PRESIDENT PUTIN of Russia has offended many mothers of Beslan victims by inviting them to meet him in Moscow on Friday, during a vigil marking the first anniversary of the school siege.

The Beslan mothers’ committee said yesterday that it would accept because it had been asking for a meeting for more than a year to protest against the failure to punish any senior officials involved in the tragedy.

But the committee accused the Kremlin of being grossly insensitive or trying to deflect media attention from the ceremonies in Beslan on September 1 to September 3.

“To invite us on September 2 is the height of cynicism,” said Susanna Dudiyeva, the head of the mothers’ committee. “But we are putting our pain and sense of insult to one side for the sake of our cause.”

Her son Zaur, 13, was among the 331 people killed when the three-day siege of Beslan’s Middle School No 1 ended in a hail of gunfire and explosions on September 3.

She and other Beslan residents had been planning to spend Friday visiting the cemetery where the victims are buried and the remains of the school where they perished.

The mothers’ committee, which has 200 members, had asked Mr Putin and other senior government officials to stay away from the commemorations.

Many in Beslan blame negligent or incompetent government officials for allowing 32 terrorists to occupy the school and then botching the rescue operation. They are furious that the only person to be put on trial so far is Nurpashi Kulayev, the one hostage-taker captured alive.

They also accuse investigators of covering up, or failing to consider, key evidence that contradicts the official version of events.

The mothers’ committee said that it had asked for a meeting with Mr Putin at least three times but had received no response until now. Mr Putin confirmed that he was willing to meet the mothers. “I know about their request. I am ready to meet them,” he told reporters in the southern city of Sochi. The invitation was for 20 Beslan mothers to accompany President Mamsurov of North Ossetia, on a trip to Moscow. But Julietta Basiyeva, another leader of the mothers’ committee, said that only seven would join him as the majority wanted to take part in the commemorations. Mrs Dudiyeva would be in the group, but some of the others would not be from the mothers’ committee. “We want the group to reflect the views of many different victims, not just ours,” she said.

Mr Putin has kept his distance from Beslan until now in what analysts see as an attempt to prevent bad publicity denting his popularity elsewhere in Russia. His only visit to Beslan was a hurried trip to a local hospital in the early hours of September 4 last year.

Russian media reported last week that Mr Putin may be unhappy with the pace of the investigation. A federal parliamentary commission was supposed to announce its findings in time for this week’s anniversary but has postponed its report indefinitely.

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