INDEX web-translated from the original (Russian) document and saved in Microsoft Word format.
Click to download or view:
WK: "Beslan: The Truth About the Hostages."
Posted by Kyer at September 1, 2006 12:10 AM | TrackBack