In Beslan, a tense bid for calm

President Vladimir Putin last month appointed one of his most trusted aides, Dmitri Kozak, to head a commission to find a formula for peace and security in Russia's volatile North Caucasus, which includes predominantly Orthodox North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and four other mainly Muslim republics. But experts are dubious. "If Kozak can solve this problem, he'll immediately become a candidate to be Putin's successor," says Konstantin Simonov, director of the independent Center for Current Politics in Moscow. "But I think Kozak's task must terrify him."

North Ossetia's vice premier, Oleg Khatsayev, says that while authorities will take all necessary steps to ensure order, they want firm answers from Moscow. "People are waiting to find out who organized the outrage in Beslan. On which territory was it planned?" he says. "We want to see measures taken to destroy those who are guilty."

Russian officials insist there will be no violence as mourning gives way to other emotions. Russian troops are heavily present, particularly in the tense border areas. "Law enforcement has this situation completely in hand," says Mr. Khatsayev.

But some experts warn the problem is not so simple. "There is an outward calm, but inside people are seething with feelings of aggression brought on by fear and anxiety," says Inna Abayeva, a psychologist at the Psychological Training Center in Vladikavkaz, where many of the survivors are being treated for post-traumatic stress. "The situation is very dangerous. In order to ease it we need more open public discussion of how to move forward, and we need more information from the authorities," she says.

Indeed, a vengeful point of view is not hard to find, especially among the small knots of young men hovering on Beslan's street corners. "I'm ready to kill them, to finish this threat forever," says Marat, a teenager who says he lost his little sister in the siege. But one of his two friends, who gives his name as Oleg, interjects: "No, that's not good. We don't want war."

Yet while the Kremlin blames "international terrorism" for the bloody hostage drama, many Ossetians have a more specific enemy in mind. "The further you get from the Ingush border, the quieter things are," says Marat Dzanayev, a young engineer in the North Ossetian capital, Vladikavkaz. "There has always been trouble with them, and our patience can't last for much longer."

There is hope that dialogue might take hold between Ossetians and their neighbors. In a meeting with visiting UNICEF director Carol Bellamy on Tuesday, North Ossetian President Alexander Dzasokhov endorsed the idea of introducing classes in tolerance and interethnic understanding in local schools. "I don't think anyone will ever get over the tragedy of Beslan, but hopefully people can start to move on," says Ms. Bellamy. "We have to hope that the scale of violence that we saw there will stand as a warning to all that it must never be repeated."

Page: 1 | 2