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Beslan Massacre Anniversary: 5 Years Later
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by Jordan Yerman | September 2, 2009 at 10:08 am
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Tomorrow marks the five-year anniversary of the ending of the Beslan school hostage crisis, also called the Beslan massacre, during which 344 people, including 186 children, were killed during a standoff at School Number One in Beslan in the Russian Federation.
On September 1, 2004, terrorists led by Shamil Basayev took 1,100 people hostage at the school, demanding that Russian forces pull out of Chechnya and end the ongoing war. After three days, the Russian army assaulted the school on September 3 with tanks and heavy weaponry. The Russian government said that the storming of the school was a reaction to explosions heard within the school itself, but the press was not convinced.
The Russian govenrment began censoring reports about the incident, and nobody could even say for certain at the time which terrorist group was holed up at the school: One of then-President Vladimir Putin's aides said that the hostage-takers did not speak Chechen. Shamil Basayev later claimed responsibility for taking the hostages.
September 1 is celebrated as the Day of Knowledge everywhere in Russia except Beslan. For this town in North Ossetia it marks the start of the anguished countdown to the massacre that ended the hostage drama 52 hours later when 344 people died, including 186 children.
"We were sitting next to the window and talking to each other. And then there were these two explosions. It deafened us, and as soon as the explosions sounded, the entire gym, the floors, the walls and the ceiling, were covered in blood," said Zaur Aboyev, 16. "And I knew it was time to run."
It's a grim anniversary: the worst terror incident in Russian history, and one in which the government itself is held partly responsible by its own people.
Had someone fired flamethrowers at a school full of captive children? Why?
Similar confusion surrounded the discovery outside the school of three casings from the enormous, 125-millimeter cannon of a T-72 tank.
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In Memory to Alpha Vympel and everyone else in Beslan attack
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (2)
at 12:01 on September 2nd, 2009
It is such a sad anniversary. It was definitely a huge shocker for the people of North Ossetia, and Russia in general.
at 08:52 on October 7th, 2009
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