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Below are the 12 most recent journal entries recorded in
struwwellpeter's LiveJournal:
| Monday, February 27th, 2006 | | 7:42 pm |
Petition
|
http://beslan.shamin.ru
Put your signature under their demand for JUSTICE!
Indefinite hunger strike by women in Beslan
On
February 19th for the hunger strike was called off on its 11th day. During the hunger strike 3 of the women
have been hospitalized. On making
their decision to stop the hunger strike, the participants have made and
signed this appeal:
It's only just begun!
Honored users of Live
Journal! Honored citizens of Russia! All our friends who supported us
around the world!
When we decided to declare a hunger strike as a sign of protest against the
violation of our rights, against the illegal conclusion of judicial
investigations, we never though of trying to blackmail the government.
We understood that even our death as a result of this hunger strike would
not force the government to wake up and confess its crimes and repent
before its people.
We who lost our children in Beslan more than anyone else feel our
responsibility before every child in Russia.
We are ready to fight for Your children. Believe us, few in this country
realize the danger as we do, or possess our decisiveness.
We need your support, but not in support of the government. We have a great
task before us. Only You can and must help us obtain truth and justice.
'The Voice of Beslan' community organization
The starving:
Emma Tagayeva-Betrozova
Ella Kesayeva
Alma Khamitseva
Marina Melikova
Emilia Bzarova
Zalina Dziova
Svetlana Margiyeva
More in detail here: http: //
www.golosbeslana.ru/treb2002.htm
Dear friends! We continue to appeal for JUSTICE.
The hunger strike has ended, but struggle for the truth proceeds.
We draw your attention to the declaration of ‘The Voice of Beslan’:
Say no to suspending the moratorium on capital punishment.
'The Voice of Beslan' public organization categorically is against Deputy
Attorney General Nikolai Shepel's request for the highest measure of punishment
- capital punishment. In this country there is a moratorium on capital
punishment. We consider this a civilized measure. We are against becoming
barbarians in response to barbarism. We are also categorically against the
initiative by the 'Mothers of Beslan' committee, which is in solidarity
with the Russian attorney general's office and asks for a Russia-wide
referendum on canceling this moratorium.
Beslan has been used for political purposes more than once. Covering
himself in a cloak of OUR grief, Putin suspended regional elections. Now
they want to once again use Beslan in a dirty way. After such pain and
suffering we still understand that the court was a lynching. We demand the
justice that the government fears more than anything. This is why they
connive with the dark sides of human nature in order to drive us from our
aims.
|
After the illegal termination of the Vladikavkaz court trial of the only
participant in the Beslan school attack, Nurpasha Kulayev, seven women from
‘The Voice of Beslan’ community organization declared a protest action – an
indefinite hunger strike.
Starving
since February 9th: Alma Khamitseva, Emilia
Dzambulatova, Svetlana Margiyeva, Marina Melikova, Zalina
Diova, Ella Kesayeva, and Emma Tagayeva-Betrozova.
On the second day of the hunger strike the phone service for ‘The Voice of
Beslan’ was disconnected in their building.
‘Novaya Gazeta’ journalist Elena Milashina, who since September 2nd, 2004 and
to the present works in Beslan, has carried out the only communication for
the starving women.
From a city Internet-café Milashina chronicles the events in her diary on Live Journal, and with its help the starving women keep in contact with users of Live Journal.
Protest action will proceed until authorities will not pay attention to
requirements starving.
Through Elena Milashina's diary the participant of hunger-strike Emma
Kesayeva has addressed to all to us:
”For
a year and a half we have demanded the government conduct an objective
investigation of the circumstances of the Beslan terror act, and punish all
the guilty parties - the terrorists, the government officials, and the
military and police. It never came to pass. The trial of Kulayev helped
explain many of the tragedy's circumstances, but, obviously, the court's
investigations frightened and annoyed many officials whom we summoned as
witnesses. If you remember, we sent the first notice of our open hearings to
President Putin, and we see nothing terrible in having him come and give
testimony in court. Firstly, we do not know what he did on September 1-3,
2004. Secondly, if the president were to come to court, then not one
government official or police or military officer would dare refuse to carry
out their civic duty. Today we have declared a hunger strike, demanding only
one thing: JUSTICE.
If you wish to support us,
organize a petition on the internet in our support. Write us letters of
support. It's important to us.
Letters
to the women can be written in Elena Milashina’s Live Journal, the same place
where it is possible to ask them questions.
Elena will transmit all of them and even publish their answers. Write
to them here http: //
befree77.livejournal.com, it too is important support.
Dear fellow citizens!
Women from Beslan, lost the relatives, starve and for us. They defend our
rights to safety, to justice and legality.
We appeal to all citizens of Russia who are not indifferent to support the
women of Beslan, and attach their signature to their appeal.
The demands of the community
organization 'The Voice of Beslan'
"We
the victims have an unlimited hunger-strike because we do not trust the
Attorney General to conduct an investigation into the act of terror at
Beslan. We believe that the majority of the hostages who perished in the
school died at the hands of those who shot at the school with tanks,
flamethrowers, grenade launchers, heavy machine guns, and rocket-propelled
grenades. The Beslan court of law was silenced just as it was time for those
who ordered the used of heavy armaments against 28 terrorists and 1128
hostages were due to testify. We want to know who gave order to begin the
assault at 13:02 on September 3rd, 2004. We want to know why they began the
'rescue' by firing flamethrowers into a gymnasium full of children. We demand
a new investigation including independent (and foreign) experts. We demand
that this investigation be conducted with the direct participation and under
the supervision of the victims, journalists, and human rights activists. We
demand the cancellation of the 'secret investigation' of the Beslan act of
terror, because the 'classified investigation materials' turned into a
'government secret' long ago. We demand that hearings on the Nurpasha Kulayev
case continue, because the court has opened many inconvenient 'secrets'.
Finally, we demand to interrogate in court all the witnesses and eyewitnesses
who are capable of shedding light to the circumstances of the Beslan terror
act. We believe that this demand should be supported by anyone who fears a
repetition of Beslan in Russia. Acts of terror will continue in our country,
because government fears the courts."
Put your signature under the appeal:
The
following have already signed this appeal
6. Viktor
Kukin, USA, scientist
15. Elena Tokar, USA, Boston
22. Pyotr Davydovskiy, Canada, Kingston
51. Yuliya Bogun, Greece, export operations
59. Vladimir Bagryansky, Puassi, France, free reporter EAU assoc.
61. Yekaterina Bagryanskaya, Puassi, France, teacher, mother of five
children, EAU - Ecologie Appliqee Universelle
62. Eva Bagryanskaya, Puassi, France, student
63. Aleksei Bagryanskiy, Puassi, France, student
79. Svetlana Gubareva, Kazakhstan, ROO 'Nord-Ost'
81. Sergei Zhukovsky, Minsk, programmer http://forum.codeby.net
http://www.designemotion.com http://www.extrahosting.net
89. Lyubov Piskaryova, Lobnia, Italy
97. Tricca Elena, France, Paris
103. Evgeny Kanel, Berlin, Germany
109. Aydin IBRAHIMOV, TURKEY
115. Andrey Olkhin, Samara, Italy
118. Igor Safonov, Wolfsburg, FRG
131. Christina Kamenyuka, Kyiv, Ukraine
137. Maiya Wiener-Bykovskaya, Boston, USA
151. Natalya Salteiski, Delaware, USA
152. Alexander Margulis, Newark, USA
155. Karl Snedden, Windom, USA
158. Margarita Barvinok, Ann Arbor, USA
162. Victoria, USA
202. Dmitri Kourbatsky, Limassol, Cyprus, accountant, Forcon Ltd.
207. Lyubov Burban, Los Angeles
210. Ruth Robinson, Golden Valley, Arizona USA
215. Renee Sutanto, San Diego California USA
225. Eduard Fomin, San Francisco, California, USA
230. Dmitri Zuyev, Atlit, Israel, webmaster, NBP
242. Yuri Kauter, Germany
253. Oksana Bezrukaya, Minsk, Belarus
264. Stanlislav Konorov, Canada, Vancouver, Scientist, UBC
265. Judy Franks, Murphy, NC United States of America
266. Brad Nielsen, Brookline, MA USA
269. Svetlana Teplitsky, Los Angeles, CA USA, chemist
270. Zinoviy Teplitsky, Los Angeles, CA USA
271. Vladislav Teplitsky, San Diego, CA USA
272. Ilya Teplitsky, San Diego
287. Nikolai Kuharenko, Sidney, Australia
296. Alexandra Shaikevich, Oakland, USA "Rescue Global Neighbor"
308. Taras Saveiko, London, UK, Therapist
313. Zhanna Asenova, Almaty, Kazakhstan
360. Satter, David, U.S.A., Writer, Johns Hopkins University
361. Yana Kozhevnikova, Toronto, Canada, Designer
367. Rodion Stepanchik, Kishinyov Moldavia, student NBP
369. Steven Johnston, St. Louis Missouri USA
377. Zarina Lekti, Oslo, Norway
378. Yelena Nasso, Connecticut, USA
379. Victor Helwer, Berlin, Germany
387. Vadim Tartakovskiy, Vancouver, Canada, accountant
391. Maria Petrova, Cambridge, USA, graduate student
393. Vladimir Seredkine, Canada, Vancouver, Designer
397. Mihail Goldstein, Zollingen, Germany
402. Vladimir, Estonia
403. OLGA FRADIS, LOS ANGELES, USA, BUSINESS, OFRA ENTERPRISES
|
|
Web
programming by Roman Shamin
|
|
|
| | Friday, February 24th, 2006 | | 3:03 pm |
BESLAN'S FORTY DAYS. THE PLACE, WHERE THE PLANET WAS DESTROYED
Those who perished on September 1st were remembered over the weekend. Tuesday will be 40 days since September 3rd, but people will be holding their memorials on other days, on Wednesday and Thursday. Everyone has many relatives, and one must go to every home to express sympathy.
During the Great Patriotic War, Beslan lost 357 people, but now Beslan has lost everything. Each day the Rostov laboratory sends another list. On Tuesday the number of the dead grew by another seven names: Milena Gachikovna Grigoryan, Miranush Gachikovna Grigoryan, Naira Yurikovna Grigornyan, Soslan Alanovich Tokmayev, Irina Sergeevna Khadikova, Anna Batrazovna Tsaikhova, Ol'ga Nikolaevna Soskiyeva, and Alla Evgen'yevna Smirnova.
From morning until night, there is wailing in the destroyed school.
* * *
On Saturday the 'Russian social committee for support of persons suffering from terrorist acts in the city of Beslan' came to town. The committee went to the regional administration center. Primakov, Zurabov, Karelova, were among the committee members. The first to speak was the president of North Osetia, Alexander Dzasoxov. He did not show his suffering, and his high voice rang out as if at a party meeting: "The initiative for this committee's creation is from the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin! We agreed that Dmitriy Nikolaevich Kozak shall chair this committee. Today, in our grief, we must examine the events, as it is our responsibility to those who have suffered, and solve these problems once again."
"The people all want to know, will the political leadership and armed forces be brought up on criminal charges. Not just in Osetia, but on the federal level as well," Mairbek Tuayev said to the committee. He is a representative from a committee distributing humanitarian assistance in Beslan. "I was at the school for those 3 days, and not once did I see anyone from the leadership come and find out the situation, or determine where to station the special forces. That 50 to 100 of the dead are on the consciences of the armed forces leadership, that is what the people would like to know." It is not understood, with what exactly did the general staff occupy itself, other than refusing to negotiate.
