The bloody week of ignorance

Russian government is not in a rush to comment such mind-boggling eruption of terrorism.

Misfortune has bestowed upon Russia. Major misfortune. Not only our soldiers and civilians fall victim to never-ending gunshots these days. Children are being shot. Tens, hundreds and thousands of innocent kids…

Never before has the world witnessed so many children being taken hostage. Never before has the world witnessed so many innocent children die in seemingly peaceful times. Just recently it seemed that there could not possibly be anything worse than two airplane crashes and a blast right by the “Rizhskaya” metro station in Moscow. But no, tragedy has no limits. The number of victims kept rising with every hour. There were ten victims first, then forty, then 46, 63, 79, then the numbers exceeded a hundred…More than a hundred lifeless bodies found in the gym of the exploded school. Soon afterward we were informed of a much greater number of the dead. 158, 429, 556, 600 it was still indefinite how many wounded people have been admitted to local hospitals of North Ossetia. Officially, there are 646 wounded, 227 of whom are children. Only ten of those bastards who had opened the gates of hell were killed; another ten were killed not long afterward.

Still, something was missing in this entire situation. News reports of thousands of media agencies all seemed to lack something. But what? The realization of the missing link began to set in with the incoming news from other countries. Foreign leaders as well as various international organizations were all exasperated by the terrorists’ actions.

Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased. He also stated that the bandits should receive death penalty what they had done. President of South Korea No Mu Hen in his telephone conversation with the Russian President has expressed his readiness to aid Moscow recover after the terrorist acts. Foreign Minister of Indonesia has also given a speech in Jakarta where he accused terrorists’ actions. Paris in turn has condemned “the most horrific action.” Israel has offered with child rehabilitation…

Thank you, our foreign friends. But how come not a single authoritative figure in Russia steps forward with such propositions? They could have at least expressed their condolences to people who have lost their loved ones due to the terror. Are they too busy? Are they so busy that in the course of entire 11 hours no one had time to say something to its people? Or did the immense grief clouded their minds and completely disabled them to utter a word? Remember, the first words of sympathy and support to George Bush right after the events of September 11 have been expressed by Vladimir Putin. Obviously, citizens of Beslan are not American presidents. However, their grief is no lesser. They would have listened to their president.

But the Russian President is not the only one to blame. Russian Prime Minister Fradkov is also silent. All of those who are responsible for social, medical, military problems are also speechless. Leaders of political parties appear to be mute as well. Perhaps, they are all just way too busy with their political affairs. As for us, ordinary people, we have no other choice but wait and see when another blast (God forbid!) will take place or another school will be seized by terrorists. Well then, we’ll wait until someone announces another mourning day in Russia. After all, it seems as though Russian government has nothing else to say.     

Alexei Perfiliev