N Ossetia's ex-president finally gives evidence

The terrorists who seized the school in Beslan were ready to shoot their own relatives dead too. This is what North Ossetia's ex-president Alexander Dzasokhov said earlier today at the hearing of Mr Kulayev's case to which he was summoned as a witness. "Bring them, put them in the square and we will shoot them," Mr Dzasokhov quoted the terrorists as saying.

He said that in the very first few hours they had been informed that they would be given a corridor and a helicopter, so they could go wherever they liked. "But we heard unprintable phrases in reply," Mr Dzasokhov said.

The gangsters also refused to talk to North Ossetia's mufti Valgasov and turned down all proposals, according to the ex-president. He added that he had heard the well-known businessperson Mikhail Gutseriev talk to them. "He said that he was ready to rent a plane, so that it go to where the terrorists liked, even to a foreign country. Roshal also talked to them several times, but all in vain. Because the terrorists refused to let a girl with diabetes go, she died," Mr Dzasokhov said.

He added that the former Ingush president Ruslan Aushev had brought two copybook sheets with handwritten "rambling demands" after talks with the terrorists. The name at the bottom was "Basayev," but there was no signature. The sheets were sent for an examination to find out who had written them. Mr Dzasokhov said that Mr Aushev when he had come out of the school had described the terrorists as "freaks who are of no use to talk to," RIA Novosti news agency reported.

When answering questions, Mr Dzasokhov also claimed that there had been no information about a terrorist act planned in the republic. "Some hearing participants make some corrections in this respect, but the documents which were available to us show that there was no predictive information about a school seizure in North Ossetia and less so in Beslan," Mr Dzasokhov said.

"We repeatedly addressed higher jurisdictions over concerns about the situation in the republic which could worsen, i.e. the republic always notified the higher jurisdictions," he emphasised.

It was earlier reported that killed hostages' relatives from the Beslan Voice Committee also requested evidence from the well-known paediatrician Leonid Roshal, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu, and Vladimir Pronichev, director of the Federal Security Service's Boarder Service. Ms Ella Kesayeva, a member of the committee, had made this statement to journalists before the hearing began.

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