text:
Beslan school siege
(Redirected from Beslan school hostage crisis)
Russian hostage crisis and massacre
Part of the Second Chechen War, Terrorism in Russia and Islamic terrorism in Europe
From top left clockwise: the building of school No. 1 in 2008, the Orthodox cross in the gymnasium in memory of the victims, the "Tree of sorrow" memorial cemetery, photos of the victims.
Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania (Russia)
43°11′03″N 44°32′27″E / 43.184104°N 44.540854°E / 43.184104; 44.540854Coordinates: 43°11′03″N 44°32′27″E / 43.184104°N 44.540854°E / 43.184104; 44.540854
September 1, 2004; 16 years ago (2004-09-01)
~09:30 – 3 September 2004 ~17:00 (UTC+3)
School Number One (SNO)
Attack type
Mass murder, hostage taking, terrorist attack, bombing, school shooting, shootout
Firearms, explosives
333 (excluding 31 terrorists)[1]
Approximately 783[2]
Riyad-us Saliheen
No. of participants
Terrorism in Russia
Bold italics indicate incidents resulting in more
than 50 deaths. Incidents are bombings,
unless described otherwise.
Budyonnovsk
Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye
Apartment bombings
Znamenskoye
Tushino
Moscow (February)
Moscow (August)
Aircraft bombings
Nevsky Express
Tsentoroy
Volgograd (October)
Volgograd (December)
Grozny bombing
Grozny clashes
Metrojet Flight 9268 (going to Russia)
Shchelkovo Highway
Part of the First Chechen War, War of Dagestan, Second Chechen War, Insurgency in the North Caucasus and Islamic terrorism in Europe
The Beslan school siege (also referred to as the Beslan school hostage crisis or Beslan massacre)[3][4][5] started on September 1, 2004, lasted three days, involved the imprisonment of over 1,100 people as hostages (including 777 children),[6] and ended with the deaths of either 331 or 334 people, more than half of which were children.
The crisis began when a group of armed Chechen separatists, occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation), on 1 September 2004. The hostage takers were the Riyad-us Saliheen, sent by the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who demanded Russian withdrawal and recognition of the independence of Chechnya. On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces stormed the building with tanks, incendiary rockets and other heavy weapons.[7] 334 people (excluding terrorists) were killed,[1] including 186 children.[8]
The event had security and political repercussions in Russia, leading to a series of federal government reforms consolidating power in the Kremlin and strengthening of the powers of the President of Russia.[9] As of 2016, questions remain unanswered as to how many of the militants were involved, the nature of their preparation, and whether a section of the group escaped. Criticisms of the Russian government's management of the crisis have also persisted, including allegations of disinformation and censorship in news media, whether the journalists who were present at Beslan were allowed to freely report on the crisis,[10] the nature and content of negotiations with the terrorists, allocation of responsibility for the eventual outcome, and perceptions that excessive force was used.[7][11][12][13][14]
2 Course of the crisis
2.1 Day one
2.1.1 Beginning of the siege
2.2 Day two
2.3 Day three
2.3.1 The first explosions and the fire in the gymnasium
2.3.2 Storming by Russian forces
3 Aftermath
3.1 Long-term effects
4 Casualties
5 Identity of hostage-takers, motives, and responsibility
5.1 Responsibility
5.2 Motives and demands
5.3 Hostage-takers
5.3.1 Identities
6 Official investigations and trials
6.1 Kulayev's interrogation and trial
6.2 Investigation by federal prosecutors
6.3 Torshin's parliamentary commission
6.4 Trials of the local police officials
7 Criticism of the Russian government
7.1 Allegations of incompetence and rights violations
7.1.1 Independent reports
7.1.2 European Court complaint
7.2 Alleged threats, disinformation and suppression of information
7.2.1 Russian television reporting and false information
7.2.2 Incidents involving Russian and foreign journalists
7.2.3 Secret video materials
7.3 Conspiracy theories
7.4 Government response
7.4.1 Dismissals and trials
8 Other incidents and controversies
8.1 Escalation of the Ingush-Ossetian hostility
