Lieutenant General Yevgenii Abrashin, who is first deputy commander of the North Caucasus Military District\'s Interior Ministry forces, wrote a commentary in \"Izvestiya\" on 24 September in which he critically analyzed the security lapses that lead to the Beslan tragedy. Abrashin said that officials had considerable vague information that a terrorist attack was being prepared but the only precaution taken was enhanced security of military headquarters in the region in order to prevent an attack like the one on police installations in Ingushetia in June. He said that officials failed to increase checkpoints on roads, to conduct helicopter patrols along the North Ossetia-Chechnya border, to increase the police presence in North Ossetian towns, and to send patrols to check out and secure ruined buildings in the vicinities of Vladikavkaz and Beslan. Abrashin writes further that officials failed to recall Interior Ministry forces that had been sent from North Ossetia and Ingushetia to Chechnya, as is standard procedure when a security alert is ordered. He said that such information about possible attacks is so common that officials \"have become inured to the constant flow\" and fail to react adequately. Lieutenant General Abrashin also wrote in \"Izvestiya\" on 24 September that \"at present the number of tasks facing the forces in Chechnya exceeds their physical possibilities.\" \"Most of their current functions are connected with ensuring their own security,\" Abrashkin wrote. \"Active missions to liquidate remaining and newly created band formations are carried out episodically and ineffectively. Therefore we now have the paradoxical situation of fighters committing terrorist acts [in other parts of Russia] hiding from justice in Chechnya.\" He called for the creation of a military commandant for the entire North Caucasus region who would be in command of a unified military operations group for the region. (RFE/RL)