Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Russia

Russian Parliament Report On Beslan Massacre Delayed

Memorial to the victims of the Beslan tragedy (epa)

September 21, 2006 -- The publication of a Russian parliamentary report on the 2004 Beslan school siege has been delayed.

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September 21, 2006

Aleksandr Torshin, deputy head of Russia's upper house of parliament, and also the head of the inquiry, said today that the decision was taken after new revelations about the siege.

According to official investigators, security forces stormed the school after the hostage-takers blew up a bomb inside the school. They argue that most of the 333 victims of the crisis were killed in that blast.

Yury Savelyev, a member of the inquiry and an explosives expert, has said in an alternative report issued on the Internet that two explosions that triggered the storming of the school and caused many of the deaths were in fact rounds of a grenade launcher fired from a building controlled by security forces.

Savelyev accuses the commission of "hiding the truth."

The Prosecutor-General's Office has launched an investigation into Savelyev's claims.

(AP, AFP, Reuters, Itarfax)

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