8.2 Grabovoy affair and the charges against Beslan activists
9 Memorial
10 International response
11 Media portrayal
11.1 Films
11.2 Music
11.3 Books
11.4 Theatre
16.1 Reports
16.2 Photos and videos
North Ossetia–Alania on a map of Russia
School No. 1 was one of seven schools in Beslan, a town of around 35,000 people in the republic of North Ossetia–Alania, in Russia's Caucasus. The school, located next to the district police station, had around 60 teachers and more than 800 students.[15] Its gymnasium, where most of the hostages were held for 52 hours, was a recent addition, measuring 10 metres wide and 25 metres long.[16] There were reports that men disguised as repairmen had concealed weapons and explosives in the school sometime during July 2004, something the authorities later denied. However, several witnesses have since testified they were made to help their captors remove the weapons from the caches hidden in the school.[17][18] There were also claims that a "sniper's nest" on the sports hall roof had been set up in advance.[19]
Course of the crisis[edit]
See also: Timeline of the Beslan school siege
Day one[edit]
North Ossetia on a map of North Caucasus
The attack on the school took place in 2004 on 1 September—the traditional start of the Russian school year, referred to as "First Bell" or Knowledge Day.[20] On this day, the children, accompanied by their parents and other relatives, attend ceremonies hosted by their school.[21] Because of the Knowledge Day festivities, the number of people in the schools was considerably higher than on a normal school day. Early in the morning, a group of several dozen heavily armed Islamic-nationalist guerrillas left a forest encampment located in the vicinity of the village of Psedakh in the neighbouring republic of Ingushetia, east of North Ossetia and west of war-torn Chechnya. The terrorists wore green military camouflage and black balaclava masks, and in some cases were also wearing explosive belts and explosive underwear. On the way to Beslan, on a country road near the North Ossetian village of Khurikau, they captured an Ingush police officer, Major Sultan Gurazhev.[22] Gurazhev was left in the vehicle after the terrorists reached Beslan and ran towards the schoolyard;[23] he went to the district police department to inform them of his ordeal and the actions of the militants, adding that his duty handgun and badge had been taken.[24]
At 09:11 local time, the terrorists arrived at Beslan in a GAZelle police van and a GAZ-66 military truck. Many witnesses and independent experts claim that there were, in fact, two groups of attackers, and that the first group was already at the school when the second group arrived by truck.[25] At first, some at the school mistook the guerrillas for Russian special forces practicing a security drill.[26] However, the attackers soon began shooting in the air and forcing everybody from the school grounds into the building. During the initial chaos, up to 50 people managed to flee and alert authorities to the situation.[27] A number of people also managed to hide in the boiler room.[16] After an exchange of gunfire against the police and an armed local civilian, in which reportedly one attacker was killed and two were wounded, the militants seized the school building.[28] Reports of the death toll from this shoot-out ranged from two to eight people, while more than a dozen people were injured.
The attackers took approximately 1,100 hostages.[7][29] The number of hostages was initially downplayed by the government to 200–400, and then for an unknown reason announced to be exactly 354.[10] In 2005, their number was put at 1,128.[11] The militants herded their captives into the school's gym and confiscated all their mobile phones under threat of death,[30] and ordered everyone to speak in Russian and only when spoken to. When a father named Ruslan Betrozov stood to calm people and repeat the rules in the local language, Ossetic, a gunman approached him, asked Betrozov if he was done, and then shot him in the head. Another father named Vadim Bolloyev, who refused to kneel, was also shot by a captor and then bled to death.[31] Their bodies were dragged from the sports hall, leaving a trail of blood later visible in the video made by the hostage-takers.
