Alexander Dzasokhov testified to the mothers of the murdered children

Kulaev case

In the Supreme Court of North Ossetia, at the trial of the Beslan terrorist Nurpashi Kulaev, the ex-president of the republic, and now a member of the Federation Council, Alexander Dzasokhov, testified yesterday. The victims hoped that Mr. Dzasokhov would not only publicly admit his guilt in the tragedy, but also name others to blame. The senator, however, only cautiously hinted that not only terrorists are responsible, but also those “who did not fully fulfill their duties.”

This time, not one, as usual, but two buses with victims arrived from Beslan to Vladikavkaz. The women, apparently knowing that the long-awaited Alexander Dzasokhov would come for interrogation, did not bring with them posters accusing him of cowardice. The women were met at the court by reinforced police, and his guard entered the courtroom in front of Senator Dzasokhov. He immediately took the front bench and told the victims that no one was allowed to sit on it.

“Don’t be afraid for your boss, we don’t want him to die,” one of the Beslan mothers told him. “You’d better leave the hall.”

The guard did not leave the hall, but stood next to the glass cage with the defendant. When witness Dzasokhov appeared in the hall, someone clapped. They had been waiting for the ex-president in court since last year, and many Beslan residents did not believe that Alexander Dzasokhov, whom they consider one of the culprits of the tragedy, would still come to them. When, in the fall of 2005, a situational examination appointed by the Prosecutor General’s Office established that none of the officials and heads of security forces was to blame for the death of the hostages, in Beslan they hoped that now Alexander Dzasokhov and other high-ranking witnesses, without fear of criminal prosecution, could tell the truth about the events 1 -September 3, 2004.

Having given the court a signature and told about where he was born and where he now works, Alexander Dzasokhov, putting on glasses, said that in North Ossetia “over the last 10-12 years there has been an increased danger of terrorist attacks, and we have raised this issue more than once in Moscow ".

“After the Nazran events (attacks by militants in the summer of 2004 - Kommersant ), we had the right to count on the cleanup of the terrorist base where new terrorists are recruited and trained,” said the witness. “It was on the territory of Ingushetia that the bloody terrorist campaign was organized and carried out !

It was not by chance that the senator started with Ingushetia - in this, of course, he was supported by everyone gathered in the hall. But he failed to win the favor of the victims.

“It would be extremely important for me to find out who armed these people, who organized them,” the witness continued. “In addition, I do not agree with attempts to transfer all responsibility from the police of Ingushetia to the police of Ossetia!” Why do they say that a gang was created under the noses of the Right Bank police? Why don’t they say that it was created under the noses of the Malgobek police?

In fact, as the Prosecutor General's Office explained to Kommersant, the investigation established that the leaders of the Malgobek District Department of Internal Affairs were also guilty of negligence. The case of the Ossetian policemen was completed earlier, so today they will appear in court.

Meanwhile, Mr. Dzasokhov continued to defend the police. Refuting the conclusions of the Prosecutor General's Office that the territorial police authorities received warnings from the FSB about a possible terrorist attack, the witness said that no one had accurate information about the terrorist attack being prepared in Beslan:

— They usually say: someone warned. But the number of such documents is excessive, and their quality is very low. At a closed meeting of the Federation Council, it was said that there was no advance information that the school was being seized.

Then Alexander Dzasokhov turned to a painful topic for all Beslan residents - negotiations on the release of hostages taken at the school.

“This group of terrorists was particularly cruel. That is why they killed more than 20 people in the first few hours. They had no limits to cruelty.

The witness then spoke in detail about what the terrorist group was armed with and returned to the negotiations.

“They had no political demands,” continued the ex-president of Ossetia. “They only wanted me and three other people to come to them.” We assumed that the terrorists were going to release the 27 participants in the June events in Nazran, achieve the withdrawal of troops from the Chechen Republic, or cast doubt on the results of the presidential elections.

Speaking about this, the witness looked at the papers that lay in front of him on the podium, and moving on to the next part of the speech, he read it almost completely:

“It is impossible to imagine this tragedy as an intra-Ossetian or intra-republican one. In the face of such a tragedy, we must be as honest as possible, but united.

Alexander Dzasokhov recalled the words of the mayor of London, who after the terrorist attacks on the subway said that “the goal of the terrorists is for us to tear each other to pieces.” There were sarcastic shouts in the hall, but they quickly fell silent after Judge Aguzarov’s remarks. The witness meanwhile proceeded to tell the story of the events of September 1-3.

“At 11 o’clock on September 1, I spoke with the President of the Russian Federation, who gave strict instructions to do everything possible to save the hostages,” recalled Mr. Dzasokhov. “We were ready to provide the terrorists with a living corridor, helicopters or an airplane, but in response we received obscene language. We then hoped that the terrorists would accept at least one of our proposals, and this would become the starting point for further actions.

The witness also recalled that he was ready to go to school on September 1.