* * *
Svetlana Peliyeva-Dzodziyeva had just returned from Sochi with the first group of Beslan children. She has recovered a bit. On September 1st, Svetlana took her children to Beslan School #1. She thought that she was combining the pleasant with the useful: she would send Zarina (Zayka), her fourth-grader, and Gregory, her seventh-grader, off to school, then do an article on the first day of class for the local paper, 'Life on the Right Bank'. Now she cannot talk her children into going back to school. Zayka is very scared, though by nature she is a brave little girl. After being freed from captivity, a 27 year-old friend of Svetlana's was sobbing continuously, but 9 year-old Zayka calmed her down. From Zayka's fourth-grade class, only 20 of the 32 children survived. Her teacher Roza Cherdzhiyeva also died.
If Svetlana manages to talk Zayka into returning to classes, she will likely attend School #6. Carol Bellamy, managing director of UNICEF, was there on Tuesday. Everyone wants to help the Beslan children these days. Two schools and three kindergartens are to be built. School #4 has been holding classes in three shifts, though no one knew about this until recently. Twenty-seven children from School #1 are already attending School #6. On Monday, Volodya Dyukov did not attend classes - his home was holding a wake for his father. On Tuesday, 7th grade student Dzerassa Dzestolva was taken out of class for a television interview. They wanted to film her with School #1 in the background.
* * *
Ruslan Kokov lives on Komintern street no. 126, right across from School #1. Ruslan built his home in 1983, and, by himself, he raised two children - Uruzmaga (born in 1988) and Oksana (born in 1989). The family lived in the front rooms while construction materials were in the back ones.
Oksana finished 9th grade with almost perfect grades, all A's and only 3 B's. She used to practice Aikido. In a small room, which Ruslan had not quite managed to finish flooring, her things lay on the bed. Blouses, dolls. An unopened pack of stockings. Her orange roller skates still lay in the corner where she tossed them. On the walls hang award certificates. Uruzmag, Oksana's brother, has gone to Sochi, to the sanatorium, and Ruslan is quite alone. He makes a hard-boiled egg, but eating is but a formality. Ruslan found a cassette with a recording of his daughter's voice. Oksana had been reading from 'A History of Russia', and in order to better remember her assignment, she had put the lesson on tape. Ruslan sat listening to his daughter, writing verse.
I'll put my granddaughter on my knee,
I'll tug at her fat little cheek,
And in the features of the new generations,
I'll see my own daughter.
Papa
* * *
Relatives of those who perished, chased scientologists out of the city on Monday. For three weeks, these scientologists had been operating out of the second floor of the city cultural center. The center's kind-hearted director, Rimma Tuayeva, had let them in without any argument after glancing at a Xeroxed permission slip, which they had received from the regional directorate of education. They found it pleasant to come to the scene of a tragedy, to help the suffering with their Ron Hubbard brochures. Proudly, they showed me a photograph they had taken from the ruins of School #1: '18, 19, 20. Scientology priest Tat'yana Akhal'tseva and a group of scientologists conduct a scientology church funeral service in the gymnasium of the school, the scene of the tragedy'.
Antonina Anufriyeva,
who was responsible for the volunteer priests, said: "During these three weeks we helped a thousand people" and "many of the sufferers have already made significant advances towards success." Evidently, the zenith of 'success' would come with the distribution of money which was to be put in a special account for the suffering people. The little brochure 'Road to Happiness', among its simple wisdoms ('If you clean your teeth everyday after meals, they will not be destroyed') contains a terrible warning: 'A recent discovery found during an investigation of Venus showed that our planet can be destroyed. And it may happed during our century'. In confirmation of this truth, the scientologists have moved from the hostel to the hotel 'Flight'. Sunday evening, Mairbek Tuayev entered the culture center and found two hypnotized teenagers, above whom fluttered an old woman wearing the yellow t-shirt of a scientologist. On Monday, the scientologists were asked convincingly to remove themselves from the city.
"Why do you write that the Osetians are going to go beat up Ingush after the 40 days of mourning? Why put a match to a powder keg?" the correspondents were asked by residents of Beslan. Others added: "If the government doesn't find the guilty ones, we'll have to hold our own court. It won't be revenge, but defense of the state."
"It's not necessary to talk about Ingush, Chechens, and Osetians. We're all the same to you - the Caucasian nationality," said Aza T. "I could spit on the integrity of the Russian Federation! I could spit on you imperial ways! If the government can't defend us, why do we need the government?!"
"They come to work at the federal attorney general's office at 11 O'clock, and at 2 or 3 O'clock they're already driving back to Vladikavkaz to rest. At this rate, how are they ever going to find the guilty ones?!" worried Mairbek Tuayev.
Ruslan Kokov said: "It wasn't Maskhadov and not Basayev. I don't believe it was. It's all money.
Let's not turn into warring nationalities. Imagine that we start to fight. Up above sits two people: one is for the Ingush, the other is for the Osetian, and they're making bets. And making money."
Yuri SAFRONOV, our spec. corr. in Beslan
We would like to thank Murat Kaboyev for his help in preparing this material.
14.10.2004
<tr>
From Novaya Gazeta | | Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006 | | 2:25 pm |
Полезный сайт по Норд-Осту. По-анлийски с русскими ссылками
Svetlana Gubareva's 'Nord-Ost' Resources Site
On October 23rd, 2002, at approximately 9 PM, an organized group of armed terrorists took about 800 men, women, and children hostage at of the Dubrovka Theater, located on Melnikov St., Moscow.
The Chechens held these people hostage until October 26th, 2002, when the Russian police and military carried out a controversial operation. They used a secret gas to storm the theater, and during the course of this operation 129 hostages perished from the gas.
My daughter, Alexandra, and my fiance, Sandy Booker, were among them. The Russian government conducted inquiries into the operation, as did certain US and other foreign agencies. Lawsuits by survivors or their next of kin were also filed. Most, however, were dismissed out of hand.
Some information has come to light because of these suits and inquiries - information concerning inappropriate and often irresponsible actions by some of the Russian leadership and their subordinates. Most of this data have been kept from the media.
This site is for serious students of 'Nord-Ost', as the hostage crisis is known in Russia. It is currently under construction, and some of the links listed below are but rough translations of original Russian documents. I hope to update and improve these as time permits.
Thank you for your interest and patience,
Svetlana Nikolaevna Gubareva
Karaganda, Kazakhstan
Articles, interviews, reports, hearings, speeches, letters and news releases:
2002
10.29.2002 (USA Today) U.S. studied sleep gas as crowd-control tool
10.31.2002 (Toronto Now) Killer clouds
11.01.2002 (NY Times) A family destroyed before it began
11.22.2002 ('SPS' party hearings) What was it? Hostage rescue or terrorist destruction?
2003
04.07.2003 (Novaya Gazeta) 'Nord-Ost': Is the song and dance over?
04.17.2003 (Novaya Gazeta) 'Nord-Ost' is over - Life goes on!
05.01.2003 (Chechnya Weekly) Mysterious figure implicated in Russian theater tragedy
06.11.2003 (UN Human Rights Committee) Concluding observations: Russian Federation
06.13.2003 (E. Turkistan E-letter) Court dismisses lawsuits
09.15.2003 (Novaya Gazeta) "I must punish all of you"
10.22.2003 (Noviy Vestnik) A Karagandan at 'Nord-Ost' - 1 year later
10.24.2003 (Russian HRO) ...Upholding the right to life during the course of the special operation in the theatrical center on Dubrovka
10.31.2003 (Times SPB.ru) FBI Dubrovka Probe
10.31.2003 (Radio 'Freedom') Interview
11.05.2003 (Noviy Vestnik) A Karaganda resident is questioned by the FBI
11.20.2003 (Russian Forward) Interview
11.19.2003 (rusnet.nl) U.S. Investigates Moscow Theater Siege, Seeking Qaeda
12.01.2003 (Novaya Gazeta) Why did she shoot him?
12.16.2003 (Nordostjustice.org) 'Nord-Ost' mastermind dies in road crash
2004
01.12.2004 (Letter) Appeal to presidential candidates
01.13.2004 (Moscow Times) Families Appeal to Presidential Hopefuls
03.16.2004 (Affidavit) My description of the seizure of 'Nord-Ost'
05.21.2004 (Agentura) He who cannot be named
06.23.2004 (Noviy Vestnik) Back from America
07.14.2004 (Letter) To the president of Kazakhstan
08.19.2004 (Noviy Vestnik) Unanswered questions about the terror act
09.01.2004 (Noviy Vestnik) Calculation
09.14.2004 (Centrasia) Kazakhstan 'Nord-Ost' hostage continues lawsuit
10.01.2004 (UCS e-news) Gas pipelines everywhere, but life in the East is cheap
10.21.2004 (Novaya Gazeta) Two Years ago, October 23rd, Terrorists seized 'Nord-Ost'
10.22.2004 (Moscow News) Not Stockholm syndrome
11.15.2004 (Novaya Gazeta) There was no order to save
11.18.2004 (Novaya Gazeta) Where did the 12 terrorists go?
11.24.2004 (Noviy Vestnik) Breakthrough
12.20.2004 (Letter) To the foreign minister of Belgium
2005
01.06.2005 (Russian Bazaar) We are the inconsolable mothers
01.15.2005 (BBC Broadcast) 'The Moscow Theatre Siege'
02.15.2005 (Letter) ‘Nord-Ost’ organization’s appeal to the Russian parliament
03.16.2005 (Novaya Gazeta) The gas would not have stopped an explosion
03.16.2005 (Letter) Complaint against the Moscow attorney general
03.23.2005 (Noviy Vestnik) Bloody calculation
04.18.2005 (Novaya Gazeta) (Police witness in court:) "I don't want to talk to you."