After gathering the hostages in the gym, the attackers singled out 15–20 of whom they thought were the strongest adults among the male teachers, school employees, and fathers, and took them into a corridor next to the cafeteria on the second floor, where a deadly blast soon took place. An explosive belt on one of the female bombers detonated, killing another female bomber (it was also claimed the second woman died from a bullet wound[32]) and several of the selected hostages, as well as mortally injuring one male hostage-taker. According to the version presented by the surviving hostage-taker, the blast was actually triggered by the "Polkovnik" (the group leader); he set off the bomb by remote control to kill those who openly disagreed about the child hostages and intimidate other possible dissenters.[33] The hostages from this group who were still alive were then ordered to lie down and shot with an automatic rifle by another gunman; all but one of them were killed.[34][35][36][37][38] Karen Mdinaradze, the FC Alania team cameraman, survived the explosion as well as the shooting; when discovered to be still alive, he was allowed to return to the sports hall, where he lost consciousness.[31][39] The militants then forced other hostages to throw the bodies out of the building and to wash the blood off the floor.[40] One of these hostages, Aslan Kudzayev, escaped by jumping out the window; the authorities briefly detained him as a suspected hostage-taker.[31]
Beginning of the siege[edit]
Overhead map of school showing initial positions of Russian forces
A security cordon was soon established around the school, consisting of the Russian police (militsiya), Internal Troops, Russian Army forces, Spetsnaz (including the elite Alpha and Vympel units of the (FSB) Russian Federal Security Service), and the OMON special units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). A line of three apartment buildings facing the school gym was evacuated and taken over by the special forces. The perimeter they made was within 225 metres (738 ft) of the school, inside the range of the militants' grenade launchers.[41] No fire-fighting equipment was in position and, despite the previous experiences of the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, there were few ambulances ready.[16] The chaos was worsened by the presence of Ossetian volunteer militiamen (opolchentsy) and armed civilians among the crowds of relatives who had gathered at the scene,[42] altogether totaling perhaps as many as 5,000.[16]
The attackers mined the gym and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill 50 hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and to kill 20 hostages for every gunman injured.[16] They also threatened to blow up the school if government forces attacked. To avoid being overwhelmed by a gas attack like their comrades in the 2002 Moscow hostage crisis, insurgents quickly smashed the school's windows. The captors prevented hostages from eating and drinking (calling this a "hunger strike", which they said they joined too) until North Ossetia's President Alexander Dzasokhov would arrive to negotiate with them.[40] However, the FSB set up their own crisis headquarters from which Dzasokhov was excluded, and threatened to arrest him if he tried to go to the school.[7][43]
The Russian government announced that it would not use force to rescue the hostages, and negotiations towards a peaceful resolution took place on the first and second days, at first led by Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician whom the hostage-takers had reportedly asked for by name. Roshal had helped negotiate the release of children in the 2002 Moscow siege, but had also given advice to the Russian security services as they prepared to storm the theatre, for which he received the Hero of Russia award. However, a witness statement in the court indicated that the Russian negotiators confused Roshal with Vladimir Rushailo, a Russian security official.[44] According to Savelyev's report, the official ("civilian") headquarters was looking for a peaceful resolution to the situation at the same time as when the secret ("heavy") headquarters set up by the FSB was preparing the assault. Savelyev wrote that, in many ways the "heavies" restricted the actions of the "civilians", in particular in their attempts to negotiate with the militants.[45]
At Russia's request, a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened on the evening of September 1, 2004, at which the council members demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages of the terrorist attack."[46] U.S. President George W. Bush made a statement offering "support in any form" to Russia.[47]
Day two[edit]
On September 2, 2004, negotiations between Roshal and the hostage-takers proved unsuccessful, and they refused to allow food, water or medicine to be taken in for the hostages, or for the dead bodies to be removed from the front of the school.[31] At noon, FSB First Deputy Director Colonel General Vladimir Pronichev showed Dzasokhov a decree signed by Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov appointing North Ossetian FSB chief Major General Valery Andreyev as head of the operational headquarters.[48] In April 2005, however, a Moscow News journalist received photocopies of the interview protocols of Dzasokhov and Andreyev by investigators, revealing that two headquarters had been formed in Beslan: a formal one, upon which was laid all responsibility, and a secret one ("heavies"), which made the real decisions, and at which Andreyev had never been in charge.[49]
The Russian government downplayed the numbers, repeatedly stating there were only 354 hostages; this reportedly angered the hostage-takers who further mistreated their captives.[50][51] Several officials also said there appeared to be only 15 to 20 militants in the school.[15] The crisis was met with a near-total silence from then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the rest of Russia's political leaders.[52] Only on the second day did Putin make his first public comment on the siege during a meeting in Moscow with King Abdullah II of Jordan: "Our main task, of course, is to save the lives and health of those who became hostages. All actions by our forces involved in rescuing the hostages will be dedicated exclusively to this task."[53] It was the only public statement by Putin about the crisis until one day after its bloody end.[52] In protest, several people at the scene raised signs reading: "Putin! Release our children! Meet their demands!" and "Putin! There are at least 800 hostages!" The locals also said they would not allow any storming or "poisoning of their children" (an allusion to the Moscow hostage crisis chemical agent).[24]
Hundreds of hostages packed into the school gym with wired explosives attached to the basketball hoop (a frame from the Aushev tape)
In the afternoon, the gunmen allowed Ruslan Aushev, respected ex-President of Ingushetia and retired Soviet Army general, to enter the school building and agreed to personally release to him 11 nursing women and all 15 babies.[37][54] The women's older children were left behind and one mother refused to leave, so Aushev carried out her youngest child instead.[34] The rebels gave Aushev a video tape made in the school and a note with demands from their purported leader, Shamil Basayev, who was not himself present in Beslan. The existence of the note was kept secret by the Russian authorities, while the tape was declared as being empty (which was later proved incorrect). It was falsely announced that the hostage-takers made no demands.[7] In the note, Basayev demanded recognition of a "formal independence for Chechnya" in the frame of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He also said that although the Chechen separatists "had played no part" in the Russian apartment bombings of 1999, they would now publicly take responsibility for them if needed.[7] Some Russian officials and state-controlled media later attacked Aushev for entering the school, accusing him of colluding with the hostage-takers.[55]
The lack of food and water took its toll on the young children, many of whom were forced to stand for long periods in the hot, tightly packed gym. Many children took off their clothing because of the sweltering heat within the gymnasium, which led to rumours of sexual impropriety, though the hostages later explained it was merely due to the stifling heat and being denied any water. Many children fainted, and parents feared they would die. Some hostages drank their own urine. Occasionally, the militants (many of whom took off their masks) took out some of the unconscious children and poured water on their heads before returning them to the sports hall. Later in the day, some adults also started to faint from fatigue and thirst. Because of the conditions in the gym, when the explosion and gun battle began on the third day, many of the surviving children were so fatigued that they were barely able to flee from the carnage.[30][56]
At around 15:30, approximately ten minutes apart, two grenades were detonated by the militants against security forces outside the school,[57] setting a police car on fire and injuring one officer,[58] but Russian forces did not return fire. As the day and night wore on, the combination of stress and sleep deprivation—and possibly drug withdrawal[59]—made the hostage-takers increasingly hysterical and unpredictable. The crying of the children irritated them, and on several occasions crying children and their mothers were threatened with being shot if they would not stop crying.[26] Russian authorities claimed that the hostage-takers had "listened to German heavy metal group Rammstein on personal stereos during the siege to keep themselves edgy and fired up" (Rammstein had previously come under fire following the Columbine High School massacre, and again in 2007 after the Jokela High School shooting).[60]
Overnight, a police officer was injured by shots fired from the school. Talks were broken off, resuming the next day.[53]
Day three[edit]
Early on the third day, Ruslan Aushev, Alexander Dzasokhov, Taymuraz Mansurov (North Ossetia's Parliament Chairman), and First Deputy Chairman Izrail Totoonti together made contact with the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov.[43] Totoonti said that both Maskhadov and his Western-based emissary Akhmed Zakayev declared they were ready to fly to Beslan to negotiate with the militants, which was later confirmed by Zakayev.[61] Totoonti said that Maskhadov's sole demand was his unhindered passage to the school; however, the assault began one hour after the agreement for his arrival was made.[62][63] He also mentioned that, for three days, journalists from Al Jazeera television offered to participate in the negotiations and enter the school even as hostages, but were told "their services were not needed by anyone."[64]
Russian presidential advisor, former police general, and ethnic Chechen Aslambek Aslakhanov was also said to be close to a breakthrough in the secret negotiations. By the time he left Moscow on the second day, Aslakhanov had accumulated the names of more than 700 well-known Russian figures who were volunteering to enter the school as hostages in exchange for the release of the children. Aslakhanov said the hostage-takers agreed to allow him to enter the school the next day at 15:00. However, the storming had begun two hours before.[65]
The first explosions and the fire in the gymnasium[edit]
Rough plan of the situation
Masked hostage-taker standing on a dead man's switch during the second day of the crisis (a frame from the Aushev tape)
Around 13:00 on September 3, 2004, it was agreed to allow four Ministry of Emergency Situations medical workers in two ambulances to remove 20 bodies from the school grounds, as well as to bring the corpse of the killed terrorist to the school. However, at 13:03, when the paramedics approached the school, an explosion was heard from the gymnasium. The hostage-takers then opened fire on them, killing two.[40] The other two took cover behind their vehicle.
