Internationalist Discussion Forum

The slaughter of over 300 people, the majority of them children, at School Number One in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, cannot fail to provoke indignation and revulsion. No less than the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001 in the US, this was a war crime in which, as ever, the most defenceless members of the civilian population are the first victims. In Beslan, the hostages were subjected to intimidation, hunger, thirst and summary executions, while many more who survived the initial explosion in the gym where they were being held were shot in the back by the hostage-takers when they tried to flee.