Eleventh anniversary of Beslan tragedy marked today

The 11th anniversary of school hostage tragedy in the North Ossetian town of Beslan is marked today. The three-day siege killed over 340 hostages, including 186 children.

The hundreds of students and their relatives with friends, who came to mark the Knowledge Day were taken hostages, Leonid Velekhov reminds in the Radio Liberty special project.

The authorities have understated the number of hostages several times from the very beginning. The Russian authorities “solved” the crisis of September 3.

“There were the very few victims on the first two days. On September 3, several hundred people, mostly children, were killed for an hour as a result of a special purpose operation using heavy equipment, including tank guns, flame throwers, and grenade launchers. Most people suffered from the use of weapons mass destruction and fire at the school, which began as a result of its use,” the author special project recalls.

However, the official investigation completely ignored the issue of responsibility of the Russian federal authorities and “headquarters for freeing the hostages” for the serious consequences of this “liberation”.

11-year-old Gosha Tsagaroyev and his mother were taken hostages. When the storm began on September 3, he jumped out of the window after the second explosion. His mother stayed in the gym, the blast deafened her. Gosha stood under the windows for long, waiting for her. Only when some man next to him was shot, he ran away. Gosha’s mother, when she came round, began to look for his son. The building was on fire, and she was still looking for her son. The special forces officers brought her into the street almost by force.

“Gosha’s teacher, Marina Bitsoyeva, told me that Gosha is a straight A student, one of the most talented students. But when I asked him whether he wants to go to school, the boy replied with a categorical ‘no’,” Leonid Velekhov says.

Gosha has not gone for a walk after the events. The only thing he wanted to do is to play piano, but his mother did not allow to. She asked him to wait till at least forty days passed since September 3. It was not time for music, the more especially as under their apartment is the apartment of Alikovys family, who were killed.

It is believed that the group, which attacked the school, was controlled by Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev, who was killed in 2006, UNIAN writes. Basayev collaborated with jihadists, such as Ibn al-Khattab, who was closely associated with al-Qaeda.

As a reminder, in July 2015, the European Court of Human Rights recognized violations of the right to life and legal assistance in the case of relatives of victims of the Beslan massacre versus Russia.

The court in Strasbourg found that there is no evidence the school was bombed by terrorists. Instead, there is evidence that the explosions were the result of shelling of the school by the special forces. According to the court’s conclusions, the Russian government failed to present reasonable arguments to refute accusations.

Photos by Leonid Velekhov, Radio Liberty