The second, "strange-sounding", explosion was heard 22 seconds later.[16] At 13:05 the fire on the roof of the sports hall started and soon the burning rafters and roofing fell onto the hostages below, many of them injured but still alive.[45] Eventually, the entire roof collapsed, turning the room into an inferno. The flames reportedly killed some 160 people (more than half of all hostage fatalities).[19]
There are several conflicting versions regarding the source and nature of the explosions:
According to the December 2005 report by Stanislav Kesayev, deputy speaker of North Ossetian parliament, some witnesses said a federal forces sniper shot a militant whose foot was on a dead man's switch detonator, triggering the first blast.[33][66] A captured hostage-taker, Nur-Pashi Kulayev, has testified to this, while a local policewoman and hostage named Fatima Dudiyeva said she was shot in the hand "from outside" just before the explosion.[11][66][67] and said there were three blasts: two small explosions at 13:03, followed by the big one at 13:29.[68]
According to State Duma member Yuri Savelyev, a weapons and explosives expert, the exchange of gunfire did not begin by explosions within the school building but by two shots fired from outside the school[69] and that most of the home-made explosive devices installed by the rebels did not explode at all. He says the first shot fired was most likely from an RPO-A Shmel infantry rocket located at the roof of nearby five-story House No. 37 in School Lane and aimed at the gymnasium's attic, while the second one fired from an RPG-27 grenade launcher located at the House No. 41 on the same street, destroying a fragment of the gym wall (empty shells and launchers supporting this theory were found at roofs of these houses and alternative weapons mentioned in the report were RPG-26 or RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenades).[18][70][71] Savelyev, a dissenting member of the federal Torshin commission (see below), said these explosions killed many of the hostages and that dozens more died in the resulting fire.[72] Yuri Ivanov, another parliamentary investigator, further contended that the grenades were fired on the direct orders of President Putin.[73] Several witnesses during the trial of Kulayev previously testified that the initial explosions were caused by projectiles fired from outside.[74]
In the final report, Alexander Torshin, head of the Russian parliamentary commission which concluded its work in December 2006, said the militants had started the battle by intentionally detonating bombs among the hostages, to the surprise of Russian negotiators and commanders. That statement went beyond previous government accounts, which have typically said the bombs exploded in an unexplained accident.[75] Torshin's 2006 report says the hostage taking was planned as a suicide attack from the beginning and that no storming of the building was prepared in advance.[74] According to the testimonies by Nur-Pashi Kulayev and several former hostages and negotiators, the hostage-takers (including their leaders) blamed the government for the ensuing explosions.[11]
Storming by Russian forces[edit]
Part of the sports hall wall was demolished by the explosions, allowing some hostages to escape.[16] Local militia opened fire, and the militants returned fire. A number of people were killed in the crossfire.[76] Russian officials say militants shot hostages as they ran, and the military fired back.[66] The government asserts that once the shooting started, troops had no choice but to storm the building. However, some accounts from the town's residents have contradicted that official version of events.[77]
Police Lieutenant Colonel Elbrus Nogayev, whose wife and daughter died in the school, said, "I heard a command saying, 'Stop shooting! Stop shooting!' while other troops' radios said, 'Attack!'"[41] As the fighting began, an oil company president and negotiator Mikhail Gutseriyev (an ethnic Ingush) phoned the hostage-takers; he heard "You tricked us!" in answer. Five hours later, Gutseriyev and his interlocutor reportedly had their last conversation, during which the man said, "The blame is yours and the Kremlin's."[65]
According to Torshin, the order to start the operation was given by the head of the North Ossetian FSB Valery Andreyev.[78] However, statements by both Andreyev and the Dzasokhov indicated that it was FSB deputy directors Vladimir Pronichev and Vladimir Anisimov who were actually in charge of the Beslan operation.[63] General Andreyev also told North Ossetia's Supreme Court that the decision to use heavy weapons during the assault was made by the head of the FSB's Special Operations Center, Colonel General Aleksandr Tikhonov.[79]
