UN Secretary-General voices horror at large death toll in Russian school hostage drama by UN News 12:04pm 3rd Sep, 2004   3 September 2004 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today expressed his horror at the large number of children and others killed or injured in the school hostage crisis in southern Russia.    "The Secretary-General has been following closely the tragic developments regarding the situation of the hostages in Beslan, Russian Federation," a statement issued by his spokesman in New York said. "He was horrified to learn that a large number of children and others have lost their lives or were injured during the last few hours.    "The Secretary-General reiterates his condemnation of all terrorist acts," the statement concluded.    Ever since the crisis began Mr. Annan and other top UN officials voiced their strong condemnation and called for the immediate release of the hostages, who included scores of children. On Wednesday he demanded an end to "this criminal act directed against the most vulnerable members of society" and the Security Council called it a "heinous terrorist act."    UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Carol Bellamy said schools must never be degraded to places of violence, adding: "If we don't respect the sanctity of childhood, then we have nothing." UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour added her voice to calls for the release of the victims. UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said he was "appalled that a school and its pupils are being used for political ends."    Sep 3, 2004    More than 300 Killed, hundreds injured in Russian School Shootout, By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough.    BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Russian troops stormed a school on Friday, blaming Chechen hostage-takers for a bloody battle in which more than 200 people -- dozens of them children -- were killed and hundreds were wounded.    Terrified children, some naked and others with bloodied faces, ran screaming for safety after a 53-hour ordeal at the hands of gunmen with bombs strapped to their waists. Machinegun fire rattled out and helicopters clattered overhead.    The military operation against the gunmen, "who put up lengthy resistance in the school is now over," a Russian official overseeing the mission was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency late on Friday night.    Russian troops -- with special forces spearheading the storming -- killed 27 hostage-takers and captured three alive, officials told Interfax. Burly soldiers grabbed the fleeing children and rushed them to waiting medics. Some had blood streaming from wounds.    "I smashed the window to get out," one boy with a bandaged hand told Russian television. "People were running in all directions ... (The guerrillas) were shooting from the roof."    The children, many stripped to their underwear after two days without food or drink in stiflingly hot and crowded conditions, gulped down bottles of water and waited in a daze for relatives as gunfire crackled round them..    Official details and figures fluctuated amid the confusion and carnage in Beslan in the North Ossetia region bordering troubled Chechnya, where Moscow has faced a decade-old revolt.    Russian media said 860 pupils attended Middle School No.1. Their number may have been swollen to around 1,500 by parents and relatives attending a first-day ceremony traditional in Russian schools...    2 September 2004    New UN appeal for freeing Russian school hostages. (UN News).    As the school hostage drama in southern Russia dragged on towards its third day, the top United Nations official dealing with the fate of children in war joined the chorus of appeals from the world body for the immediate release of all the hostages.    "I am very shocked and distressed by this act of terror against school children," Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara A. Otunnu, said. "It is unacceptable that any children anywhere should be subjected to these practices of brutalisation."    He called on the international community to focus on and make the protection of children a common cause. "We must mobilize all levels of international pressure to end these practices and ensure the 'era of application' for the protection of children," he said.    Mr. Annan yesterday called the hostage-taking "this criminal act directed against the most vulnerable members of society" and called for the immediate release of the victims estimated to number in the hundreds, many of them children.The Security Council issued a similar demand, calling the incident a "heinous terrorist act."    UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Carol Bellamy said their safety should be the paramount concern of all parties involved."Children must never be used for political purposes, and schools must never be degraded to places of violence," she added. "They must be preserved as safe havens for children to learn and play. If we don't respect the sanctity of childhood, then we have nothing."
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