The hostage-takers who seized 1,200 children, parents and teachers in Beslan reached a new level of barbarism.

Young children were denied food and water. Many were shot by the hostage takers, even before the bloody mayhem which ended the siege. At least 335 died, and many more are still ‘missing’. The traumatic siege and the mass funerals have had a devastating impact on this small town.

Socialists utterly condemn the inhuman tactics used by the hostage takers, members of an Islamist Chechen nationalist group led by the warlord, Shamil Basayev. Such methods will not advance the cause of the Chechen people, who have been fighting a long and bitter resistance against military repression by the Russian state.

The angry reaction to the school killings, both in Russia and internationally, will allow Putin to take even stronger powers to ‘combat terrorism’. The autocratic Putin will crack down even harder on separatist movements and further curtail democratic rights throughout Russia.

Internationally, horror at the Beslan events could, at least temporarily, strengthen Bush and Blair in their policy of international military aggression and pruning of democratic rights. Bush will no doubt regard the Beslan events as a gift for his re-election campaign, in which he is playing up his role as ‘commander in chief’ in the ‘war on terrorism’.

Putin was quick to blame the siege on ‘international terrorism’ and ‘al-Qa’ida’. His security chiefs claim that there were at least ten Arab fighters among the dead hostage-takers, but so far they have produced no evidence of this. By referring to ‘international terrorism’ Putin was attempting to divert attention from the long, brutal war in Chechnya.

While nothing can justify the hostage-takers’ savage tactics, especially their inhuman targeting of ‘soft targets’ like young children, their desperate tactics arise from the barbarous Russian military repression in Chechnya.

One of the Chechen women suicide bombers, a so-called ‘black widow’, told a hostage: “Russian soldiers are killing our children in Chechnya, so we are here to kill yours.” Another said: “My whole family was killed. I have buried all my children. I live in the forest. I have nowhere to go and nothing to live for.”

There is some evidence that some of the young women suicide bombers have been pressed into service. In general, however, it is Putin’s brutal methods in Chechnya, his refusal even to concede limited autonomy, which has swelled the ranks of the Islamist terrorist groups. They can offer no way out, but they reflect the anger and despair of many Chechens, who are prepared to fight to the death rather than to accept continued Russian domination.

Series of attacks
Just before the Beslan siege started, two Russian airliners crashed, almost certainly brought down by Chechen suicide bombers. At the same time, a bomb exploded on the Moscow underground. These outrages, the latest of a whole series of attacks, have strengthened public support for further state clampdown on terrorism. Naturally, people want protection against terrorist attacks.

Yet it is the ‘strong state’ that Putin presides over which has provoked national insurgencies and terrorism. Putin rules in alliance with a new ruling class of gangster capitalists, dominated by the big oil and gas oligarchs. He has worked to strengthen the state machine, relying heavily on the security services.

Putin champions a new form of Russian imperialism, trying to restore power and influence that was undermined when the former multinational Stalinist state, the Soviet Union, collapsed after 1989. Recently, he accused Russia’s enemies of trying to “cut a juicy piece of our pie”, by encouraging separatist movements in areas like the Caucasus.

Putin has totally opposed independence, or even limited autonomy, for Chechnya or other national entities. Let one go, he thinks, and there will be an avalanche of demands for autonomy or separation.

The Caucasus was colonised by the tsars in the early part of the 19th century for their rich agricultural resources. Now it is of growing importance for oil and gas, and especially the important gas pipelines running to the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. After Putin’s predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, fought the 1994-97 war in Chechnya, Putin launched a second war in August 1999.

But Putin has played a devious game of divide and rule in the Caucasus. While implacably imposing independence for territories like Chechnya, he has cynically supported secessionist movements in regions like Abkhazia and South Ossetia, mainly to foment trouble for the independent regime in Georgia, which Putin wants to undermine.

In the early 1990s, the Russian security services themselves used Shamil Basayef, currently their main enemy in Chechnya, to help break Abkhazia away from the neighbouring and newly independent Georgia.

Moreover, the military forces that the Russian state deploys in the Caucasus are notoriously corrupt. “The conflict has also offered opportunities for personal enrichment [for the military] at every level, from checkpoint bribes and the illegal sale of arms to control over local oil production.” (Financial Times, 6 September) There is a black market in arms, including ground-to-air missiles, which gives many guerrilla groups access to weapons.

Putin also faces a growing economic and social crisis within Russia itself. He is undoubtedly using the threat of a ‘terrorist war on Russia’ to divert attention from rising discontent. The return to market capitalism has been a disaster for the majority of Russians. Poverty and inequality have soared. Putin’s latest move is to cut state spending on health services, education, nurseries and pensions. No wonder he wants a diversion.

