02 December 2005, 17:36
Legislature denies executive pressure
The report of the republican parliamentary commission for revealing the causes and circumstances of the terrorist act in Beslan, announced at a meeting of the North Ossetian parliament last Tuesday, was "smoothed to the maximum extent to make it in line with the prosecution's version," victims think. During the year, Mr Stanislav Kesayev, chairman of the commission, had voiced some versions that had been dramatically different from the official version of the prosecutor's office. Therefore, the victims had pinned some hope on Mr Kesayev's report.
However, Mr Kesayev did not mention the differences with the information of the federal commission about which he had spoken before, in particular about the number of the gunmen, the operation of the headquarters, and the use of heavy weapons. Victims attribute this change to pressure on the part of the prosecution, in particular Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov and the criminal cases he opened over theft of budgetary funds in the Alania football club and investigations into facts of corruption in several ministries of the North Ossetian government. Mr Kesayev's "smoothed report" was achieved by means of a compromise with the prosecutor's office, according to unofficial sources.
"Stanislav Kesayev has expressed his position. He has given an assessment of the government, but nevertheless we have not found in the report any specific proven facts that we had wanted to learn about. Kesayev has been critical about the system, really. But we understand that the report of the commission is a public document and that it has no legal force and value," Ms Anneta Gadiyev of the Beslan Mothers Committee said. She assumed that "there was some pressure on the commission and, therefore, Kesayev had no chance to say anything important."
Meanwhile, the Voice of Beslan Committee (comprising some of Beslan Mothers members who came off after a split — CK), in particular its leader Ms Ella Kesayev, has expressed a tougher reaction to the report. She has claimed that the report does not answer any single question that interests victims who expected the report to give at least several names of those guilty. "This has not come about. It may soon turn out that we are to blame for everything," Ms Kesayev said and added that the report "was smoothed" in which she saw influence of the prosecutor's office.
The parliament of North Ossetia denies the possibility of pressure on Mr Kesayev on the part of the prosecutor's office. The commission pursued the investigation within the framework of its powers and the Constitution of North Ossetia, according to the legislature's information and analysis centre. Therefore, one should not have expected the parliament to give the names of those to blame for the terrorist act because this is illiterate from the point of view of law and only a court of law can declare a person guilty.
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Author: Alana Besolova, CK correspondent
