Loathing turns to pity in Beslan bloodbath trial

RUSSIA - The Russian media, in disbelief, are calling it "Beslan syndrome".

When Nurpashi Kulayev went on trial in mid-May for his alleged part in the mass hostage taking at the southern Russian school, families of those who died in the bloodbath screamed in loathing.

But now hatred among the victims' next-of-kin is giving way to pity -- and a desire to know the truth that only this pale, young man can tell them about how their families died.

One newspaper reacting to the sudden surge of sympathy for Kulayev dubbed it "Beslan syndrome".

Altogether 330 people, half of them children, died in the bloodshed after a gang of Chechen rebel sympathisers seized the school last September -- one of the blackest days in Russia's recent turbulent history.

But Kulayev's former hostages and their relatives say there is nothing unbalanced in the change of mood. They say Kulayev's comments at his trial on terrorism charges are their only chance of uncovering facts they believe the state is hiding from them.

Beslan residents are angry that no high ranking officials have been brought to book for a tragedy they say could not have happened if not for official incompetence and even connivance.

Kulayev, a 24-year-old Chechen, stands hunched in his defendant's cage, dark eyes fixed on the floor between his feet.

The families, several holding pictures of relatives killed at the school, watch him constantly.

Now they wait for a word or phrase that might help them understand how rebels got through several checkpoints to Beslan, and how the siege turned into a bloodbath.

"This court is pointless. It exists just to put all the blame on this Kulayev -- that he blew everything up, that he shot everyone," said Alma Khamitseva, who still wears the black of mourning for her sister Lema.

"It was Moscow that made this war, the politicians. Let them answer for it. The officials should be on trial, not Kulayev."

Chaos

On Tuesday morning, the court hearing in the town of Vladikavkaz adjourned in chaos as Beslan women shouted abuse at prosecutors whom they accuse of trying to cover up the truth.

"I do not know what the prosecutors are asking these things for... they are not important," shouted Susanna Dudiyeva, chairwoman of the "Beslan mothers" support group, earning a stern rebuke from the judge.

A group of women come from the "Beslan mothers" office for every court session, their bus passing within 100 yards (metres) of the gutted school that has been left untouched since the day their children died.

The school's sports hall gapes open to the sky, and the playground is rank with weeds and long grass that would once have been trampled flat by running children's feet.

After the court adjournment, the black-clad women poured out onto the streets of Vladikavkaz, capital of the North Ossetia region that borders Chechnya where rebels have fought Moscow's rule for a decade.

"I think Kulayev was not important in this. I think he is telling the truth," said Alla Batagova, who lost her sister and son in the siege.

"Kulayev is a terrorist. But how will it help us if he gets life in jail? It will not help us find the truth."

They are beginning to think they will never know how a group of armed men drove freely along Russia's most heavily guarded roads, and how a siege collapsed into a full-scale battle.

"No one will tell us the truth. And I would like to know the truth before I die," said Batagova, a small blonde figure standing alone in the summer sun.

"But I think I would be better off in that other world where my son is. There would be no corruption, no filth and no crime."

- REUTERS