Russia hasn't learned from its past

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: : Group: Russia Hasn't Learned From Beslan By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer : Mothers of children killed a year ago in the Beslan school seizure said Wednesday the Russian government has failed to learn from the tragedy and left the country vulnerable to equally devastating terrorist attacks. : "The government is supposed to guarantee our lives, take responsibility for our lives, and they haven't, so we're taking responsibility," Susanna Dudiyeva, head of the Beslan Mothers' Committee, said a day before the anniversary of the attack that killed 330 people. : The attack began when militants demanding that Russian forces withdraw from nearby Chechnya seized Beslan School No. 1 in this town on Sept. 1, the first day of classes. The siege ended Sept. 3 when Russian forces stormed the school after explosions were heard inside. More than half of the dead were children. : Dudiyeva, whose son was killed in the three-day seizure, told reporters the government has failed to learn its lessons. : "If this isn't corrected, there will be another terrorist attack like Beslan," she said. "We are fighting for the truth." : Many victims' relatives have accused the government of a cover-up, insisting the militants had help from corrupt officials to allow them to cross heavily policed territory and seize the school. Critics have sharply questioned how the more than 30 heavily armed attackers could have made their way to the school without being detected by police. : A delegation of Beslan mothers is to meet President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, to address grievances including unhappiness with the official investigation. : "The government is supposed to guarantee our lives, take responsibility for our lives, and they haven't, so we're taking responsibility," Dudiyeva told reporters in Beslan. : In an Internet posting Wednesday, Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev claimed that Russian security services bore responsibility for the siege, alleging that they enabled the attackers to travel unhindered through the region in a bungled plot to trap them. : In the statement on the KavkazCenter Web site, Basayev said that a Russian double agent had been among the hostage-takers. : He said that top security officials in North Ossetia had opened a safe route beginning Aug. 31, 2004 — the day before the Beslan siege began — for rebels to reach the regional capital, Vladikavkaz. The alleged double agent was supposed to have gained Basayev's confidence and then led his men into a trap as they were en route to seize regional government buildings in Vladikavkaz on Sept. 6. : Instead, as they were supposed to be performing reconnaissance, the militants seized the school, Basayev said. : Basayev's claim seemed designed in part to stoke already strong distrust of top government officials in the North Caucasus, the volatile region that includes North Ossetia and Chechnya. : Russian prosecutors say all but one of the 32 attackers were killed; the man they say is the sole survivor is on trial. : Basayev also claimed that a second attacker had survived the three-day siege and was now with his followers and prepared to testify. : The authenticity of Basayev's statement could not be confirmed independently, but the KavkazCenter site is considered a mouthpiece for his faction and he has never disavowed previous statements that have appeared there under his name. : Shortly after the raid, Basayev said he had masterminded it but put the onus on the Kremlin for the tragedy. : Deputy Russian Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel, who is presenting the state's case at the trial, dismissed Basayev's claims and said investigators had no evidence of involvement by the security services. : "The assertions of this terrorist and child-murderer are total nonsense," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. : Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist who has written extensively on Chechnya and rarely seen eye to eye with Russian officials, dismissed most of Basayev's allegations as "sheer nonsense." : She said she felt that Russian security services were indeed to blame for allowing the school seizure to happen but believed they were guilty of incompetence rather than of directly assisting the terrorists. : "I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I believe in the rampant corruption that exists on our territory," Politkovskaya told The Associated Press. : A survey of 1,600 Russians, conducted by the respected Levada Analytical Service, suggested that many Russians agree. Fifty percent of respondents gave a negative assessment of the way the rescue operation was handled. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. : ___ : AP writer Maria Danilova contributed to this story from Moscow. : Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. : : Copyright © 2005 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. : Questions or Comments : Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback