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Topic: Questions about Beslan

Yst
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9749

posted 27 August 2005 03:59 PM

An article in the Globe today discusses just how willing or unwilling the people of Beslan are to accept the official Russian version of events regarding Beslan's tragedy as does an article in the Times, which points out a few inconsistencies between the "official" story on Beslan and facts collected by critical citizens.

I have to say, I find it increasingly remarkable, that the government of Russia to this day seemingly feels compelled to lie as much as possible at the slightest opportunity, even when the government itself is obviously not the major object of discontent. Pseudo-democracies just seem to have a natural pathological compulsion to fabricate facts. It's as if the government is allergic to accuracy in reporting. "Well, dear me, this story is not only true, but furthermore, fails to cast us in any generally negative light. Quick, find something to lie about!"

From: State of Genderfuck | Registered: Jun 2005 | IP: Logged

skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478

posted 27 August 2005 04:11 PM

Och, Yst, I think that Putin does, in fact, have quite a lot to lie about in the way that he has dealt with both Chechnya and Ingushetia (where I believe many of the Beslan hostage-takers came from?), so on this turf he is just in perpetual lying mode.

He and Dubya seem actually to have cooked up some kind of truce over Putin's problems with the Chechens. It is to their mutual benefit to subsume Putin's murderous policies into Dubya's war on terror.

From: gone | Registered: May 2001 | IP: Logged

WingNut
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1292

posted 27 August 2005 04:33 PM

Not just there. China too is involved in a little reported rebellion by separatists in the north west who, since the so-called war on terror got underway, are now alloted as Al Qaeda and thus any violence used by the Chinese to crush said rebellion has been santized.

[ 27 August 2005: Message edited by: WingNut ]

From: Out There | Registered: Aug 2001 | IP: Logged

'lance
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1064

posted 27 August 2005 04:37 PM

[edited for redundancy]

[ 27 August 2005: Message edited by: 'lance ]

From: that enchanted place on the top of the Forest | Registered: Jul 2001 | IP: Logged

Yst
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 9749

posted 27 August 2005 04:48 PM

Yes, certainly, reporting on Chechnya itself has been in a state of almost unceasingly propagandistic fabrication. And there's apparently good reason for that, since the Chechen election and referendum respectively did not come close to meeting international standards and produced results totally out of sync with apparent public opinion in Chechnya. Heck, Russian troops occupying Chechnya were openly permitted to vote in the Chechen election. Even putting all other inconsistencies aside, how obvious can the military be about this kind of thing?

As for Beslan though, I thought maybe - just maybe - the government and military could for once be straight-forward about something, given that they had an obvious Bad Guy - Shamil Basayev, Russia's al-Zarqawi - who had at least as far as the respectable media concensus was concerned taken some form of responsibility, and the Russian military had evidently been fairly patient in defusing the situation. But I guess the desire not to have any suggestions that this was a repeat of the Moscow theatre hostage crisis where, after all, the military had also initially been patient, was too great to allow for clarity and openness in reporting which might raise the issue.

[ 27 August 2005: Message edited by: Yst ]

From: State of Genderfuck | Registered: Jun 2005 | IP: Logged

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