The hostage standoff in Beslan, Russia, ended in a siege by Russian special forces and many casualties. An authoritarian Russian Federation government led by Vladimir Putin versus a Chechen pro-independence terrorist group -- that's a combination that can only result in more deaths and an escalation of hostilities, with neither side willing to back down.
On the one side are radically militant terrorists who do not mind killing themselves and innocent bystanders, and hence often do not even have any "exit plan" in their terrorist attacks. They feel justified by what they think is a higher and noble cause -- to free Chechnya from Russian rule, an effort that began long before troops were ordered by Boris Yeltsin to invade Chechnya to keep it from becoming independent from Russia. They of course are wrong, because no amount of wrong on the part of one's enemy can justify terrorism -- especially when innocent people, children in particular, are killed as a result.
On the other side is Putin, who has a tough policy toward Chechen independence and terrorism, and has never made compromises in the face of terrorist demands. Moreover, the Russian Federation remains a state in which human rights and lives are not exactly valued as a top priority. Therefore, in the Dubrovka theater siege, the Russian special forces' Alfa Brigade deployed poison gas which successfully ended the standoff, but also took the lives of more than 100 hostages.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/09/05/2003201711