Beslan Women Demand Justice

Women of Beslan have staged a demonstration against the “Putin Plan.”

Two spokes-organizations for survivors, “Voice of Beslan” and “Mothers of Beslan” have led an anti-Putin demonstration outside of Beslan’s “School Number Once”, which was seized by terrorists in 2004. The Sobkor®ru news agency interviewed participants, including Ella Kesaeva, the head of “Voice of Beslan.”

According to Kesaeva, participants of the protest hung a large banner with the words “Putin’s Course,” and an arrow pointing to the school. Officers of the militsiya arrived on the scene, but have not yet attempted to remove the sign. “It is rather cold on the street, and the militsiya is waiting for us to leave,” Kasaeva explained

Susanna Dudieva, chairman of the “Mothers of Beslan” committee, said that the demonstration lasted around two hours. The silent picket was joined by passers-by, as well as motorists driving by. “The Government doesn’t want to see its mistakes and faults,” Dudieva explained, “We, who have lost our children, have the right to tell the government that it’s path is wrong.”

Earlier, at a meeting by the Moscow Theatre Center, where the Dubrovka siege had taken place, Ella Kasaeva called for answers from “the cruel president and cruel generals.” “Jail is the place for prisoners,” she continued. Kasaeva expressed her conviction that sooner or later, those responsible for the shootings of schoolchildren in Beslan, and those who pumped sleeping gas into the packed theater, will answer for their deeds. She accused Putin of lying. In her words, his rhetoric that situations akin to Beslan and the “Nord-Ost” massacre could happen in any country, were actually “abominable deception.”

Kesaeva believes that while terrorist attacks are possible in any country, nowhere but Russia do the authorities kill the hostages, and award those responsible with government medals. “The generals Nikolai Patrushev, Tikhonov and Pronichev, who were awarded with Hero stars, are not national heroes, but the personal heroes of president Putin,” Kesaeva concluded.

After a terrorist take-over during the first days of September, 2004, 1128 hostages were held at School Number One in Beslan. The special-forces operation led to rescue them led to the deaths of 334 people, including 317 hostages, and more than half of them children. 728 hostages and 55 agents of the security services were injured. Only one terrorist was captured alive