Beslan one year on. Parental grief

Memories and lessons from last September

HIS son Nurpashi, the only surviving hostage-taker from Beslan, has just gone on trial. But Aburkash Kulayev feels no need to apologise for the deaths of over 300 people at Beslan a year ago. “It's cruel. Of course we feel their pain,” he says in his cottage in the Chechen village of Engenoi. “But whatever happened, happened. In Chechnya, thousands of children have died.”

Almost every family in Chechnya has losses from two wars with Russian troops. One of Mr Kulayev's sons was killed by the Russians before two others went to Beslan. One died in the bloodbath: Nurpashi was taken alive. In Ingushetia, the parents of another hostage-taker, Rustam Atayev, display a photograph that may explain what led him to terrorism. The picture is of his dead 11-year-old brother, Ibraghim. The father, Solongiray Atayev, says that Ibraghim vanished from the streets of Grozny in 2002. He was found with two other boys in a shallow grave, all naked, their heads split open.

Immediately after Beslan, Russian officials tried to put the blame on foreign terrorists. They said the hostage-takers included Arabs and a black African. But although Islamic jihadists are indeed making advances in the region, the roots of Beslan, as of instability across the north Caucasus, are local: the conflict in Chechnya, corruption in government - and brutal lawlessness within the security forces. And the Russian government is doing little about these.

“Russia doesn't seem to have a will, a plan or strategy,” comments Timur Akiev at Memorial, a Russian human-rights organisation. “You can solve all these problems if you start with Chechnya, but if you don't solve that first then resolving the others will be impossible.”

Bereft parents in Beslan have no sympathy for the hostage-takers' families. “Shoot them,” demands one. But their anger is as fierce against the Russian authorities, including President Vladimir Putin, whom they accuse of incompetence, negligence and heartlessness. This week, the Beslan Mothers Committee at last had the chance to meet Mr Putin. Their message is in some ways similar to that of the hostage-takers' parents: to avoid more Beslans, fix Russia.