Meeting against despotism of power bodies held in Beslan

Beslan (North Ossetia) was a venue of a several thousand strong meeting against abuse of power by law enforcement bodies. About a thousand persons rallied in the square in front of the district Palace of Culture at 11 a.m. The initiators of the action were the Tersk (Terek) Cossack Cohort and the Committee "Beslan Mothers." In total, over 2000 persons took part in the meeting.

The reason for the protest was an attempt to kidnap Hariton Ezdiev, hetman (ataman) of the District branch of the Tersk Cossack Cohort. According to the witnesses, on April 28, his house was stormed by unknown armed people in masks, who refused to present any documents. They announced themselves to be employees of the Regional Operative Headquarters (ROH) to fight terrorism. "The power agents searched the house, then tried to detain the hetman and took him outdoor under convoy, but the neighbours did not let taking Ezdiev away, they managed to fight the detained hetman off. Under the pressure of the crowd, the ROH agents retired," Dudieva informed.

In the course of a search, they confiscated from the hetman a "Saiga" short rifle, a 12-calibre "Rys" piston gun, munitions to hunting rifles and a "Motorola" radio station. The hetman had a permit on the weapons and special communication means issued by the Ministry of Interior of the Republic North Ossetia-Alania, the IA Regnum reports.

Six persons spoke in the course of the meeting; they were victims of the terror act in School No. 1 and Cossack representatives. The speakers defined the attitude to the action of power agents as to despotism on the part of law enforcement bodies. The audience was informed that the authorities of the Republic, including the head of the Republic Teimuraz Mansurov and chairman of the government of the Republic Alexander Merkulov, were informed on the attempt to arrest the hetman.

Vladimir Khodov, administration head of the Pravoberezhny District, who addressed the meeting, said: "In the territory of the Pravoberezhny District, no law enforcement bodies are allowed making any clean-ups. They've told me at the prosecutor's office of the Republic, that they know nothing about the persons who made an attempt to detain the hetman."

Mr. Khodov noted in his speech: "The Cossacks of the District are performing their functions in compliance with the Federal Law on Cossacks. The Cossack Cohort is funded from the local budget. Each of the 110 Cossacks of the Pravoberezhny District get their salary worth 3100 roubles, they are all engaged in protection of the 58-kilometre border with Ingushetia, where they have special cabins equipped for them."

As a sign of protest against the actions of power agents in relation to hetman Ezdiev, the committee "Beslan Mothers" announced at the meeting that they join in its full membership (14 persons) into the Cossack Cohort. Immediately at the meeting, Susanna Dudieva was awarded the title of Cossack sotnik (centurion commander).

The meeting lasted for about an hour and a half and ended with adoption of an appeal to the authorities of the Republic, president of Russia Vladimir Putin and Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Rashid Nurgaliev. In the appeal, the Beslan population demanded not to admit any abuse of power by law enforcement bodies in the Pravoberezhny District, not to prosecute Cossacks for performance of their duties of guarding the administrative border, and to oblige Deputy General Prosecutor Vladimir Kolesnikov to make a thorough and objective investigation of the reasons and circumstances of the Beslan terror act. Collection of signatures under the appeal started right at the meeting.