The horrific massacre of children, parents and teachers at High School No1 in Beslan, North Ossetia, reached a new level of barbarity.

The hostage-takers crossed the line between humanity and inhumanity. They deliberately targeted children on their first day back at school, traditionally a festival.

They refused to give them water, food or medicine. Children and adults were forced to drink urine and eat flowers. Outside, waiting relatives and friends were distraught.

When some of the children managed to get out of the building, they were shot in the back. When shooting and explosions broke out, hundreds of dead and wounded were buried under the collapsing roof.

No cause can justify such cold-blooded, barbarous actions. The hostage-takers belonged to an Islamic nationalist group from Chechnya. For over ten years the Chechens, a majority of whom are Muslim, have fought a bitter, bloody struggle for independence. The ruthlessness of their tactics in Beslan and elsewhere, including the use of suicide bombers, reflects the brutality of the Russian state’s military repression in Chechnya.

But such savage tactics, aimed against ‘soft targets’ – young children, their relatives and teachers – will not advance the cause of the Chechen people. Beslan will only reinforce the spiral of atrocity and counter-atrocity. The resistance is in the hands of a small handful of guerrillas, dominated by notorious warlords such as Shamil Basayev, almost certainly the architect of the Beslan siege. The majority of Chechen people are not mobilised or organised, and have no democratic control over the resistance movement.

Putin is seizing on the Beslan siege and other terrorist attacks to strengthen his military-security machine. This will mean intensified repression in Chechnya, and an even greater threat to democratic rights throughout Russia.

Don’t outrages like the Beslan siege (some will ask) demand strong measures? But it is the strong, military-police measures taken by Putin which produced the wave of terrorism in the first place. Massive death and destruction in Chechnya, the flattening of the capital, Grozny, systematic pillage and rape by poorly paid, brutalised Russian troops have acted as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorist organisations.

In the west, Bush, Blair and other leaders also bear heavy responsibility for the growth of terrorism. Their invasion of Afghanistan, occupation of Iraq and support for Israel’s brutal repression of the Palestinians in the occupied territories have helped recruit many more to terrorist organisations.

The appearance of a ‘crusade’ by western imperialism against Islam has led to a growth of right-wing Islamic groups which use terrorist tactics. Behind the military aggression of the US, Britain and other powers is the drive to control oil and gas, and strengthen their global military and economic domination.

Like Putin, Bush and Blair blame terrorism on ‘evil’. They wilfully ignore the conditions which feed terrorism.

As Al Gore (who opposed Bush in the 2000 presidential election) said, there is “another axis of evil in the world: poverty and ignorance; disease and environmental disorder; corruption and political oppression” – all of which lead to terrorism.

The only answer of Bush, Blair and Putin is repression, repression and more repression. They are aggravating the cycle of war and terror. They defend capitalism, the system which produces inequality, poverty, despair and war.

We need strong measures against capitalism, we need a new and better system, a socialist society which could provide prosperity and security for everyone. Then it would be possible to resolve national conflicts in a peaceful, democratic way.

The bloody end to the school hostage crisis in Beslan, North Ossetia, angered, sickened and shocked people around the world.

Officially, more than 340 died, and the figure is expected to rise substantially. Many hundreds are injured or unaccounted for. The grim television pictures of the bodies of charred children, and of mass, makeshift funerals and grieving relatives, has horrified and stunned the world.

The 1 September brutal assault by terrorists on the school, and their barbaric treatment of hostages - including children and elderly women - underscores the completely reactionary character of the Chechen separatist and Islamic group that carried out the atrocity.

Survivors tell how they were refused food and water and that children were forced to eat flowers (brought to celebrate the first day of the new school year) and to drink their own urine. Explosives were wired up above the heads of hostages and detonated, with terrible consequences.

In turn, Russian armed forces – chaotic and brutalised by conflict - responded in a manner that was certain to contribute to large-scale deaths. Within hours of the start of the siege, tanks surrounded the school. Yet two days later, at the time of the terrible denouement, the authorities had still not brought ambulances outside the school buildings. One officer justified this inaction by claiming the sight of ambulances near the school would ‘provoke’ the hostage takers.

There is even speculation that the Russian troops may have stormed the school, initiating the final bloody end.

The root causes of the latest atrocity reside in the decade-long Chechen war, and, more generally, in the national conflicts that have arisen in the former Soviet republics following the disastrous restoration of capitalism.

