World News 06-09-2004 Day of Mourning for Beslan Tragedy who: President Vladimir Putin what: Faces leadership crisis as mourners demand revenge for Beslan atrocity where: North Ossetia, Russia when: Today snippet: "Vladimir Putin is facing the greatest crisis of confidence in his leadership since he came to power nearly five years ago," says The Scotsman, "as a shocked nation demands to know why the authorities failed to prevent the Beslan tragedy." "Mothers wept for their massacred children yesterday as the first funerals were held for victims of the Russian school bloodbath," says The Sun. Today has been designated an official national day of mourning. "Families consumed by grief accompanied 22 coffins through the southern town of Beslan to a vast field beside the cemetery." "Authorities say at least 335 people died in the siege in the North Ossetia region, which ended in carnage on Friday," reports the BBC, "but correspondents say unofficial figures suggest the real number could be closer to 400." "Witnesses reported that the hostage-takers had attempted to justify their brutality by claiming it was an act of revenge for the killing by Russian forces of Chechen children," reports The Guardian`s Moascow correspondent, Jonathan Steele. "Margarita Komoyeva, a physics teacher released the day before the terrible climax in Beslan, said: `One of them told me: `Russian soldiers are killing our children in Chechnya, so we are here to kill yours`." "Hundreds of families were searching last night for their children and relatives among the wreckage of Middle School No 1, in hospitals and in the region`s morgue," says the paper`s Nick Paton Walsh, reporting from Beslan. "Three days after the bloody end to the Beslan siege, 180 were still listed as missing." [... more]

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