The European Union asked Russia to explain the bloody end to the siege of a school by Chechen gunmen on Friday with huge loss of life.
| "Wotsa meaning of this outrage?" |
In a statement in the name of the presidency of the 25-nation EU, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said all countries should work together to prevent such tragedies. "But we also would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened," he added.
| Hmmm... Lemme see. It was the first day of school. All the little kiddies showed up in their new clothes, ready to learn the alphabet and how to add and subtract. Approximately 40 Bad Guys, including Chechens, Ingush, Arabs, and an Ossetian who looked something like P.Diddy showed up, shot up the joint, killed some of the kiddies, killed some of the parents, killed some of each other, dropped the roof of the schoolhouse on everybody, and then tried to get away, hiding among the distraught parents. That about cover it? |
Interfax news agency said more than 200 people were killed when the siege ended in a shootout between the gunmen and troops. Around 700 more were reported to be in hospital. EU ministers avoided direct criticism of Moscow's handling of the hostage crisis and expressed sympathy with the Russian people and government. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said "terrorists" were to blame for the death toll and declined to comment when asked whether Russian authorities had bungled the chaotic rescue bid.
| Kinda hard to bungle an operation that has no good outcome, isn't it? |
"I know that from President (Vladimir) Putin downwards, there was a complete commitment by the Russian government to do everything they could to save the life of the innocents," Straw said. At an afternoon news conference, with accounts of the events in North Ossetia still confused, Bot said it was difficult to judge from a distance whether the right decision had been taken. "I must assume they did their utmost to find a negotiated deal with the hostage takers and that has failed and they saw no other way out but to take these measures," he said.
| How does it feel to be EUseless? |
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