A chaotic battle broke out as the special forces fought to enter the school. The forces included the assault groups of the FSB and the associated troops of the Russian Army and the Russian Interior Ministry, supported by a number of T-72 tanks from Russia's 58th Army (commandeered by Tikhonov from the military on 2 September), BTR-80 wheeled armoured personnel carriers and armed helicopters, including at least one Mi-24 attack helicopter.[80] Many local civilians also joined in the chaotic battle, having brought along their own weapons – at least one of the armed volunteers is known to have been killed. Alleged crime figure Aslan Gagiyev claimed to be among them. At the same time, regular conscripted soldiers reportedly fled the scene as the fighting began. Civilian witnesses claimed that the local police had also panicked, even firing in the wrong direction.[81][82]
At least three but as many as nine powerful Shmel rockets were fired at the school from the positions of the special forces (three[11] or nine[83] empty disposable tubes were later found on the rooftops of nearby apartment blocks). The use of the Shmel rockets, classified in Russia as flamethrowers and in the West as thermobaric weapons, was initially denied, but later admitted by the government.[13][84] A report by an aide to the military prosecutor of the North Ossetian garrison stated that RPG-26 rocket-propelled grenades were used as well.[85] The rebels also used grenade launchers, firing at the Russian positions in the apartment buildings.[16]
According to a military prosecutor, a BTR armoured vehicle drove close to the school and opened fire from its 14.5×114mm KPV heavy machine gun at the windows on the second floor.[11] Eyewitnesses (among them Totoonti[64] and Kesayev[74]) and journalists saw two T-72 tanks advance on the school that afternoon, at least one of which fired its 125 mm main gun several times.[11] Later during the trial, tank commander Viktor Kindeyev testified to having fired "one blank shot and six antipersonnel-high explosive shells" on orders from the FSB.[86] The use of tanks and armoured personnel carriers was eventually admitted to by Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev, commander of the 58th Army.[80] Another witness cited in the Kesayev report claims that he had jumped onto the turret of a tank in an attempt to prevent it from firing on the school.[74] Scores of hostages were moved by the militants from the burning sports hall into the other parts of the school, in particular the cafeteria, where they were forced to stand at windows. Many of them were shot by troops outside as they were used as human shields, according to the survivors (including Kudzeyeva,[87] Kusrayeva[88] and Naldikoyeva[41]). Savelyev estimated that 106 to 110 hostages died after being moved to the cafeteria.[89]
By 15:00, two hours after the assault began, Russian troops claimed control of most of the school. However, fighting was still continuing on the grounds as evening fell, including resistance from a group of militants holding out in the school's basement.[90] During the battle, a group of some 13 militants broke through the military cordon and took refuge nearby. Several of them were believed to have entered a local two-story building, which was destroyed by tanks and flamethrowers around 21:00, according to the Ossetian committee's findings (Kesayev Report).[91] Another group of militants appeared to head back over the railway, chased by helicopters into the town.[16]
Firefighters, who were called by Andreyev two hours after the fire started,[5] were not prepared to battle the blaze that raged in the gymnasium. One fire truck crew arrived after two hours on their own initiative but with only 200 litres of water and were unable to connect to the nearby hydrants.[11][92] The first water truck came at 15:28, nearly two and a half hours after the start of the fire;[45] the second fire engine arrived at 15:43.[11] Few ambulances were available to transport the hundreds of injured victims, who were mostly driven to the hospital in private cars.[41] One suspected militant was lynched on the scene by a mob of civilians, an event filmed by the Sky News crew,[93][unreliable source?] while an unarmed militant was captured alive by the OMON troops while trying to hide under their truck (he was later identified as Nur-Pashi Kulayev). Some of the dead insurgents appeared to be mutilated by the commandos.[11]
Sporadic explosions and gunfire continued during the night despite reports that all resistance by militants had been suppressed,[94] until some 12 hours after the first explosions.[95] Early the next day Putin ordered the borders of North Ossetia closed while some hostage-takers were apparently still being pursued.[94]
Aftermath[edit]
A Beslan mother at the cemetery for the siege victims in 2006