04.25.2005 (Statement) Address to the court
04.25.2005 (Novaya Gazeta) The judge can postpone anything
04.26.2005 (Novaya Gazeta) 'Nord-Ost' flounders in papers
05.04.2005 (Statement) Address to the court
05.05.2005 (Radio 'Echo of Moscow') Interview
05.18.2005 (Noviy Vestnik) They want to hide the reason for the peoples' deaths
05.06.2005 (Kommersant) No one is guilty of the deaths of the hostages
09.22.2005 (Novaya Gazeta) Modern-day Rasputin preys on terrorist victims in Russia
10.23.2005 (Press Release) Candle of memory
10.23.2005 (Radio 'Echo of Moscow') Interview
10.24.2005 (Letter) Oleg Zhirov’s appeal to the president of Russia
10.25.2005 (Grani.ru) Letter to President Putin from the 'Nord-Ost' survivors, and petition
10.26.2005 (Noviy Vestnik) We all need the truth
10.26.2005 (Zalozhniki.ru) Press conference on the 3rd anniversary of 'Nord-Ost'
10.26.2005 (Nord-Ost Justice) 'Nord-Ost', three years later
11.05.2005 (Izvestiya) My dream - international hearings on 'Nord-Ost'
11.09.2005 (Noviy Vestnik) Impotence after the acts of terror
2006
01.19.2006 Oleg Zhirov's letter to the European Court of Human Rights
02.10.2006 (Grani.ru) 'Nord-Ost' organization charges Leonid Roshal with obstructing justice
02.19.2006 Vladimir Kurbatov's statement
CORONER'S REPORTS (PDF):
Alexandra N. Letyago
Grigori M. Burban
Sandy A. Booker
MISCELLANEOUS:
(My own research) Acts of Terror in Russia (Jan 1995 to July 2005)
(Georgetown Journal of International Law, Spring/2005, David A. Koplow):
Lethal and non-lethal weapons in recent confrontations
04.19.2004 (Novaya Gazeta) Nine-month-old girls are declared martyrs
04.29.2004 (Novaya Gazeta) "An infliction of harm due to carelessness"
06.03.2004 (Novaya Gazeta) "It was very simple - bombing on a peaceful day"
12.10.2004 (Grani.ru) The beginnings of the Chechen war
07.18.2005 (Novaya Gazeta) Colonel Savelyev's Exploit
02.02.2006 (Novaya Gazeta) How Russia storms houses
02.16.2006 (Novaya Gazeta) The court got tired
International Reports on Russia:
US Report on Human Rights in Russia, 2003
US Report on Human Rights in Russia, 2003-4
US Report on Human Rights in Russia, 2004
US Report on Human Rights in Russia, 2004-5
US Russian Country Report on Terrorism
In Memorium:
Sandy Alan Booker
Grigori Markovich Burban
Yaroslav Fadeyev
Alexander Karpov
Anton Kobozev
Colonel Vladimir Borisovich Korablev
Christine Kourbatova
Alexandra Letyago
Viktor Martynov
Maxim Albertovich Mikhailov
| | Monday, February 20th, 2006 | | 11:51 pm |
Article on Beslan from a Kazakhstan paper
Noviy Vestnik, Karaganda, Kazakhstan (15 Sep 2004)
To Beslan to her son's grave
During the terror act a Karaganda boy was shot
Ten year-old Zaur Gutnov from our city was shot by terrorists. After the explosion in the school gym, when the falling wall opened a path to safety for the hostages, the boy did not make it. His mother, who leaves in Karaganda, could not find the money to dash to Beslan. The explosions and shootings at the Osetian school were seen by Natalya Gutnova on television, but only after the funeral of her son.
The photograph, crossed by a black ribbon of mourning, shows a laughing boy. He was born in Karaganda, where his parents mmet and married - the Russian Natal'ya and Osetian Vladimir. Soon the young family with Zaur and his young sister Gal'ya moved to Beslan, where the boy went to first grade.
"I've been there a few times," recalls Natalya, a nice young woman in a black scarf of mourning. Her head his swollen, her eyes dull. "A normal school. Not very big, in an old building. I took Zaur there."
The last time Natal'ya Gutanova saw her oldest son was a year ago. The family relationship had soured. She and her husband divorced, and, pregnant and with her young daughter in her arms, she went back to her mother in Karaganda. Zaur stayed in Northern Osetiya with his father and grandmother. The mother-in-law did not want to part with her grandson. Natal'ya says that she agreed to part with her son because she worried that the boy, who was earning straight 5s (A's) in school, would be thrown by a new program in a school of another country. This year Zaur entered 4th grade.
They shot everyone
"That there was a terror act, that they'd seized the school, I found this out on September 1st, at 9 O’clock," Natalya said quietly. "I heard in on the radio in the marshrutka (van taxi). I went home and turned on the television right away. I grabbed the phone but couldn't get ahold of anyone (in Beslan). The only one I got was a neighbor, who didn't know much, he is very elderly. He said only that his wife and grandchildren were also hostages. I continued calling my (Beslan) friends and acquaintances. Finally the wife of a friend confirmed that, yes, school number one, where Zaur was a student, had been seized, and that he was one of the hostages. Later on the 2nd, my sister called the friend. And he gave us hope, he said that Zaur had run away, that he was being evacuated together with his grandmother. We believed it, that he was alive... But later, on the 3rd of September, when I saw on television how they had blown things up, how the children ran off, I called my husband that evening. He said that Zaur had been killed... But when they had spoken of him running away, obviously they had just been trying to calm me down. Since the 1st of September until the very last day, until he was buried, I hadn't closed my eyes. I couldn't. If only he hadn't been there, but he had so many friends, acquaintances among the children in that school. Almost all of them were there... Under what circumstances Zaur died, I don't know a thing. Now all sorts of rumors are flying about. But only one thing is known for sure: when the hostages had started running after the explosion, he didn't make it. Many children remained with him. The terrorists shot them all."
Funerals
After the tragic news Natal'ya lived with only one thought - to find her way to her son by any means, but the relatives were not successful in collecting enough money for the road. And the unfortunate mother would not share her grief with anyone. When those who perished at Beslan were buried, in one of the houses along Maykuduk street there was a wake.
"I watched Zaur's funeral on television," Natalya continued, almost in a whisper. "I saw many of our acquaintances, and him as well... A nice, affectionate boy. He never refused to do anything, you'd just ask and he'd do it. A gentle, loving boy.
The road to her son's grave
Local officials found out about the Karagandan's plight from journalists at the end of last week. The bureaucrats promised to help. If they were asked. Television people from one of the local stations wrote to Natal'ya about the contacting the district Akim (Kazakhstani city administration). The woman was in such condition that she could not place her signature under the text of her application. The letter was sent to the Akimat. The next day she received a call from the district manager, who confirmed that the Akim would help that mother travel to Beslan to her son's grave. In three days the tickets were ready. On Sunday Natal'ya was to fly to Moscow, then later to Vladikavkaz.
If you are capable of helping Natalya Gutnova, you may do this by calling or coming down to the offices of our paper. Or you may transfer money to a bank account in the name of Natal'ya's mother: AO Bank Turan-Alem, account 0301019189. RNN 301910907349 Chernova Galina Sagit'yanovna.
Natal'ya Fomina
Noviy Vestnik
Karaganda, Kazakhstan
15.09.2004 | | 11:44 pm |
Article on Beslan from a Kazakhstan paper
Noviy Vestnik, Karaganda, Kazakhstan (29 Sep 2004)
A Dead City
Mother and grandmother return from Beslan
Last week Natalya Gutnova returned from Beslan, where her ten-year-old son Zaur had been shot to death. The Karaganda resident and her mother spent two grief-filled days in the Osetian city. After the trip Natalya is different: she has grown leaner, and the dark circles under her eyes are more prominent.
“We flew there okay,” the woman says quietly. “The airport is right by Beslan. Friends I used to work with at the factory met mother and me. It only takes five or six minutes to get to the graveyard from the airport, so we went there right away.
“A newly fenced cemetery stands separate from the old one. There's freshly tilled earth at the graves, and small markers. Written there in pencil are the last name, first and patronymic, when they were born, and when they died. In the whole cemetery there are but a few of wooden crosses.
“One stood at my son's grave. There were many big graves - seven or eight people in each. If a whole family died, they were buried them all in same hole, parents and children. Each one has its own mound. They'll put up gravestones later. The cemetery is horrible... horrible.
“It's frightening to look at. They're still burying them, and it's not known how many more there are to bury. When we were there they were burying a little girl who was shown on the TV show Wait for me. They're still finding kids. Some were in the morgue, they're impossible to recognize. Everyone's burned to cinders. A lot of them are unidentified. On the 20th they found the bodies of a boy and a girl in a field...
“I still can't believe that Zaur is no more,” Natalya lowers her head and covers her face.
Their Beslan friends told the Karagandans that there were many more guerillas than the 32 declared by Russian special services. Awful rumors abound in the city, and many residents are convinced that the terrorists changed into civilian clothes during the evacuation and joined the human chain that was carrying children to the ambulances, and that later they took off with a truck-load of wounded and dead in an unknown direction. Supposedly, this is why so many bodies of missing have been showing up in fields far from the school.
“We were in the school,” continues Natalya. “We laid some flowers and a wreath that schoolchildren from Karaganda school 97 had given us. There were wreaths and flowers everywhere, and toys, a lot of water was standing. They say that the children were so thirsty that they drank their urine, and the smell is still there. Clothes were scattered about: here an adult's, there a child's. It's horrible to look at. In every classroom, in every classroom they killed someone.
“On the second floor they shot some men in a classroom on the very first day. I saw blood on the wall. It had already turned brownish-orange. I went to Zaur's classroom. The walls had huge holes from the shelling. Notebooks were all over the place. Someone wrote on the walls: we will avenge you. Everyone has a different story about how Zaur died. I don't know what really happened. This time they told me that before the gymnasium was blown up he wanted to go to the toilet. So they took him to the cloak room. At that same moment everything blew up and he was hit. There was shrapnel in him, but later they shot him.”
Silence in the streets
“Now people just don't care, they just don't care. They only checked our papers just before landing, and the only highway patrol car was standing at the city limits. There are very few police, and no one to stop. The houses next to the school have no upper floors, the tanks and mortars blasted them. It's a dead city, dead. I remember it used to be so noisy there, but now it’s just silent. Everyone is in black, like ghosts. I didn’t hear any children’s voices in the streets. They sent the kids to different schools, nearby are Schools 6, 5, and 3. We drove by one of them, and I saw an armed guard with dogs standing by the entrance, but a lot of kids are afraid to go to school. A neighbor's little girl suffered terribly, she has a huge burn and one eardrum is broken, so she can't hear. Her little brother is crying all the time. He doesn't want to go to school and won’t even leave the house. He's afraid, and turns off the television when the news is starting.
“Another neighbor's boy is in critical condition with a broken arm and leg, and shrapnel wounds to his head. A friend of my mother was shot on September 2nd, and two of her nieces died. One was burned to death, and the other was crushed under concrete."
By her son's bed
Natalya went to her ex-husband's house in order to get a copy of the death certificate. She did not have any luck getting the document.
"I sat by my son's empty bed, and I talked to him," she says. "Zolovka gave me his photograph. My husband wasn't home, only his mother Zolovka. On September 1st my son was supposed to go to school with his father, but the man for some reason didn't feel like it, and my mother-in-law had to be at work. (During the hostage seizure) she sat by herself for three days, she sat in the cultural center not far from the school. Where my ex-husband was, I have no idea. If I didn't need those documents I would never have gone to his house. I just wanted a copy of the death certificate. At first my mother-in-law sort of agreed, but later she found out that we had to get it notarized, so then she got nervous for some reason and said: 'I won't give you it'.
Natalya Gutnova has no claims on any monetary compensation that the Russian government is giving out (for relatives who lost children). She does not have the temperament for dealing with government officials and social services.
"Why, whatever for?" Natalya asks apathetically. "If something useful would come out of it, if they could return him. None of my friends is going to bother going to court."
Aid
Many were moved by Natalya Gutnova's plight. Money for her trip to Beslan came from all over Kazakhstan. Government agencies, private companies, and people all over helped. The children of School 97 took up a collection and got 15 thousand Tenge (over $1000). A retired lady from Maikuduk sent 500 Tenge in memory of her little brother who died in the Great Patriotic War (WW II): the fascists handed the little boy a live grenade, and the child blew himself up.