“There are a huge number of people who heard that I was going to school. But then General Pankov (Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Southern Federal District, Mikhail Pankov - Kommersant) came up to me and said that if I tried to do this, he would arrest me.

When asked by the representative of the victims, Taimuraz Chedzhemov, whether the terrorist leader Khuchbarov could have released the hostages if Alexander Dzasokhov had come to the school, Nurpasha Kulaev replied:

— The colonel promised to release 150 hostages each for Dzasokhov, Zyazikov (President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov—Kommersant), Roshal (doctor Leonid Roshal—Kommersant) and Aslakhanov (Adviser to the President Aslanbek Aslakhanov—Kommersant).

— Could the militants have shot them?
- No, the Colonel promised them life.
- What if Dzasokhov had come alone?
“They wouldn’t kill me.” Most likely, they simply would not have been allowed into school.

The senator then said that “the federal commission gave a very clear answer to the question of who was part of the operational headquarters,” and that he was not among the members of the headquarters. But everyone in the room knew that, in fact, Mr. Dzasokhov was not only part of the headquarters, but was also one of its leaders. True, at the insistence of the security forces, he was actually removed from “operational” work.

“But this did not give me the right not to act,” said the witness. “On September 2, we came into contact with Zakayev (Akhmed Zakayev, representative of the President of Ichkeria Maskhadov. - Kommersant). I personally talked to him twice. He said that he did not have two-way communication with Aslan Maskhadov, but on the second day he said that he “transferred.” At that moment I would have tried to make contact with anyone!

— Why did you rely on Maskhadov? - asked one of the victims.

“If there had not been information that terrorists only mentioned Maskhadov’s name, I would never have taken this path.

— What did Aushev (former President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev.—Kommersant) say when he left school? - asked Taimuraz Chedzhemov.

“He said that these were scumbags and it was useless to talk to them, and said that he was waiting for Aslakhanov to go there again with him.

- How do you feel about this act of Aushev? - asked one of the victims, meaning that the ex-president of Ingushetia, unlike Mr. Dzasokhov, went to school.

“He fulfilled the request that the federal leadership asked him to do.
-Who asked him?
— It is known who is the leadership of the FSB.

— Did you see Kulaev in those days? - Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel asked here a question, as it seemed to him, directly related to the case under consideration.

“I think you know this without me, that I didn’t see him,” the witness noted with irony.

The victims' lawyer asked where the information about 354 hostages came from at the operational headquarters.

“Already in the first hour of our stay in Beslan, I instructed Boris Urtaev (former head of the Right Bank region of North Ossetia - Kommersant) to find out the exact figure, but it would be stupid to think that the Beslan residents had any time to run around and put their names on the lists. “I think there was no malicious intent in this,” the witness noted, recalling how the victims accused officials of deliberately hiding the true number of hostages in the school.

- Do you feel guilty for what happened? - asked Mr. Chedzhemov.

“Dear judge, I consider this question inappropriate,” the witness began, but his next words were drowned out by the indignant cries of the victims. After waiting for them to calm down a little, he continued: “I apologized to the residents of Beslan twice across the whole country.” If this is not enough, I am ready to do it again.

Speaking about who is to blame for the Beslan tragedy, Alexander Dzasokhov noted that “first of all, terrorists and those who financed them, and those who did not fully fulfill their duties.” By the latter, he apparently still meant the security forces.

- Isn’t it your fault? - was heard again from the hall.

“Let the court determine my guilt.” “I have repeatedly apologized,” the witness answered with irritation.

Screams were heard again from the hall. Several women jumped up from their seats and tried to approach the speaker.

- Remove this cordon! - one of them shouted to the judge, pointing to the guards. “If he thinks that we will kill him, let him not hope for it, let him live a hundred years and suffer!”

— Why didn’t Zyazikov show up? - they asked from the audience, trying to return the conversation to a constructive direction.

- What am I to you, information desk? — the witness answered with annoyance. “Everyone was looking for Zyazikov—both Yakovlev (then presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District Vladimir Yakovlev—Kommersant) and Rogozin (leader of Rodina Dmitry Rogozin—Kommersant). They called him on the phones, and he said that he was far away.

“We have been waiting for this day for a long time,” one of the former hostages told the witness. “And now I don’t need his (Alexandra Dzasokhov.—Kommersant) condolences, I needed him when we were at school.” Now let him know that he will forever remain a political corpse!

Other women supported her. The women shouted that “he’s lying, as always,” and that “everyone is afraid to tell the truth.” For about ten minutes, Judge Aguzarov calmed the victims, and when he succeeded, Rita Sidakova, an activist of the “Mothers of Beslan” committee, asked:

- Who do you think killed our children - terrorists, feds, or is it all your fault?

“Terrorists,” the senator answered without hesitation.

ZAUR Kommersant-FARNIEV, Vladikavkaz

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 4 dated January 13, 2006, page 1

Themes:

Tragedy in Beslan

“What am I to you, information desk?”