SCO condemns terrorist acts in Russia's hostage crisis

The Secretary-General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Zhang Deguang, sent a message Monday to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov strongly condemning last week's "atrocious terrorist acts" in the hostage-taking crisis in southern Russia.

In the message, Zhang also expressed his condolences over the killing of innocent people in the tragedy and offered his sincere sympathies to relatives of the victims.

"Terrorism, separatism and extremism are our common enemies," said Zhang. "We firmly support the efforts made by the Russian government and its people in maintaining national unification and territorial integrity."

He said the SCO will further strengthen cooperation and coordination on security amongst its member countries and fight terrorism in any form to safeguard regional peace, safety and stability.

The SCO, a regional cooperation body set up in June 2001, groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Some 30 heavily-armed terrorists seized a school at Beslan in Russia's southern republic of North Ossetia on Wednesday holding some 1,000 children and adults hostage for over 51 hours.

On Friday afternoon, children began to flee the school after two explosions. A gun battle between security forces and captors erupted as the gunmen opened fire on escaping children.

Russian media say the death toll from the attack has reached 338.

Source: Xinhua