"I can't even begin to recall how many helped us," says Natalya. "The Planet Engineering construction company in Astana sent money - from Kanat, Askhat, Oleg, and Dima. The Almaty city newspaper ‘Leader’ and the newspaper 'Akyn' helped. A man who didn't want his name used sent a donation. The district blood bank, and School 82, where my daughter goes to school, collected some. The Akimat (city administration) helped me with my tickets. The Karaganda Hydro-shaft Institute, Mom’s work, also helped out. It's hard to name them all. We are grateful to everyone."
Meanwhile
A computer science teacher from School 35 has dedicated a musical composition entitled 'Tragedy in Beslan' to the victims of the terror act in Northern Osetia. The sorrowful requiem was done on a computer and makes quite an emotional impression. A saxophone's broken soprano resembles wailing, while the sharp tympani of a drum - automatic weapons fire.
"It came out a little strange," said Anatoly Gnezdilov. "I already had a sad melody ready. I wrote it when I wasn't in a very good mood. Later I heard what had happened in Beslan, and like all normal people I was shaken. Later I sat down at the computer. I don’t know what moved me, but I placed the gunfire in the background, this is done with a drum, and it just went from there. I tried to portray the tragedy, the people's grief. No one shoots children."
The first to hear the song were Anatoly Filippovich's own students.
Natalya Fomina
Noviy Vestnik
Karaganda, Kazakhstan
29.09.2004 | | 11:40 pm |
Article on Beslan from 10/2004
From: Novaya Gazeta
Manouk
Since September, he doesn't know how to live anymore
An apartment on the outskirts of Beslan. A poor room. In the corner is a table, at which sits Manouk Grigoryan. A photograph is lying on the table, from a holiday. Manouk's daughter-in-law, Naira, and grandchildren, Meline and Miranush, stand among guests. The girls are waving. Now it seems as if in farewell. Gagik, their son, is not in the photograph. Manouk looks down at the table. He asks himsefl: "The men were probably making shish-kebabs in the kitchen, maybe that's why he's not here?"
Manouk does not know what else say.
On Monday evening Manouk is to fly home from Beslan. He will bring three coffins to the village of Gegashen, in Armenia. His daughter-in-law and the girls were identified on October 12th. A month ago, Manouk buried his son, Gagik.
When the terrorists executed the first men on September 1st, Gagik was shot. There were eight murdered alongside him.
Gagik came to Beslan in 1999, and worked as a house painter and plasterer. His cousin Alik had already been living in Beslan for several years. (Manouk is now staying in Alik's apartment.) Gagik asked his cousin to take him to Russia, 'to teach him to work', and learned fast. The summer before last, Gagik brought his family over from his home village in Armenia. One could not find work there, and the conditions were harsh: heating had been shut off in the region and bottled gas was expensive. Working in Beslan, one could rent an apartment and save up for a house back home.
This summer, the Grigoryans rented an apartment on Markova street. It was too far to the school the girls had been attending for a year, and school no. 6 was only a minute away. Gagik and Naira Grigoryan, however, wanted their children to attend school no. 1, since it was the best in the city.
"This year there were so many children in school no. 1," said Arevik, a distant relative. Arevik is little past 40, and sits to Manouk's right. Without her help, Manouk would have never made it.
"He's always having to go somewhere for some paperwork, but is a person really up to this?" Arevik asks.
Manouk raises his eyes. "Yesterday, about twenty to four, the morgue phoned here. It'll be soon be a whole month that I've been here. I'm always going somewhere for paperwork, without them, my relatives here," he nods to Arevik. "I never would have been able to get the bodies by myself."
All of the Grigoryan family documents were burned up in the school. In order to receive a death certificate, one has to prove that the people actually exisited.
"They found Gagik there, killed on the very first day. I asked, did he go to work at the school or something? Why was he there? But the reason was that he just wanted to accompany the kids on their first day," says Arevik in a sob.
"They'd made a death certificate for my son," says Manouk. "But it got lost somewhere. Maybe at the airport, when I sent his body off. I've got a copy, but they won't accept it. They ask me down at the ZAGS (civil registration department): 'Why did you lose it?' and I tell them: 'Listen, lady, I lost my whole family'. We called Armenia, but they don't have the document either."
Manouk says that his son was alive when the terrorists brought a new group of hostages into the school's Russian language and literature office, and forced them to throw the dead out the window. Aslan Kudzayev was supposed to throw Gagik Grigoryan's body out as well, but instead he jumped out the window and saved himself. Aslan told Manouk that his son was still alive at the time, having only been shot in the legs.
"Gagik thought, maybe the kids would make it. He said to Aslan: 'Aslan-Dzhan, help my children!'. Later it turned out that he had a bullet here." Manouk puts a finger to his left side, a bit to the left of his heart. "Aslan jumped. He knew that he'd be killed otherwise."
Manouk says that he ran into Aslan on the street not too long ago.
"His words were full of tears," recalls Manouk. "There's no one who can say that my son did any harm to anyone. Everyone says that he was a good worker. He had marvelous hands... he never said anything stupid."
Arevik brings coffee, in tiny cups. "Armenians love to brew coffee," says Arevik, mixing sugar into Manouk's cup. In almost a whisper: "Drink a little, Manouk."
Manouk gulps the coffee, not tasting it, and draws a breath. "What can I say? He loved his family very much, and his children. Gagik couldn't live without the children. It's very difficult."
"Somehow he was getting ready to come home on New Years, and so we went to buy the kids some jackets," Arevik remembers. "He took the jackets and said: 'Oy, my little khryusha (the younger one) will look so pretty in this! She'll love to wear it!' You simply had to know him."
"They came home for New Years last winter. We celebrated together, like modern people. They stayed with us until February, and left afterwards. To go make money so that they could build a house in Armenia."
A few weeks before September, Gagik called up his father in Gegashen, and asked him to find out if there were any houses for sale in the village. He said that he was going to save up some more money until the end of the year, and then come home.
"The older granddaughter talked with her grandma, Miranush. The younger one is named after her. Grandma asked: 'Meline, how are you all doing there?' and she answered: 'Very well, but if you were here too, it would be even better'. Our family has always been a strong one."
"His daughter-in-law was very nice," says Arevik. "Considerate, clean, assiduous. She was always smiling and hospitable."
"It was a normal family. They were all alike, from the same village," says Manouk. "The girls were very bright, they got good grades."
Arevik remembers: "The neighbors said that when they moved to that apartment on Markova, the girls asked their mother for permission to go visit a girlfriend from their old school. They said: 'Let's go tell them that we're going to a new school'. Was it on the 29th or 30th?" shek asks.
"There's no bringing them back again," sighs Manouk. "I just can't even think, after all of this. How am I supposed to act? My son was 30 on May 9th, and in a single minute they're all gone. If only one could have made it! My life has never been easy, but this is impossible. I've lost so many loved ones. I'm more or less getting over it. I told myself: 'Life goes on'. But this... they were everything in the world to me. Who do you live for? For your family. For your grandchildren. It was such a joy when they were scampering by my side. When you think that you'll never see them again... it's almost easier to say that they never even existed. Night and day I think about it, but there is no way out."
"In the evening," says Arevik, "when I come over to Manouk's, he is just sitting there, like he is now. At the table. With red eyes. But he never cries in front of us. He has such willpower."
Until the night of September 3rd, Manouk knew nothing of the tragedy in Beslan. He was working late, and his wife had not watched television. Relatives in Beslan did not want to alarm elderly Manouk and Miranush. They thought that they would tell them later, after the girls and their mother had been saved.
"We found out on the night of the 3rd. About twelve, perhaps... everyone came to our house and started crying, saying what had happened. But I still didn't believe it."
"Until he came and saw the school with his own eyes, he didn't believe that this could happen."
Gagik Grigoryan, 9.05.1974 — 1.09.2004
Naira Grigoryan, 12.03.1976 — 3.09.2004
Meline Grigoryan, 8.10.1994 — 3.09.2004
Miranush Grigoryan, 26.06.1996 — 3.09.2004
On Tuesday they were buried.
To help Manouk Grigoryan:
AKB Bank of Regional Development, Vladikavkaz,
BIK 049033764,
corr. account no. 30101810500000000764
INN 1500000240 /bank/
KPP 151101001
personal account no. 42601810700080000080
Grigoryan Manouk Abramaisovich
Letters: Republic of Armenia, Kotaiskiy region, Gegashen village. To: Grigoryan Manouk Aramaisovich.
Yuriy Safronov, Beslan
21.10.2004
| | 11:37 pm |
Article on Beslan from 10/2004
http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/74n/n74n-s02.shtml
'TEACHER DAY' IN BESLAN
This holiday was cancelled here, now October 6th is 'Day of Remembrance'. At Beslan's school no. 1, among the hostages there were 62 teachers and other school workers. Twenty-two perished. 22
Because of the tragedy, Beslan schools cancelled 'Teacher Day'. At 11 AM on the 6th of October, the Beslan cultural center observed a 'Day of Remembrance' for those teachers who died in the storming of school number one. A small delegation came, headed by Northern Ossetia's education minister, Alina Levitskaya, and the new chairman of the government. Relatives of the deceased teachers came. The president of Ossetia did not come, but sent 'feasible pecuniary aid'. For the funerals.
On the day of remembrance, the relatives were told that the president of the republic had introduced a bill to decorate all the deceased teachers with an award from the government. Precisely what kind of award was not disclosed. Education Minister Alina Levitskaya read the order for each teacher. She read and cried.
Azieyeva Zlata Sergeyevna. At the moment the battle began, she saved children with no regard for her own life. Killed while performing her professional duty.
Alikova Al'bina Viktorovna. From the first day she helped children as they were being moved into the gymnasium, calmed them down, cheered them up, distracted them from terrible thoughts. After the first explosion Al'bina personally saved 20 children, evacuating them from a window in the gym. When the fire began, she ran barefoot along the burning embers and was heading for the exit when someone called for help. She was never seen again. Al'bina's burnt body was identified after 10 days.
Alikova Darima Batuyevna. During the terror act she supported the children, gave them aid, in spite of the terrorists' orders, and was beaten for this. More than once, according to the hostages, the terrorists threatened to kill her. Darima's burned remained were identified five days later. On her body were 8 bullet wounds.
Balikoyeva Svetlana Akhmedovhna. Supply clerk for the first school. They could not identify her for a long time. She proved to be literally blown to bits.
Batayeva Galina Khadzhiyevna. Until the last minutes of her life she kept her courage and composure, gathering her little schoolchildren around her. During the battle she saved children.
Bekmurzova Zarema Gavrilovna.Saved children with no concern for preserving her own life. Perished after succeeding in saving a large number of children who were located next to her.
Dzutseva Alena Aksarbekovna. In the face of death she carried out her professional duty. Until the minute she saved children.
Kanidi Ivan Konstantinovich. Physical education teacher. 74 years old. Veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Until the last minute he was attempting to save children, who looked to him for hope. He shielded them with his body. The guerillas had offered to let him leave the school, but he asked that children be released in his place, and remained in the school. He rendered two explosive devices harmless. After the explosions we tried to seize a machinegun from a guerilla. Shot to death.
Kantemirova Svetlana Kantemirovna. Teacher of the English language. Died while shielding children with her body.
Karyayeva Ehmma Khasanovna. Elementary class teacher. Helped children cope with fear. Lost her own daughter in this tragedy while saving other children. Ehmma was last seen by a friend, English teacher Larisa Sergeevna Tedeyeva, who was dragging her to the exit. Ehmma could no longer speak, and blood was gushing from a wound on her neck. Emma brought her right hand to her lips and kissed her wedding ring. Later, she wrote in blood on the floor: 'I love you. Karina.' In this manner she bade farwell to her husband and daughter.