Successive Russian governments have murdered and terrorised the people of Chechnya and destroyed most of the cities and towns. It is estimated that over 40,000 children have been killed by Russian forces, although those horrors were hardly ever shown on television or condemned by Putin’s Western allies. According to the Russian Human Rights organisation, ‘Memorial’, about one quarter of the Chechen population - around 250,000 people – has died at the hands of the Russian army.

The vast majority of Chechens live in extreme poverty. The country is denied self-determination by the brutal occupation of the Russian army, and by pro-Moscow Chechen militias and a puppet regime. According to a report by Amnesty International, “Russian security forces continue to enjoy almost total impunity from serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Chechnya.”

Kidnappings of Chechens by Russian forces are statistically (per capita) at the same level as during the height of the Stalinist terror, says Memorial. Young men are routinely tortured to death and captives murdered by explosives.

‘International terrorism’?

Putin has tried to ‘internationalise’ the conflict, by declaring that the brutal Russian occupation of Chechnya is part of the so-called “war against international terrorism”. Last week, Russian officials succeeded in getting the UN Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the siege. At the same time, Putin declares the Chechen conflict is an “internal matter”. He wants Western backing, but no interference, as Russian forces carry out even more vicious attacks in Chechnya.

In a national TV address, Putin ominously said he would bring the Caucuses ‘under control’ and tighten security. He was also forced to concede that corruption in the security forces and a lack of “professionalism” had contributed towards the bloody outcome. Some correspondents have even suggested that the corruption of local officials allowed explosives to be smuggled into the school before the start of the siege.

Blair and Bush have wasted no time in trying to use the terrible Beslan events to their advantage; “Russia’s September 11th”, is used to justify the endless “war on terror” and the clampdown on democratic, civil and human rights. No doubt, both leaders hope this will aid their re-election chances.

However, in his address to the nation on Saturday night, Putin appeared to widen the forces he blamed for attacking Russians, to include other countries: “Today we are living in conditions formed after the disintegration of a huge great country…we have managed to preserve the nucleus of that giant, the Soviet Union and called the new country the Russian Federation. Some want to tear off a great chunk of our country. Others help them do it because they think that Russia, as one of the great nuclear powers of the world is still a treat that has to be eliminated.”

Undoubtedly, there is widespread anger amongst working people in Russia at the hostage takers. This poses a real danger of increased ethnic tensions and conflict in Moscow and other Russian cities which will be directed not just against Chechens but all Caucasians, including Ossetians. The cry for harsher measures against terrorism can get an echo, in Russia and the West. However, there is also widespread despair amongst Russians, with many blaming Putin for failing to resolve the Chechen conflict, as he promised to do years ago. This is compounded by the authorities’ mishandling of the siege during and afterwards. The emergency services on the ground were hopelessly inadequate. Officials’ incompetence means that victims’ relatives have been prevented from identifying bodies. Many Russians angrily recall the ineptitude of the powers during previous disasters, such as the death of many Russian sailors when a navy submarine sank four years ago. On the first day of the Beslan siege, the authorities said there were 120-150 hostages. The next day, when released hostages said there were over 1,000 people held captive, the government maintained the figure was no more than 345. Finally, in the face of huge numbers of deaths, officials have had to acknowledge that over 1,181 people were caught up in the school siege.

Six months after easily winning presidential elections, Putin is facing direct criticism over a wave of terrorism that has cost over 500 lives in two weeks. Newspapers and some media commentators said the government “failed to protect citizens” or to be honest about the roots of terrorism in the long war in Chechnya. However, the government’s influence over the media remains strong. The editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Izvestia, Raf Shakirov, announced his forced resignation after he published a front page photo last Saturday that showed a man carrying a wounded child in Beslan.

Putin re-ignited the conflict in Chechnya to boost his credentials as a “firm leader” prior to becoming president of Russia. But the conflict continues to dog his rule. Despite the Russian president’s claim that things are “getting better” in Chechnya, the last two weeks saw two planes and a metro station in Moscow attacked, with the loss of around 100 lives. In 2002, hundreds of theatre-goers in Moscow died after a heavy-handed assault by Russian ‘special forces’ to “free” hostages held by Chechen rebels.

The Russian president’s attempts to crush the insurgents by repression and bribery have failed. In October 2003, a pro-Moscow Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, was ‘elected’. Putin aimed to rule Chechnya through this brutal stooge and Russian officials boasted that the separatists were deeply divided and nearly defeated. However, on 9 May, this year, Kadyrov was assassinated by a bomb blast.

West ignores abuses

After 9/11, the US and Western countries ignored the continual human rights abuses and mass murders carried out by Russian forces in Chechnya, as they sought a new alliance with Putin in the ‘fight against terror’. Furthermore, for the US and other Western countries, Russia’s importance as a giant exporter of oil and gas has grown in recent years.

