Drabikstan
06-09-2004, 09:17
Burials begin in Russia; 180 still missing
Death toll tops 350; town's citizens reeling from hostage crisis
By Burt Herman, Associated Press | September 6, 2004
BESLAN, Russia -- Mothers wailed over the coffins of their children yesterday and dozens of townsmen dug graves in a football field-size piece of scrubland next to the cemetery. Funeral processions snaked through the streets as grief-stricken Russians began to bury victims of the terror attack on a school that left more than 350 people dead.
Frantic relatives also were still searching for 180 people, many of them children, who are still unaccounted for, two days after the bloody climax of the hostage crisis that left few families untouched in this tight-knit, mostly industrial town of 30,000.
Weeping mourners placed flowers and wreaths at the graves, including one where two sisters, Alina, 12, and Ira Tetova, 13, were laid to rest together. Relatives walked toward the cemetery bearing portraits of the dark-haired girls and simple wooden planks, temporary grave markers, citing the children's names and the dates framing their short lives.
The markers listed the date of death as Sept. 3, the day the hostage seizure ended in a bloody wave of explosions and gunfire as commandos stormed the school and hostages fled after powerful blasts shook the building. It was the third deadly terrorist attack to strike Russia in just over a week.
The keening of mourning women echoed from courtyards where families made ritual meals, while surveyors used planks and string to mark new graves being dug in the field near the town's cemetery.
''When a person goes to the cemetery for a burial, it's sad, but nothing like this -- when you dig graves for your children," said volunteer gravedigger Anzor Kudziyev, 25.
''The grief is for all of our people."
Officials in the southern North Ossetia region scrambled to identify and confirm the number of people killed amid conflicting reports, apparently confused in part because of the large number of body fragments collected at the school.
The regional health ministry said 180 people were missing after the three-day hostage crisis, which began when armed attackers raided School No. 1 on Sept. 1, the first day of classes, seizing students, teachers, and parents attending opening-day ceremonies.
Russian media speculated that some of the missing could be among the wounded who were unconscious or too deep in shock, or just too young to identify themselves.
Questions also remained about the number and identity of the hostage-takers -- heavily armed and explosive-laden men and women who were reportedly demanding independence for the nearby republic of Chechnya.
According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky of Russia said yesterday that the latest information indicated 32 militants had been involved and the bodies of 30 of them had been found.
But Interfax, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, also reported that three suspects were detained in Beslan on Saturday, and Channel One showed footage of one alleged attacker in the hands of law enforcement officers.
The station reported, without citing a source, that the attackers included Kazakhs, Chechens, Arabs, Ingush, and Slavs.
North Ossetia's interior minister, Kazbek Dzantiyev, meanwhile, offered his resignation, said Alexander Andreyev of the southern regional branch of the Russian Interior Ministry.
''After what happened in Beslan, I don't have the right to occupy this post as an officer and as a man," ITAR-Tass quoted Dzantiyev as saying. Channel One quoted a regional spokesman as saying the resignation had not yet been accepted.
Svetlana Tebloyeva returned to the ruined red-brick school building yesterday morning, clutching a picture of her 11-year-old son, Zaur. She said she had searched hospitals and morgues but had yet to find the child, whom she last saw in the school gymnasium before the standoff ended Friday.
''I lost my boy," she cried.
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What a horrible situation...
Death toll tops 350; town's citizens reeling from hostage crisis
By Burt Herman, Associated Press | September 6, 2004
BESLAN, Russia -- Mothers wailed over the coffins of their children yesterday and dozens of townsmen dug graves in a football field-size piece of scrubland next to the cemetery. Funeral processions snaked through the streets as grief-stricken Russians began to bury victims of the terror attack on a school that left more than 350 people dead.
Frantic relatives also were still searching for 180 people, many of them children, who are still unaccounted for, two days after the bloody climax of the hostage crisis that left few families untouched in this tight-knit, mostly industrial town of 30,000.
Weeping mourners placed flowers and wreaths at the graves, including one where two sisters, Alina, 12, and Ira Tetova, 13, were laid to rest together. Relatives walked toward the cemetery bearing portraits of the dark-haired girls and simple wooden planks, temporary grave markers, citing the children's names and the dates framing their short lives.
The markers listed the date of death as Sept. 3, the day the hostage seizure ended in a bloody wave of explosions and gunfire as commandos stormed the school and hostages fled after powerful blasts shook the building. It was the third deadly terrorist attack to strike Russia in just over a week.
The keening of mourning women echoed from courtyards where families made ritual meals, while surveyors used planks and string to mark new graves being dug in the field near the town's cemetery.
''When a person goes to the cemetery for a burial, it's sad, but nothing like this -- when you dig graves for your children," said volunteer gravedigger Anzor Kudziyev, 25.
''The grief is for all of our people."
Officials in the southern North Ossetia region scrambled to identify and confirm the number of people killed amid conflicting reports, apparently confused in part because of the large number of body fragments collected at the school.
The regional health ministry said 180 people were missing after the three-day hostage crisis, which began when armed attackers raided School No. 1 on Sept. 1, the first day of classes, seizing students, teachers, and parents attending opening-day ceremonies.
Russian media speculated that some of the missing could be among the wounded who were unconscious or too deep in shock, or just too young to identify themselves.
Questions also remained about the number and identity of the hostage-takers -- heavily armed and explosive-laden men and women who were reportedly demanding independence for the nearby republic of Chechnya.
According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky of Russia said yesterday that the latest information indicated 32 militants had been involved and the bodies of 30 of them had been found.
But Interfax, citing unnamed law enforcement sources, also reported that three suspects were detained in Beslan on Saturday, and Channel One showed footage of one alleged attacker in the hands of law enforcement officers.
The station reported, without citing a source, that the attackers included Kazakhs, Chechens, Arabs, Ingush, and Slavs.
North Ossetia's interior minister, Kazbek Dzantiyev, meanwhile, offered his resignation, said Alexander Andreyev of the southern regional branch of the Russian Interior Ministry.
''After what happened in Beslan, I don't have the right to occupy this post as an officer and as a man," ITAR-Tass quoted Dzantiyev as saying. Channel One quoted a regional spokesman as saying the resignation had not yet been accepted.
Svetlana Tebloyeva returned to the ruined red-brick school building yesterday morning, clutching a picture of her 11-year-old son, Zaur. She said she had searched hospitals and morgues but had yet to find the child, whom she last saw in the school gymnasium before the standoff ended Friday.
''I lost my boy," she cried.
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What a horrible situation...