MOSCOW, December 28 (RIA Novosti) - The parliamentary commission investigating the 2004 Beslan school siege said Wednesday that law enforcement officials in the North Caucasus republics of Ingushetia and North Ossetia were responsible for allowing the hostage crisis in Beslan to happen.
"Local law enforcement officials, primarily in Ingushetia and North Ossetia, displayed negligence and carelessness in facing a real terrorist threat," chairman of the commission and Federation Council Deputy Speaker Alexander Torshin said in a report on the results of the investigation. "They also failed to follow regulations and orders from higher authorities."
Torshin said Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and his First Deputy Alexander Chekalin had sent telegrams to North Ossetia's Interior Ministry forewarning it of possible terrorist attacks. The minister ordered security measures be stepped up at schools, but Torshin said the instructions had not been carried out.
According to Torshin, federal authorities determined on September 1 that 1,128 were being held hostage in the school, but local authorities continued to report that only 354 hostages were taken.
He also criticized law enforcement officials for being poorly coordinated because local residents were able to break through the police cordon and rush into the building to save their children, he said.
"The list of flaws and weak points in the operation can go on," Torshin said.
He said law enforcement bodies in neighboring Ingushetia had not made sufficient efforts to track and arrest militants responsible for the attack.
"Ingushetia's Federal Security Service, Interior Ministry, and their local branches did not take measures to track militant groups and prevent their criminal activities," he said.
Torshin also said notorious terrorists Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov had masterminded the siege.
"Separatists Shamil Basayev, Aslan Maskhadov, Magomet Khashiyev and their associates, notorious for cruelty, masterminded the terrorist attack," he said. "Foreign mercenaries, including notorious [Arab] terrorist Abu Dzeit, also played an active role in the attack."
The commission head said preparations for the attack had begun in August 2004, when a group of 34 terrorists was formed in the Malgobeksky district of Ingushetia, a republic in the North Caucasus.
Torshin said the commission had not established what caused the explosions that erupted in the school.
"Let us wait for the results from technical experts," he said. "Only then can we draw conclusions."
He said the commission had studied the issue, but it was difficult to determine what caused the explosions that resulted in the deaths of many hostages. He said many survivors provided contradictory evidence even though they were near each other when the explosions occurred.
According to Torshin, the commission concluded that tanks shelled the school only after the hostages had been evacuated and that flamethrowers used by FSB units could not have caused a fire at the school.
"International law does not prohibit using them against terrorists," he said.
According to Torshin, the use of flamethrowers to prevent further losses in FSB units had been grounded and the commission had thoroughly examined the time and ways the flamethrowers were used.
The September 2004 Beslan school siege lasted 3 days and left 331 people dead and 783 wounded.