Subsequently, the exiled Chechen separatist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, who was previously termed a ‘moderate’, was disowned by the Western powers. But this left the way open for hard-line warlords and fundamentalist Islamic groups to fill the vacuum in Chechnya, although Putin undoubtedly exaggerates the role of “Arab” and other foreign Islamic fighters.

The new generation of Chechen insurgents, who believe they are fighting a “Jihad”, act out of complete desperation, after experiencing years of extreme repression, and often witnessing the death of husbands, brothers, sons and other family members and friends at the hands of Russian forces. Several of the recent terror attacks have been carried out by the so-called ‘Black Widows’ – i.e. Chechen women that have had family members killed by Russian troops.

Their ability to strike is aided by the enormous levels of corruption in Russian society; Chechen fighters have previously made their way through Russian army checkpoints by simply paying a bribe!

The increasing complication of the Chechen conflict is compounded by the fragile ethnic tensions in the North Ossetia region. Thirteen years ago, North Ossetia (mainly Orthodox Christian) went to war with neighbouring Ingushetia (mainly Muslim). Furthermore, Russian forces have recently conducted “anti-terrorist” operations in Ingushetia, where they believe separatists have gained support. Only weeks ago, Georgia and South Ossetia were on the verge of war.

Since the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia has attempted to dominate small nations to its south, provoking instability across the north and south Caucusus. Russia bitterly opposes independence for Chechnya, while actively supporting secessionists in areas like Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two contested provinces in Georgia.

This imperialist meddling is causing all sorts of contradictions and conflicts. The Moscow-supported Abkhaz revolt, in 1992, was supported by armed volunteers from Chechnya. Later, Chechens returned home and began fighting for independence. One of these was Shamil Basayev, now a leader of ‘The Second Group of Salakin Riadus Shakhidi’, a Chechen Islamic group which Russian officials last week blamed for the Beslan seige.

Arms are awash across the Caucasus, many of which originate from Russian forces, and circulate among militias. The recent upsurge of Chechen-linked violence in Russia, in the Caucasus and, of course, in Chechnya, indicates the danger of a new ‘third Chechen war’ or wider regional conflict erupting. Putin’s promise in Saturday’s TV address to establish a new security force to control the North Caucuses will only deepen the conflicts in the region.

No peace, no stability

Although the government and pro-Putin Russian media fan the fires of racism to keep anti-Chechen feelings high amongst Russians, the continuing Chechen conflict shows that Putin cannot deliver ‘security’ or ‘peace’ in Chechnya or anywhere in Russia.

Putin desperately resists Chechen autonomy, let alone independence. Important regional natural resources and supply lines, and other geo-strategic considerations, means that the capitalist elite in Russia will forcibly act to stop genuine self-determination for Chechnya.

Only a couple of weeks ago, ‘elections’ in Chechnya put in place as President, Alu Alkhanov, the latest pro-Moscow stooge. Western leaders, like France’s President Chirac and Germany’s Chancellor Schroeder, may back the result, but the sham elections did not fool the majority of Chechens.

Earlier this summer, Putin’s rule was also coming under renewed pressure from working people in Russia. The Kremlin is increasing its authoritarian rule and introduced widely hated cuts in social benefits, including housing subsidies, pensions, public transport and prescriptions. The President’s boast that he would double Russia’s GDP sounds increasingly hollow to the country’s impoverished millions.

Underlining the reactionary and counter productive character of terrorism, the bloody events in Beslan may, for a short period, deflect anger over social and class issues. However, ongoing conflict and the deep economic and social problems in Russia will send the working people of Russia on a collision course with the Putin regime and the ruling class.

To achieve a fundamental change to their lives, the Russian working class will have to re-embrace the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky – the ideas of genuine Marxism. A socialist society, with an economy under the democratic control and planning of the working class, is the only way to lift the majority of people out of poverty, joblessness, low pay, exploitation and poor working conditions.

A socialist programme also includes allowing the right of oppressed nations to decide their own future. This means the Russian workers’ movement supporting self-determination for the Chechen people and an end to Russian occupation of the country; for a socialist Chechnya as part of a socialist confederation of the region, on a voluntary and equal basis. A socialist programme would include winning over the rank and file of the mainly conscript Russian soldiers, who face appalling conditions and are poorly paid.

Socialists reject the new capitalist rulers of Russia, the hypocritical Western powers, the Chechen stooge regime and also the Chechen warlords and reactionary Islamic opposition.

Only a united mass movement of Chechen workers and poor, linked to the working class of the region, can overcome national, ethnic and religious differences and deliver the aspirations of the Chechen people - successfully winning national rights and social and economic liberation.