Vitaly Kaloev (right) at the graves of his family in Vladikavkaz
Photo: Zaur Farniyev
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Vitaly Kaloev Urged to Kill Again
Vitaly Kaloev returned to his native North Ossetia yesterday after serving four years in a Swiss prison for the killing of an air traffic controller whose error led to the aircraft collision in which his wife and two children died. His plane, which arrived at the Vladikavkaz airport four hours late, was met by a large crowd of well-wishers. The warm reception clearly took him by surprise. The day before, the pro-Kremlin Nashi movement issued a statement that read in part that “If there were even just a few more like Kaloev, there would be a completely different attitude toward Russia. Throughout the world.”
“For the first time in a long time, I can see the people close to me,” he said in Ossetian. “All the while I was in prison, I felt your support.”
Kaloev then visited the Beslan cemetery, which is located 3 km. from the airport, where he laid flowers at a monument to the victims of the terrorist attack in that city and walked with mothers of children who died in that attack among the children's graves. Kaloev is held up as an example of heroism among the Ossetians. “I told my daughter the whole time that you would return and do the same thing to the killers of our children that you did to the killer of your own family,” one woman told him. Other spoke in a similar vein. It is widely believed in Ossetia that Ingushetians, whose republic borders on North Ossetia, were responsible for the terrorist act in Beslan.
From the Beslan cemetery, Kaloev proceeded to the Vladivostok cemetery, where his wife and children are buried. He stood before their graves silently for 20 minutes before being driven home. There he was greeted by a traditional Ossetian feast with about 150 people in attendance.
A journalist asked Kaloev when he stepped away from the table is he regretted his crime.
“I did what I wanted and what I went there for,” he replied.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 15, 2007
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