Mikhailov Aleksandr Mikhailovich. Labor teacher. Until the last minute he courageously fulfilled his duty as a teacher, a man, and a defender.
Nazarova Nadezhda Ivanovna. Biology teacher. Sacrificed herself to save children. Died will carrying out her dury as a teacher. She died together with her daughter and two grandchildren.
Rudenok Natal'ya Aleksandrovna. Teacher of IZO and drawing. Saved children, died while carrying out her duty as a teacher.
Soskieyaa Ol'ga Nikolayevna. Elementary class teacher.
Tried to protect children from the guerillas' aggression, and calm them down. Took upon herself the care of a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, veteran of labor and retired history teacher Gutiyev Zaurbek Kharitonovich, who traditionally came to the school on the first day of class. She literally carried the old man from the gym to the restroom, because he had difficulty moving. Gasiyev survived. When the explosion boomed out, Ol'ga Nikolayevna did not concern herself with saving herself or her own daughter. She pushed children from to safety from windows.
Tuskayeva Al'bina Vladimirovna. Supported children, adults, and parents. Saved her students, lost her son.
Khanayeva Irina Zakharovna. A teacher worthy of the Russian Federation. Elementary education teacher. Seventy-four years old. In the most difficult situation, suffering from thrombophlebitis, she massed her little students about her feet. She saved her entire class. During the battle Irina Zakharovna was wounded by a burst of automatic weapons fire to her legs, but she stood up on her knees so that the children could climb her back and jump from the window. Died a true teacher.
Khetagurova Taisiya Kaurbekovna.Kept her courage. Saved many of her students. And died.
Cherdzhiyeva Roza Timofeyevna.Until the last minute she remained a teacher. She saved her students. Showed rare courage. Remained a teacher of teachers. On the last surviving blackboard in the school her rescued students wrote: 'Roza Timofeyevna! We will never forget you'.
Sabanov Tarkan Gabuliyevich. Ninty years old. Veteran of the Great Patriotic War. Guerillas offered to let him leave the school. he refused, and said: 'I started my life here, and I will end it here!' Died a true teacher and front-line soldier.
Karlov Ivan Il'ich. Worked for many years in the school boiler room. Seventy-two years old. Hid children and a teacher in the boiler room. Saved the lives of 30 people. Shot by the guerillas.
In the enumeration of those killed and posthumously awarded, for some reason the following names did not appear: Andiyeva Ala Teymurazovna, led a beginning modeling class, and laboratory assistant Nogayeva Rira Mukhtarovna.
Elena Milashina, our special correspondent in Beslan
We would like to thank our colleagues from the Beslan newspaper 'Life on the Right Bank' for their help in preparing this material.
07.10.2004 | | 11:32 pm |
Novaya
Gazeta, October 21st, 2004:
 What was on the roof of building no.
39?
Novaya
Gazeta has already written about how the Beslan hostages' stories differ from the
official portrayal of the assault (see issue no. 74 from October 7th). Russian
television has also confirmed that special forces used the incendiary rocket
launcher 'Bumblebee' during the assault. A little while ago parliamentarian Arkady
Baskayev, a member of the commission investigating the terror act, in an interview
with BBC stated that in the course of the school storming, heavily equipped units
used grenade and incendiary rocket launchers. Important questions now remain.
First: at what stage of the assault - while hostages were still in the school, or when
only rebels remained - did they use this particular incendiary weapon, which the
Geneva convention forbids 'under any circumstances against any target near a
concentrated civilian populace'. And secondly: will this information be officially
confirmed or denied? The media was not permitted into the commission
meetings. The commission declared a desire to conduct closed hearings. Ruslan
Kastuyev, press spokesman for the North Caucasus president, deflected
inconvenient questions as best he could: "Ruslan, is it true that
fire-rocket launchers were used during the assault?"
"The
commission does not know at this time. It came here in order to find out."
"But Deputat Baskayev said that they were actually used, and he is also a
member of the commission."
"Baskayev knows, but at this time the
rest do not." Meanwhile, local residents have long since
known what the commission has yet to dig up. During the storming of the Beslan
school, the special forces used 'Bumblebee' incendiary rocket launchers. * *
* Five-storey buildings on
School Alley - the closest to the school. In the first hours after the seizure of the
hostages, all of the residents were asked to leave the premesis. Men with rocket
launchers sat on the roofs. Corner apartments on the top floors were occupied by
snipers and grenadiers. No one lives in these apartments now - they have been
almost completely burned out. When the fire-fight began, sparks set fire to curtains
and wallpaper. Lower apartments also suffered - they were flooded when the
upper-floor fires were put out. The city administration is hurriedly performing the
most basic, standard renovations, and is buying residents new furniture.
Gregoriy Beroyev's apartment is not a corner apartment. There were no special
forces there. Only Gregoriy was in it during the assault; he refused to leave.
"They occupied the apartments on the first of September," Gregoriy
recalled. "At first they just sat, but when our leaders said that no one was
going to let the children go, they started the assault. They fired on the school. What
they did here! They fired so much that I thought the walls were going to fall
in."
I asked him what they were shooting, rocket launchers?
"No, the guys with the rockets were sitting on the roof." One can
easily reach the roof of building 39 through the garret. On the roof, just past the
stairwell-housing, a bunch of rags are strewn about. A lot of carelessly opened,
unlabelled cans are there, as well as an entire mountain of sugar in single-use
packets. Metallic brackets of television antennas. If one runs their hand across
them, it comes back soiled with soot. Rocket exhaust singed them, confirms Elbrus
Tedtov, a former tank crewman and now chief of a company of SWAT police.
Under the rubberoid covering, one can find a few shell casings, but someone had
time to do a clean up. A new broom is laying nearby. One by one, men in
civilian clothes call on the inhabitants of the surrounding homes, asking them not to
talk too much. Police officer Aleksandr P. said that after the assault, he was brought
in for questioning:
"They said to me: in one of your houses there were
some television people. Where is the cassette? And I said: you should ask the
them. But they kept demanding the cassette anyway."
Olga Bobrova, our special correspondent
Beslan
FROM THE HORSE'S
MOUTH Our military specialist,
Vyacheslav Izmailov, got in touch with a member of the parliamentary security
committee, Colonel-General Arkadiy Baskayev, who works in a sub-committee of
the commission studying the activities of law enforcement and special forces
during the period of the Beslan school hostages' seizure and liberation.
"Arkadiy Georgiyevich, a few days ago during a radio
interview, you said that heavy artillery was used against the terrorists in
Beslan.
"It wasn't quite like that. The 58th Army command in Vladikavkaz
reported the use of heavy ordnance, but their subdivisions were only put in action
during the liberation of the hostages, as well as in explosives clean up
afterwards."
"Was heavy ordnance used while there were still
hostages in the school?"
"No. Right now we are working in Beslan
in order to find out, in the most minute detail, how the responsible parties, the staff
that worked to free the hostages, law enforcement agencies, the military, how
everyone who took part in this operation acted."
"Will the results of
your commission's work be published?"
"They will be published in
full. Here, there can be no secrets, with the exception, perhaps, of certain details
concerning technical equipment which could be used sometime again in the future,
and should not be disclosed to the terrorists. We also cannot publish the names of
special unit officers who are active in the destruction of
terrorists."
| | | 11:27 pm |
Beslan article from 10/2004
Novaya Gazeta
How they stormed the schoolThere is more and more evidence that, from the very beginning, there was no special operation for freeing the hostages prepared, but a combat operation to destroy rebels at all costs. According to eyewitness accounts (confirmed by Russian television), the spetsnaz used the rocket incendiary 'Bumblebee'  Housings of grenade launchers, disturbingly similar to 'Bumblebee'. Found on a roof opposite the school. Apparantly fire was conducted from here onto the hostage-filled school, using shells that cause a massive explosion. Perhaps this is why there are so many 'missing without a trace'.
 Data:
Incendiary rocket launcher 'Bumblebee', single-use:
Sighting range - to 600 meters; minimum range - 20 meters; weight - 12 kg; length - 920 mm; caliber - 93 mm.
A gunpowder ejection charge shoots from a sealed barrel-container a capsule containing a highly combustible liquid. Firing can be conducted from an area of less than 60 cubic meters in volume. When the capsule breaks upon striking the target, the liquid quickly evaporates and turns into a fuel-air mix, which is ignited by an initiator charge. The volumetric explosion of this mini-vacuum bomb has great destructive kinetic energy in closed spaces and shelters, as well as against lightly armored vechicles, due to its thermobaric (high-temperature shock wave) effect. The explosive force of the RPO-A capsule 'is more powerful than a 122 mm howitzer shell'.
The third protocol of the 1980 Geneva Convention (ratified by Russia) forbids the use of incendiary weapons 'under any circumstances against an object located near a civilian population'
President Vladimir Putin was, of course, correct when he came out decisively against a public investigation into the tragedy at Beslan. Neither Stalin, nor Khrushchev, nor Brezhnev would have let a 'parliamentary commissions' get close. But our government these days is weak, and whenever it is threatened, it immediately retreats.
Obviously, the Kremlin was hoping that the parliamentary commission, under the direction of the extremely obedient Federal Council, would work in private and in a year or two publish some extracts of secret reports, which society would scarely notice, since it had already forgotten about Beslan because of new calamities and tragedies.
This was not well thought out by our chiefs, and Putin's vertical line of authority turns out to be nothing more than a stick inserted into a bog.
In Russia nowadays it is practically impossible to keep anything secret for long. Local residents and the military in Beslan have talked to the commission, and continue to talk openly. Information and rumors spread and fall into print. The official version of the evens of 1-3 September, which from the very beginning were full of internal contradictions and incongruities, is falling apart before their very eyes.
After it became clear that 90% of the hostages were either wounded or killed, the powers began to assert that there was no 'storm' planned, that the spetsnaz were just hanging about the school for three days, and later acted on the situation, so these losses - including among the 'Vympel' and 'Alfa' of the FSB - were to be expected. It was declared that the terrorists 'shot children in the back', though no proof of any kind was offered. The character of battle, where everyone was shooting willy-nilly, does not allow us to accurately determine who was shot 'in the back', and who simply got caught in the cross fire. Of course, this in no way justifies the terrorists, who put the children in the path of death and bullets.
There is more and more evidence that, from the very beginning, there was no special operation for freeing the hostages prepared, but a combat operation to destroy rebels at all costs. According to the official chronical of events, at 14:02 on September 3rd, there were several explosions, as if accidental, and some of the hostages ran away. The Ossetian police officers and 'militia' opened fire, but the operational headquarters continued to call the terrorists, offering to cease fire, and only at about 3 O'clock did the FSB's spetsnaz begin storming the school. In reality, on September 3rd the operational headquarters had in bravado informed the news agencies that the school had been occupied by the troops, and that the hostages had been freed. In truth, the battle raged another twelve hours.
By the way, at 14:17, according to a time hack on a foreign television broadcast, while they seemingly were trying to stop the storming of the school, an Mi-24 strike helicopter was patrolling the air above the school. The heavily armored machine could not have appeared so suddenly if it had not been made ready for flight in advance, and if the crew had not earlier been instructed about the area and rules of engagement. Now, according to statements by the local residents, it so happens that the Mi-24 did not just patrol, but fired on Beslan on September 3rd.
