Day two of hostage crisis in the school in Russia. What a mess the Chechnya situation is. When we were in Russia, we had talked to Dima & Helen about it a little, trying to get a sense of how the general Russian people felt about it. Dima said after 10 years of war, President Putin should just give up. If the Chechnians want to be a separate republic, fine. Just end the war.

But Putin was elected the first time around partly by vowing to crush the rebels in Chechnya and bring them in line again. No better way to impress a Muslim-majority country than threatening to crush them, eh? So now, by all accounts, the Chechnians are being trained by members of al-Qaida. What puzzles me is the fact that supposedly religious FANATICS, even, find it acceptable to hold women & children hostage and even kill them.

The worst part of this school standoff, to me, is the fact that the rebels are refusing food and water for the hostages; they are refusing a "trade", as even elders of surrounding villages have offered to exchange themselves for the women and children in the school. Lastly, and the thing that has disgusted me most, is the fact there are 2 injured (now probably dead) bodies on the outside of the school; but a sniper on the roof was shooting at anyone who attempted to medically treat them. One of them was a female student.

Russia called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council; and the good ol' UNSC published a statement to have the hostages released immediately. Yeah, that's really going to frighten those rebels. What a dilemma - Russia can't gas-bomb them because experts say the gas will affect children more than adults; the rebels claim that they will blow the school up if anyone attempts to "attack" it. This is just horrible.

Necessary casualties? What a decision to have to make.