Arriving Somewhere

Wide Angle, a show on PBS hosted by Bill Moyers did an episode about the Beslan School tragedy last night. I was excited that anything related to the ongoing war in Chechnya would get any air time at all in the U.S. so I made some time in my evening to watch it.

The show consisted of a 45-minute documentary of the tragedy followed by a 15-minute interview with Washington Post journalists Peter Baker and Susan Glasser. The documentary itself was mostly made up of live footage from the tragedy including film taken by the terrorists themselves. The interviews with hostages and others involved were engrossing. I was quite amazed that we were able to see so much footage from the siege. It was all quite real and very disturbing. The images of 1,200 hostages crammed inside the gymnasium for several days without food or water with the masked terrorists standing around them with guns and explosives wired all around were… indescribable.

The narration was well put together and didn’t draw any conclusions for the viewer. While it tried to maintain a neutrality there could be no question in the viewer’s mind that the terrorists committed an atrocious act. Although, who is to blame for the final outcome is unknown and will probably always be so. The documentary did well at reporting the known facts and left us we three possibilities for the explosion that began the final storm of the school:

1. The terrorists grew tired of waiting and started setting off explosives. Highly unlikely for many reasons.
2. A police sniper killed a terrorist, and the explosives he was responsible for went off when his foot came off of the pressure switch. Possible.
3. Angry locals stormed the building causing a terrorist to set off his explosives. Possible.

There is a fourth possibility that wasn’t mentioned. The building was stormed by the police, causing a terrorist to set off his explosives. While I believe this is unlikely, it should not be ruled out – especially following the behavior of the Russian security during the hostage situation at a theater several years ago. There Russian security gassed and killed around 150 civilians while storming the theater.

Following the documentary Bill Moyers conducted an interview with two Washington Post journalists. You can view it at the website. I was very pleased with the interview since the documentary gave absolutely no context for the school siege. While there is no question that those who held the school hostage were terrorists and had no excuse the journalists did a very good job of presenting the failings of the Russian government in the war with Chechnya and its abandonment of the “democracy experiment”. Kudos to Peter Baker and Susan Glasser. They even refused to be baited by Bill Moyers’ partisan-liberal questions, such as trying to compare Iraq to Vietnam to Chechnya.

In all, I would have simply been happy for the exposure that the Chechen conflict received and came away impressed with the balance and quality of reporting.

technorati tag: PBS, Russia, Beslan

Ok, I’m a bit slow on this one.

Robert Jordan’s latest novel in the Wheel of Time series, Knife of Dreams, is set to be released on October 11. In addition, the prolouge of the book will be available in eBook and PDF format July 22 for $3.50.

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, the Wheel of Time is an unfinished series of ten (soon to be eleven) books that fall under the fantasy genre of fiction. Considered by many to be the heir of Tolkien, these books are wildly popular and they last three novels have been #1 on the New York Times Bestsellers list.

The TOR Books website: http://www.tor.com/jordan/
WOTMania, a fan site: http://www.wotmania.com/

On July 12 at 9:00pm the PBS show “Wide Angle” will begin it’s 2005 season with an hour episode about the Beslan school siege by Chechen terrorists. As Russia allows very little news to escape about the war in Chechnya, this show promises to be very interesting. From the description on the website it also seems to take a balanced look at both the terrorists and the failings of the Russian government. More info on the PBS site.

The Moscow News reports on comments made by a pro-Moscow official in Chechnya on how more than 300,000 civilians have been killed and over 200,000 missing since the beginning of the wars in 1994. This is from a pro-Moscow government official! Considering how much they’ve tried to downplay the atrocities committed by the Russian security forces, one has to wonder if the actual figures are much higher.
300,000 Killed in Chechen Wars — Pro-Moscow Official

Lastly, an American newspaper reports on a Russian story concerning Chechnya. An Unlikely Antiwar Hero for Russians is about a Russian Police officer who served SEVEN tours of duty in Chechnya, and is accused of war crimes relating to an attack on a village.

More than 55 civilians, ranging in age from 1 to 82, were shot, strangled or burned in their homes. Gold teeth were pulled out of the victims’ mouths; televisions, tape recorders and cash were looted; women were gang-raped and slain or left for dead. Yet in more than five years, no soldier was arrested or charged — until recently.

What makes this story so interesting (aside from the fact that the Russian government has allowed anyone to be accused of atrocities at all!) is that the anti-war movement is defending the police officer. Their reason is that as the Chechens are victims of the Russian government, so are the Russian soldiers.

technorati tag: Beslan

On the subject of Darfur, Kofi Annan actually had something intelligent to say.

Asked how history would judge the international response, Annan said: “Quite likely that we were slow, hesitant, uncaring and that we have learned nothing from Rwanda.”

via Reuters

Now, will he recommend any action?

With the minuscule amount of press the crisis in Darfur is receiving I am always glad to see an article appear in an American paper… this is from an editorial in the Philadelphia Enquirer:

The violence that has continued since Powell’s assessment [of genocide] reflects the international community’s unconscionably sluggish response to ending the assault on civilians by the government in Khartoum and government-supported militias.
…
President Bush, with the United Nations, must rise to the challenge of ending these catastrophes. Without their persistent attention, the suffering will continue.

I’m back in school! I started attending part-time this summer in pursuit of a Master of Library and Information Science degree. I’m very excited to be back in school. Currently, I am taking two classes during a condensed 6-week session. I am beginning to think that I was a little crazy to do so. I should make it through all right, but it will take up every moment outside of work that I have. So, that may mean some light blogging for the next month.

Not that there has been any less action lately. I’ve continued to attend the Darfur worship/demonstrations (Worship4Justice) in the capitol, with our final one occuring this Sunday at the White House. Last night my wife and I went to the Independence Day fireworks on The Mall. And work has been keeping me quite busy as well.

Never a dull moment.