An Mi-24 may fly and accurately engage targets only in daytimes and in good weather. Therefore, tanks from the 58th army group were sent in, most likely a long time previous to this, and used for direct fire. Whoever saw pictures from the chronicles of the battles in Moscow on October, 1993, can imagine what such direct tank fire can do in a city.
The holy aim of any anti-terror operation is to save as many innocents as possible. To achieve this, they conduct negotiations, make concessions, promise to carry out demands, and in so doing try to calm and cajole the terrorists to free as many hostages as possible. Only when the possibilites for bargaining are fully exhausted, and the number of hostages has been substantially reduced, is force used, and in so doing, in a surgically precise manner.
In Beslan they did not attempt to make concessions, or conduct negotiations in earnest about curtailing the war in Chechnya - the main demand of hostage-takers. No, they whipped the terrorists into a frenzy, and later, a disorganized, confused military operation for cleaning out the school spontaneously began.
According to eyewitness accounts (and Russian television confirms this), the spetsnaz used the rocket incendiary 'Bumblebee', with its thermobaric warhead (RPO-A).
During the storming of Grozny in January, 1995, units of the chemical corps, attached to assault teams, used these rocket incendiary launchers widely and to great effect in suppressing firing points and snipers - by burning out buildings.
Now they go to liberate child hostages with flamethrowers. Evidently, the spetsnaz guessed that in using 'Bumblebee' there would be no one left alive. In the course of an operation combining tanks, aircraft, and flamethrowers against one separate school building, chances of rescue were truly very small.
Pavel Fel'gengauer, Reviewer for «New Gazeta»
Specialist's Commentary
Colonel Aleksandr Silin (first and last names changed) commanded a chemical services unit in Chechnya, which was equipped with with the reaktivnye pekhotnye ognemety 'rocket infantry flamethrower' (RPO), which carried the code name 'Bumblebee': — The RPO 'Bumblebee' uses 3 types of projectiles: incendiary or napalm; smoke, which can lay down a smokescreen over an area of more than 3 km; and thermobaric, that creates such high temperature and pressure that an explosion of great power is produced. Shooting 3 thermobaric projectiles from a 'Bumblebee' at a 5-story building can completely destroy it.
I doubt that they could fire such charges at the school. It is possible that could have substituted a considerably smaller thermobaric warhead than used on the 'Bumblebee', based on the RPG-7 rocket launcher. This projectile we named 'pig'. The operating principle is the same as on the 'Bumblebee', only the power of the blast is less. These charges cannot be used indoors, since the RPG and RPO tubes cause a strong back-blast, which can even slay the one firing the weapon.
By Vyacheslav IZMAYLOV, military reviewer of Novaya Gazeta.
07.10.2004 | | 11:19 pm |
Article on Beslan 07.10.04
From Novaya Gazeta
Eyewitnesses: 'The roof caught fire when they began shooting shells at it'
The last few days - soon after Rostov's 124th laboratory began to identify the remains - there have been more teacher funerals. They had not been identified by relatives after the storming of the school. Only one teacher was buried in an open coffin.
"Instead of the body of Tarkan Gubuliyevich Sabanov, they buried a boot. The boot was the only thing that remained in one piece. It wasn't a 'storm'. There were only tanks," said Lyudmila Kokova, elementary principal at Beslan school number one.
There were tanks. The hostages which they liberated said: 'They fired on the school so that the floor shook like an earthquake'.
Policemen who chased people from around the school said that there were no reasonable ideas coming from the operational headquarters. No leadership. Later there was but one order - get people away from the school, enlarge the perimeter. On the evening of September 2nd, tanks and armored vehicles pulled up to the school. It was understood: There would be a 'storm'.
Opposite the school, along Komintern street, from the direction of the railroad, came two tanks. There were also BTRs, a BMP, 'Bumblebee' flamethrowers, and helicopters which descended to the level of the second floor and fired machineguns through the class and cafeteria windows. Children and adults tell how the helicopters fired at the roof of the gymnasium, and how it started on fire.
"After the explosions there was no fire in the gym. The height of the gymnasium walls was about six meters. The glass was blown out. The walls were damaged. There were a lot of bodies along the walls. But the roof remained whole," asserted Marina Karkuzashvili. All of the Karkuzashvilis were hostages: Marina, her grandmother, her sister Lora, three of Marina's children, as well as two of Lora's, were there. "The roof caught fire when they began shooting shells at it. They exploded," and suddenly there was lots of fire. The plastic panels on the ceiling quickly became ablaze, and burning flakes fell on the people. People lit up like torches.
Marina was interrupted by children and a mass of details and impressions are added in the Ossetian language. These children, perhaps, are too small to believe. But can they really understand the operation of the 'Bumblebee' flamethrower? But the next day, on the program 'News of the Week', the announcer calmly and in detail confirmed the underage hostages statements. It was emphasized that the flamethrowers were only used against the terrorists, that is, selectively, 'pin-point'. It became clear, however, that the authors of the television program did not understand the operating principle of the 'Bumblebee', either.
"Lora died right before my eyes. The rebels drove us to the second floor, into the cafeteria. A few women and children were forced to climb up on the window-sills and wave white school aprons and blouses. And shout: 'Don't shoot at us!'. My sister Lora stood at one window, with my daughter Diana. And they were yelling. But who could hear them? Lora kind of knocked my Diana to the floor. Another woman fainted. The rest, including Lora, they shot."
Marina confidently asserts that it was our side who shot them down. Physicians also confirm that the wounds were in the chest, and not in the back.
"Perhaps these were stray bullets?" I asked Marina.
"They were not bullets. A bullet, just a hole. But my Lora had craters in her body, a chunk of her hip was torn away."
There were about 1300 hostages in the school. The number killed today stands at more than 400. Every third hostage died.
It was a valuable military operation.
Because the army 'pissed on' the terrorists.
And in Chechnya. And in Beslan.
Elena MILASHINA, our special correspondent, Beslan
07.10.2004 | | 8:32 pm |
Ella Kesayeva's appearance during closing arguments at the trial
http://befree77.livejournal.com/4257.html#cutid1
Ella Kesayeva's appearance during closing arguments at the trial of Nurpasha Kulayev on February 14th, 2006
Honored court! Honored victims! I am using my legal right to express my point of view on this trial.
First I would like to express my absolute distrust of the investigation, which the Attorney General's office conducted.
This concerns the proofs of Nurpasha Kulayev's guilt, which the victims, the lawyers, and the community finds completely unconvincing. This happened because the district attorney's office only devised, but did not investigate, the crime that occurred in Beslan. There was practically not a single expert analysis conducted: neither pyro-technical nor explosives nor ballistic nor dactyloscopic. The forensic medical examinations of the dead hostages cannot stand up to critique. The forensic medical examinations of the dead gunmen also raise many questions. Unfortunately, the court violated our rights and did not let us attentively investigate those aspects of the criminal case that are unconditionally the most important. Meanwhile, I believe that all these tests were only to aid the district attorney in proving the obvious guilt of Nurpasha Kulayev, and to scatter doubts that many victims still harbor, after hundreds of affidavits, as to whether he even was in the school. In this trial it was discovered that the district attorney has no convincing proofs of Nurpasha Kulayev's guilt, and all his arguments are built on Kulayev's confessions and the testimony of a few victims. During the court's inquiry we discovered just how superficially and illegally the investigators questioned victims during the preliminary inquiry.
We managed to do quite a lot in this trial. We managed to present in court and prove indisputably those acts that we found as a result of our independent investigation.
We succeeded in proving that the government purposely lied about the number of hostages. We succeeded in proving that from the first minutes of act of terror it was clear that more than 600 children and adults had been seized in the school. We succeeded in proving that by the end of the first day the authorities possessed practically the exact number of hostages. Before Ruslan Aushev entered the school, however, this number was hidden in every way possible, not just from the community, but also from the rescuers and physicians. Evidence of this is in testimony by the director of the All-Russia medical center 'Zashchita', Sergey Goncharov, who first planned the medical assistance taking into account 354 hostages, and only after Ruslan Aushev's conversation did he truly understand the scale of the calamity. I would also like to focus your attention on the testimonies of practically all members of the operational staff, who until the very end of the terror act did not know and did not try to find out the number of hostages.
The lies about the number of hostages were directly related to the question of negotiations. How was it possible to effectively conduct negotiations if, from the very beginning, they communicated false information about the number of hostages and what was happening inside the seized school, and the terrorists knew about these lies? What negotiations were even possible in this case?
I would like to quote here from the report of the North Osetian parliamentary commission that inquired into the circumstances of the act of terror of September 1st to the 3rd, 2004, which the court for incomprehensible reasons has refused to append to this judicial inquiry.
"In reports about the number of hostages, the first figures ranged from 150 to 500. On the second day they arrived in some strange manner at the number 354. There is reason to believe that members of the main headquarters staff knew the approximate number of hostages after their first contact with the terrorists. They knew, but did not mention the real number. A consequence of their incomprehensible perseverance, most likely, was the shooting of twenty hostages who were demonstratively thrown from the second floor... Returning to the officially declared number of hostages, one cannot agree with the subsequently stated opinion that this number, allegedly, did not have a fundamental value... "
As far as the immediate conversations and demands of terrorists: the judicial inquiry not only did not explain the issue, but confused it even more. From the statements of the official negotiator, Zangionov, and the testimonies of Dzasokhov and Andreyev, we have learned that the terrorists had only one demand, that four people would come to the school: Dzasokhov, Zyazikov, Roshal and Aslakhanov. None of them entered the school, however. The terrorists did not let in Roshal, and Interior Minister Pankov did not permit Dzasokhov - he threatened him with arrest and referred to an instruction by President Putin. We succeeded in establishing that Roshal at that time conducted telephone negotiations with the gunmen anyway, although without result. Dzasokhov did not even attempt to do this. We were not able to question Zyazikov and Aslakhanov, since this respected court did not choose to satisfy my petition. We were also refused the right to summon Pankov as a witness, and once again received no substantiated explanation for these refusals by the court.
Explaining who forbade and prevented these four from gathering in Beslan as quickly as possible is a question of major importance. Could it have been simple cowardice that did not permit Zyazikov and Aslakhanov to depart for Beslan on September 1st? Or was this a personal prohibition by the President of Russia? Respected court! During the trial we heard, and Basayev and Kulayev acknowledged, that the gunmen would release 150 children for each of these four. The victims stated that the gunmen actually drew up a list of child-hostages of up to seven years of age. I do not know if it is possible to believe Basayev or Kulayev. I personally do not believe them, but some doubt remains nonetheless, as does the question: why did these four not enter the school? Why was the only demand of the terrorists not carried out?
As far as the so-called 'political demands' of the terrorists, namely the withdrawal of forces from Chechnya and the like, all this was on a note that came out of nowhere. Even the leader of the operational staff, Andreyev, and the chief negotiator, Zangionov, denies its existence. As to whether there was ever a note, only Ruslan Aushev could answer this question. The respected court, however, did everything possible to prevent the victims from interrogating him. The court assured us that it sent him a subpoena several times, but without result. I personally called Ruslan Aushev's assistant, however, and he said that Aushev was ready to appear in court. As soon as the media published this information, the court immediately declared an end to the inquiry and switched over to final arguments. I.e., it prevented the victims from ever being able to summon this extraordinarily important witness to court.
