Russia: Fifteen Years On, Beslan Victims Still Demand 'A Worthy Investigation'

[TomSea]

That was a very great tragedy, remember everyone? The school got taken over by reported terrorists in Russia.  I think it was largely a slaughter of the innocents.

Fifteen Years On, Beslan Victims Still Demand 'A Worthy Investigation'

A soldier carries a baby after the hostage-takers released 26 women with their children from the Beslan siege on September 2, 2004.

MOSCOW -- On September 1, 2004, School No. 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia, welcomed children back after the summer break. There were nerves and excitement as a crowd of 1,128 parents, teachers, and pupils lined up in the courtyard at 9 a.m. for a ceremonial assembly ringing in the new school year.

Unbeknownst to those gathered, some 30 Chechen and Ingush separatists had crossed into North Ossetia hours before, armed with guns and ammunition seized during an earlier raid on a weapons depot in Nazran.

They struck during the festivities. Herding over 1,000 people into the school gymnasium, they issued demands that Russia withdraw its troops from Chechnya. It was the beginning of a standoff with security forces that lasted 52 hours, time the hostages -- among them some 800 children -- spent virtually deprived of food and water. By the following morning, the terrorists had executed several men and transformed the school into a mined stronghold.

Read more at: https://www.rferl.org/a/beslan-fifteen-years-on/30139504.html

[Sanguine]

We're having some problems with investigations over here too.