The question as to whether the terrorists had any political demands, or not, is very important. If there were no such demands, then we were lied to from the very beginning. The entire official version of the terror act collapses, and questions appear: who were these criminals, and for what purpose did they come to Beslan? And another: how can one speak about international terrorism if there was only one demand: send Zyazikov, Dzasokhov, Roshal, and Aslakhanov to the school?
Meanwhile, as we succeeded in explaining, the terrorists had an additional demand, or more accurately, a concession. Aushev proposed it to Aslan Maskhadov's negotiators, and they agreed. The first who attempted to contact Maskhadov's representative, Zakayev, was Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist from 'Novaya Gazeta', on September 1st. On her way to Beslan on an airplane, however, she was poisoned.
As we succeeded explaining, Maskhadov's participation in the negotiations was possible. From the testimonies of Israel Totoonka and Dzasokhov we learned that contact with Maskhadov had been established. From the official conversation of Zakayev with the first assistant to the vice-speaker of the North Osetian parliament, it became clear to both the victims and the court that Maskhadov and Zakayev had agreed to come to Beslan. Zakayev reported this to Dzasokhov in their telephone conversation at 12:00 on September 3rd, 2004.
Within an hour, however, the first explosions provoking a military operation to destroy the terrorists occurred.
The nature of the first explosions is the victims' most important question. For one and a half years we have investigated, and our version has not been disproved by anyone. These explosions were initiated by our own special forces soldiers who carried out a criminal order and fired upon the captured school with flamethrowers, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades. In the course of the judicial inquiry we obtained much evidence from eyewitnesses about the nature of the first explosions. This evidence, as well as the gymnasium itself, the caved-in roof, the burned hostages, and the video pictures, prove that the explosions came from outside the gymnasium and school. Unfortunately, the criminal case does not contain a single test. As you recall, pyro-technical tests were conducted only a year after the act of terror and without the participation of the victims, while explosives tests by experts from the Justice Department are still being conducted. This is a direct violation of the law, and was done on purpose by inspectors from the Attorney General's Office.
Looking at the absence of tests, and the false statements of servicemen concerning the flamethrowers and mortars, as well as statements that tanks fired on the school only "when there were no hostages alive in the school," we proved in court that this was not so. Not only the victims, but also representatives from the law-enforcement agencies and the government were unafraid of giving truthful testimony in court. We succeeded in proving 100 percent that the tanks fired upon the school during the day, while there were still many LIVE hostages in the school.
We were not successful in questioning those who gave the immediate order and fired upon the school with flamethrowers and rocket-propelled grenades, because the court roughly violated our rights, misled us, and prevented the chief of the Russian FSB special forces center, and his officers, from appearing in court, as well as deputy FSB directors Pronichev and Anisimov. Strictly speaking, the inquiry was ended because we had come to the most important question and the most important witnesses. How did the court did deceive us? If you would recall the session before the last, the court refused to allow us to cross-examine FSB special forces center chief Tikhonov, citing the witness's secret position as a pretext. We have no law in existence excusing certain select people from the fulfillment of their civic duties. When we learned about this fact, that we had been deceived, it was already too late: the court had completed the judicial inquiry.
Besides questions about the legality of ordering the assault and the use of heavy armaments, we wanted to pose one additional, fundamental question to Mr. Tikhonov. Why did he FORBID workers from the MChS (Emergency and Disaster Relief Ministry) from carrying out their duties? Why did he NOT PERMIT firemen to extinguish the blaze together with the wounded hostages until 15:20? What was he waiting for? Can it be that he hoped to burn away all traces of the crime perfected by the Russian FSB special forces center? A crime that they are still trying to blame on the terrorists? It was not the terrorists who set off the explosions in the gymnasium, but colleagues of the FSB, colleagues of the FSB who refuse to appear in court and are being protected by their secrecy!
I appeal now to those special forces soldiers who are emotionally scarred by Beslan and the loss of their comrades in this accursed school. I appeal to colleagues from the 'Rescue Center' of the MChS, who lost two remarkable comrades. The leadership of the FSB of Russia meanly and cynically used your friends. These people gave the order to start the assault in which 10 special forces soldiers and two MChS workers died. On one side of the scales were 10 of the best soldiers in Russia, two courageous rescuers, and 319 hostages - 186 of them innocent children. On the other side were only four people: Dzasokhov, Aslakhanov, Zyazikov, and Roshal. One side was sent to their deaths, the other was saved. Think about it!
At the end of my speech I wish to turn to all the victims. Beslan residents! We could have done a lot in the one and a half years since the days of our loved ones' deaths. We were together and they had to reckon with us. Now they accuse us of disgracing the whole republic because we demand truth and justice. You all understand that it is because this trial has irritated and frightened our government. Fighting for the truth is not always easy. It is easier to be subdued, to forgive and forget. The choice is behind us! | | 8:29 pm |
Tkachenko's closing arguments
http://befree77.livejournal.com/5407.html#cutid1
The appearance of Yuri Tkachenko, representing the victims, during closing arguments in courtHonored court, honored participants in the trial, and all present! Addressing you as the last of the victims' representatives, I see my mission as not having to repeat what my colleague, but to try and find supplemental arguments in support of our position in the present matter. In this hall we have heard more than once: do not sidetrack the judicial hearings. We must judge Kulayev. All the other questions will be examined within the framework of the 'main' case. From the prosecutor's speech during the last session, however, it has become clear that the prosecution has no further questions concerning the terror act in, and so, in their opinion, all circumstances relative to this crime are closed.
A gang consisting of 32 terrorists assigned itself the task of waging bloody violence on defenseless people. No one was sent to negotiate with the terrorists, since their sole intention was to perform an act of terror with a maximum number of victims. In order to carry out their intent, the bandits set two explosive devices in the gymnasium, and these led to the bloody ending. There no bombs in the school before the gunmen seized it. Weapons and ammunition were not hidden in the school prior to the attack. Tanks fired on the school late in the evening, when the hostages were no longer there, and after the operational staff had done all possible to rescue people.
And so, if there are no further questions, then all that remains is to carry out a harsh and just sentence on Kulayev, and then we can forget about the Beslan act of terror. Such are the opinions and positions of the district attorney. I shall allow myself to disagree. The Kulayev case resembles an embalmed mummy in a mausoleum: there is an outer surface, but inside - a void. The 105 weighty volumes of this case present an imposing spectacle when they lie on the judge's table, and cause holy trembling in the unenlightened. This is how fine the inspectors toiled, how thoroughly they investigated the crime. See how much proof they gathered! This is only on the outside, however. We would be convinced of how everything really happened during the course of the court sessions. In accordance with Article 73 of the Russian criminal code, when a criminal case is prepared they must establish the time, place, method, other circumstances in the accomplishment of the crime, as well as motive. All are subject to proof. As a member of a gang Kulayev carried out the crime imputed to him, and so it follows that his sentence would be legal and substantiated only if we can establish the role of each member of the gang, including Kulayev, in the commission of this crime. What have we established in court? Let us turn to statements of the victims and witnesses: Victim Sidakov: "The terrorists penetrated the school all the way to the ceremonial procession and occupied the second floor and garret."
Victim Basayeva-Chejemova: "The gunmen met Major Dudiyeva on the second floor when she was running for the telephone."
Victim Kokoyeva: "During the capture of the hostages the gunmen were already inside the school."
Victim Salkazanova: "During the capture of the school the terrorists met their accomplices in the corridor, there were no less than 50 gunmen."
Victim Urmanov: "When they began to seize the school, one group ran from the direction of the railroad, and gunmen from the direction of the dining room ran towards them, there were 50 men."
Victim Gagiyeva: "There were many more than 30 gunmen, among the dead gunmen I did not identify the gunman with the scar, whom I memorized".
Victim Digurova: "I memorized two gunmen, but did not recognize them among those killed".
Victim Pukhayeva: "During the school's capture the terrorists were already in the gymnasium. On September 2nd I saw a Slavic woman near the dining room with a bandage on her head and her hair in a pony tail, in zippered overalls and holding a sniper rifle." This woman was not among the dead gunmen.
Victim Misikov: "During the first minutes of the school's capture a sniper shot at cars from the roof of the school."
Victim Dudarova: "I didn't see any of the lead gunmen among those who were killed."
Victim Bedoyeva: "The gunmen were in the school before the seizure of the hostages."
Victim Soziyeva: "The gunmen were there before the seizure of the hostages, among the gunmen was a large, husky, red-haired man in a bandana, and another Russian-looking fellow in a velveteen jacket and trousers, very well-dressed. I saw neither one of them among the dead fighters."
Victim Persayev: "There were more gunmen than were killed. I did not see two gunmen whom I memorized among the dead. One had a scar on his throat and the second was the one who killed the man in the gymnasium."
Victim Bugulova: "The gunman who killed Betrozov was not among the dead fighters."
Victim Fanayeva: "There were about 60 gunmen."
Victim Shcherbinina testified that before the beginning of the capture of the school she saw that a slate had been removed from the roof of the school, and it was from here that the sniper was later firing.
As we see, the testimonies that were received in court differ greatly from the official version that there were only 32 gunmen, 31 of whom perished, and the 32nd, Kulayev, was captured, and that before the capture of the school there were neither fighters nor weapons and ammunition there.
It is necessary to speak in greater detail about the weapons and ammunition.
Again, according the official version, each of the gunmen was equipped with 4-6 magazines of cartridges for their assault rifles, that is, 120-180 cartridges on each gunman.
Let us turn to the statements of the eyewitnesses:
Victim Koniyeva: "The gunmen did not scrimp on cartridges."
Victim Eltorov: "The gunmen took turns laying down fire, and did not economize on cartridges."
Victim Fanayeva: "The gunmen told us that they had ammunition for five days."
Victim Alikova: "The gunmen were firing for all three days. They had so many cartridges that they could not even count them, they did not economize."
And now, a little mathematics: the rate of fire of a Kalashnikov automatic rifle is 600 shots per minute. The maximum quantity of cartridges for each gunman, the prosecution has tried to convince us, was 180. By simple calculation, it turns out that the gunmen could not take turns shooting for more than 20 seconds, since by then their cartridges would run out. From this we can conclude that either someone was supplying the gunmen with cartridges during the act of terror, or ammunition had been brought into the school beforehand.
Now about the negotiations, or to be more accurate, as they are attempting to convince us, how the terrorists were not going to negotiate, having originally assigned to themselves the mission of performing an act of terror with a maximum number of victims.
Let the victims speak:
Victim Soziyeva: "The gunmen more than once repeated: 'we want negotiations!'."
Victim Gutiyeva: "The gunmen did not look like kamikazes, they repeated to us: 'no one is coming to negotiate'."
Victim Kochiyeva: "The gunmen tried to negotiate to the very end. After the official tally of 354 was proclaimed, the gunmen said to us: 'we aren't going to kill you, they are'."
Victim Kokoyeva: "And on the third day the gunmen waited for negotiations. The director of school told us: 'our people do not want to negotiate, but maybe Aushev can do something'."
Victim Persayev: "The gunmen took only off their masks for the video camera. A gunman said to us: 'if your government does what we want we will let you go'."
Victim Kastuyeva: "A gunman in a mask who had gold teeth said to us: 'we want to conduct negotiations with Putin, and we will let you go'."
Victim Alikova: "A gunman told us: 'Satisfy our conditions and we will kill no one'."
Everything stated above convinces us that the purpose of the terrorists was to negotiate, not to murder hostages. They could kill the hostages in the school courtyard. Condemned men, however, do not hide their faces behind masks. Why negotiations did not take place still remains outside the framework of this inquiry.
Let us now come to the most important part of the crime, the first explosion on September 3rd. The positions of the preliminary investigation and the prosecution are unequivocal: the gunmen set off two explosive devices in the gymnasium.
Let us examine what happened through the eyes of people who were at that moment inside the gymnasium:
Victim Soziyeva: "Before the first explosion I heard some kind of a click, then a whistle, as if something was thrown from the courtyard."
Victim Gutiyeva: "The first explosion was not inside the gymnasium. The shock wave came from the ceiling where there were no bombs or anything tied there."
Victim Dzutseva: "The first explosion was outside. I was sitting by the wall and it tossed me from the wall."
Victim Karayeva: "The first explosion was outside, since the barricade at the doors flew towards us."
Victim Fanayeva: "After the first explosion the door and desks by the wall fell into the gymnasium".
Victim Sidakova: "The roof of the gymnasium burned above ceiling."
That the first explosion occurred outside the gymnasium is confirmed by the testimonies of those who were outside.
Witness Tedtov: "After the first explosion, pieces of slate from the roof of gymnasium were blown 100 meters in every direction."
Witness Kindeyev: "After the first explosion dust and wood shavings flew from the roof of gymnasium."
From the police desciption of the scene: in the gymnasium among the corpses of hostages were discovered three corpses of gunmen with assault rifles. In one gunman's hand was an unexploded grenade. Hence, the gunmen themselves did not expect an explosion and all the more they were not prepared for it.
The reason for the first explosion could not be due to one of the gunmen's bombs, since a bomb set off in the gymnasium could not penetrate the ceiling located more than six meters above it, and the ceiling and the roof of the gymnasium was not mined by the gunmen. The wires did not reach that far.
Unfortunately, the reason for the first explosion and details about the fire in the gymnasium, and the cave in of the roof, were not explained by the inquiry and can no longer be explained, since much of the evidence is lost forever.
There is another side to the fire in the gymnasium, however. As Witness Dzgoyev testified during in court, he received information about the fire in the gymnasium ceiling railings at 13:05 on September 3rd. At 14:50 the ceiling began to crumble, and Dzgoyev's subordinates only began to extinguish the fire at 15:10 - 15:20. Before this, the head of the operational staff, Andreyev, ordered them not to extinguish the fire but await instructions. One can argue for a long time about who is more guilty, one who gave a criminal order, or his obedient servant, but this is no longer important. What is important is the fact that people in the gymnasium were burned alive over the course of two hours, even though the federal law concerning fire safety, the guidebook for workers at the MChS (Emergency and Disaster Relief Ministry), was not overruled.
Now about what occurred in the Beslan school after the first explosion. Let us listen to those who suffered:
Victim Koniyeva: "The fighters told us: 'while we still have cartridges we will kill federals, when the cartridges end we will blow you up'."
Victim Sidakova: "The majority of the children perished from our own fire. The gunmen forced two women to put two boys in front of the windows, and they were killed from the outside."
Victim Bigayeva: "A child climbed up to a window in the dining room, and he was shot down from the outside."
Victim Bedoyeva: "Those who were storming (the school) killed two women who were at the windows in the dining room. In their place the gunmen put new (hostages), and again those fell."
So, was this a hostage rescue operation that became a terrorist neutralization operation after the situation got out of control, or something else entirely? An in general, did the operational staff have a plan for this operation, did they plan an assault?
Generals Andreyev and Sobolyev confirmed that the operational staff had a plan for a combat operation to rescue the hostages and neutralize the terrorists. Sobolyev added that they were getting ready for an assault, but the assault was not prepared up to this point.
Witness Ogoyev has a slightly different opinion: "We weren't getting ready for an assault, but the operational staff could decide otherwise."
The former president of our republic, Dzasokhov, in the last few minutes before the first explosion on September 3rd said the following: "After noting a great fuss on the first floor of the administration building, I asked the head of the operational staff, Andreyev, what he was preparing to undertake and received in reply: 'mind your own business!' What kind of a state secret can you not even entrust to the president of the republic?"
Witness Khasonov, who spent three days with special forces soldiers in his home, reported the following: "On the 1st and 2nd of September there were no messages about an assault on the special forces soldiers' radio. On the 3rd of September they transmitted that at any moment they must begin the assault, and two vehicles, BTR GAZ-53s, for transportation of corpses, should be coming. The seizure (of the school) was cancelled several times. According to the special forces' information, the gunmen inside the school knew that they were preparing an assault."
Victim Reznova also confirmed this: "On the third day the gunmen told us: 'now the assault will begin'."
Here is what resulted: the operational staff did extensive work on a plan for a combat operation to rescue hostages and neutralize the terrorists. The plan was good, but it had one rather small deficiency - it could not be used when needed. The actions of the federal forces on September 3rd were uncoordinated and complete anarchy. One gets the impression that everyone, from the line soldiers and policemen to the leader of the operational staff, did not know who was supposed to do what.
In any military unit the troop action plan in extraordinary situations is worked out previously. When an extraordinary situation arises, then the commander can give quick orders: "Man your guns!" or "To battle!" and so on. Everyone is already obligated to know what he needs to do. That is how it is done everywhere, at all levels. Except by us here.
As soon as it tried to learn in greater detail about the special operation the court received a reply from the deputy director of the Russian FSB: the operation and its participants were classified, and so we will never learn more than was already made known to us.
We are not interested in a diagram of the layout of FSB special forces snipers around the school, or their surnames and marital status. What interests us is who killed our children, and why?
Related to this is another crucial point, which remains outside the framework of the official inquiry. The republic's parliamentary commission, the report of which is appended to the case materials, certifies that Zakayev declared Maskadov's readiness to negotiate. The witness, Totoonka, confirmed the same in court. This was at 12 o'clock on September 3rd.
Maskadov's arrival at the Beslan school could have led to the release of the children, but the first explosion in the gymnasium was heard an hour later.
I realize that assumptions in this case are not appropriate, but given the confusion in these matters, the secrecy with and without pretext, who could believe that this explosion was entirely accidental?
The inquiry did nothing to scatter these and other doubts, but the discussion here deals with the tragedy, which has no analog in the history of contemporary Russia.
To you, Nurpasha, I want to say only one thing. The prosecution has already demanded two sentences of capital punishment and one of life imprisonment. I will let the victims speak about the punishment to you, and leave this to the judgment of the court. Whatever the sentence of the court, your main sentence still lays ahead, so depart from this hall in a fitting manner. Describe everything, everything you know about this matter. They will listen attentively no matter how much you say.
Summing up the Kulayev case, I must state that after the long months of this trial there remain many questions. How many gunmen were in Beslan? If some of them could escape, how did they do this and what are they now doing? We did not learn the names of all the dead gunmen. Who were they, these gunmen? Who financed them? Where did they live, and by what means? By whom and with what purpose were they sent to perform this terrible crime? Were weapons and ammunition in the school beforehand? If they were, then who brought them in and who helped in this? Was it a coincidence that poplars around the school were cut down, thus giving the gunmen a splendid field of fire? Was it a coincidence that the festival procession was postponed by an hour? Was it a coincidence that Fairy Tale Kindergarten and three other kindergartens in the immediate vicinity were closed on September 1st? Which hostages were killed by the weapons of the gunmen, and what were the reasons for the remaining hostages' deaths?
There are no answers to these questions, but we cannot leave these unanswered and establish a complete picture of the crime. Moreover, the preliminary inquiry and the prosecution are no more interested in these questions than they are in last year's snow. All 'inconvenient' questions have been declared to have no bearing on the Kulayev case.
In order not to see everything that was stated above, however, it is not enough just to close one's eyes. One has to squint with their conscience as well!
Incidentally, all this has an obvious explanation: the federal government itself was a hostage in Beslan. After loud declarations that gunmen had to be 'pissed on' there could no question of negotiations and concessions to the bandits - this would lower the authority of the government. At the same time, however, Article 2 of the federal law on combating terrorism states that the main priority is the protection of the rights of the hostages. Only later on does the law mention that concessions to terrorists must be kept to a minimum.
Article 5 of this same law states that combating terrorism in the Russian Federation is for the purpose of protecting first of all persons, then society and the state.
In Beslan, alas, the authority of the state once again proved to be above human life. Having done nothing to prevent this act of terror, the federal government with unusual ease paid for the oversights of its forces with children's lives.
In violation of Article 71 of the Russian Constitution, as well as the law on combating terrorism, the (Osetian) republic was not given the authority to conduct negotiations or have an actual influence on the situation. Sobolyev, the commander of the 58th Army, confirmed in court that the president of our republic, Dzasokhov, insisted on negotiations to the very last, but the military man flat out told him the federal government's 'general line': "There won't be any negotiations with the terrorists!"
Apparently understanding his impotence in influencing the situation, Andreyev, the nominal leader of operational staff, was assigned to this post, in his words: "to be the one responsible if anything went wrong." He regularly left the headquarters to meet with residents of Beslan and journalists. In every act he demonstrated that he was not the one making decisions, that there was another, outside the operational staff and of a higher rank, who did.
This absolute chaos and constant subdivision of authority resulted in the hostage rescue operation turning into an unprecedented 'cleansing'. During the days when it was still possible to change something, decisions depended on those who did not, could not, or did not want to make these decisions.
As a result, the blood of hundreds of hostages was spilled without reason, without grounds, without sense, and without benefit.
Instead of giving of an honest and worthy evaluation of what happened, the federal government continues to aggravate the situation, beginning with an attack on distillers and mothers in Beslan, and finishing outrageously in form and essence with an interview by a children's doctor at the Beslan airport.
How far have we come that we now accuse bereaved mothers of being manipulated? Mothers who set Christmas trees in the cemetary for their children? Victim Pliyeva in court spoke from the heart when she said: "We forgot about the good, now we carry inside us only the negative." Perhaps, but the mothers of Beslan are not guilty of this!
The act of terror in Beslan resulted in a unique judicial situation: a whole mountain of corpses, but no guilty parties except for Kulayev.
Who will answer for these hundreds of dead, for those who were burned alive, for the wounded and the mutilated, for the enormous material damage? For the moral damage, now that our country has shown the whole world its cannibalistic character?
No, no one will answer for it, since our highest leaders have a simple psychology: we are all born simply to die for them when so ordered.
It is possible that we will never learn who fired the first shot in the school gymnasium with the flamethrower, letting loose a combat operation to destroy terrorists together with hostages. It is possible that we will never learn what it was - an accidental discharge, someone's nerves snapped, or a command that was coolly executed. This court should already convince us just how far the government goes to keep and protect its secrets.
Well, that is that. Only memory now remains, simple human memory. We will remember everything: those who left the school procession for the school cemetery, those who survived but each night continue to burn in the gymnasium, and still hear the gunshots and the whistle of bullets overhead.
While we are still alive, this memory will not allow us to stop.
Children, please forgive us for everything. |
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