After the conclusion of the crisis, many of the injured died before the patients were sent to better-equipped facilities in Vladikavkaz, as the only hospital in Beslan was highly unprepared to cope with the casualties.[96] There was an inadequate supply of hospital beds, medication, and neurosurgery equipment.[97] Relatives were not allowed to visit hospitals where the wounded were treated, and doctors were not allowed to use their mobile phones.[98][99]
The day after the storming, bulldozers gathered the debris of the building, including the body parts of the victims, and removed it to a garbage dump.[7][11] The first of the many funerals were conducted on 4 September, the day after the final assault, with more following soon after, including a mass burial of 120 people.[100] The local cemetery was too small and had to be expanded to an adjacent plot of land to accommodate the dead. Three days after the siege, 180 people were still missing.[101] Many survivors remained severely traumatized and at least one female former hostage committed suicide after returning home.[102]
In his only visit to Beslan, Russian President Vladimir Putin reappeared publicly during a hurried trip to the Beslan hospital in the early hours of September 4 to see several of the wounded victims.[103] He was later criticised for not meeting the families of victims.[94] After returning to Moscow, he ordered a two-day period of national mourning on 6 – 7 September 2004. In his televised speech Putin says "We showed ourselves to be weak. And the weak get beaten."[40] On the second day of mourning, an estimated 135,000 people joined a government-organised rally against terrorism on the Red Square in Moscow.[104] An estimated 40,000 people gathered in Saint Petersburg's Palace Square.[105]
Increased security measures were introduced to Russian cities after the crisis. More than 10,000 people without proper documents were detained by Moscow police in a "terrorist hunt". Colonel Magomed Tolboyev, a cosmonaut and Hero of the Russian Federation, was attacked and brutally beaten by Moscow police patrol because of his Chechen-sounding name.[106][107] The Russian public appeared to be generally supportive of increased security measures. A 16 September 2004 Levada-Center opinion poll found 58% of Russians supporting stricter counter-terrorism laws and the death penalty for terrorism, while 33% would support banning all Chechens from entering Russian cities.[108][109]
Long-term effects[edit]
In the wake of Beslan, the government proceeded to toughen laws on terrorism and expand the powers of law enforcement agencies.[9]
In addition, Vladimir Putin signed a law which replaced the direct election of the heads of the federal subjects of Russia with a system whereby they are proposed by the President of Russia and approved or disapproved by the elected legislative bodies of the federal subjects.[110] The election system for the Russian parliament was also repeatedly amended, eliminating the election of State Duma members by single-mandate districts.[111] The Kremlin consolidated its control over the Russian media and increasingly attacked the non-governmental organizations (especially those foreign-founded).[112]
The raid on Beslan had more to do with the Ingush involved than the Chechens, but was highly symbolic for both regions. The Ossetes and Ingush had (and have) a conflict over ownership of the Prigorodny District, which hit high points during the 1944 Stalinist purges, and the ethnic cleansing of Ingush by Ossetes (the Ossetes getting assistance from the Russian military) in 1992–1993. At the time of the raid, there were still over 40,000 Ingush refugees in tent camps in Ingushetia and Chechnya.[113] The Beslan school itself had been used against the Ingush, as in 1992 the gym was used as a pen to round up Ingush during the ethnic cleansing by the Ossetes. For the Chechens, the motive was revenge for the destruction of their homes and families: Beslan was one of the sites from which federal air raids were launched at Chechnya.[114][115]
Once it was broadcast that there were large numbers of children killed by a group that included Chechens, the Chechens were struck with a large amount of shame. One spokesman for the Chechen independence cause stated, "Such a bigger blow could not be dealt upon us... People around the world will think that Chechens are monsters if they could attack children".[116]
Casualties[edit]
By 7 September 2004, Russian officials stated that 334 people had died, including 156 children; at that point 200 people remained missing or unidentified.[117] The Torshin report stated that ultimately no bodies remained unidentified.[118] It was stated by the locals that over 200 of those killed were found with burns, and 100 or more of them were burned alive.[11][41] In 2005, two hostages died due to injuries sustained in the incident, as did a hostage in August 2006. 33-year-old librarian Yelena Avdonina succumbed to a hematoma on 8 December 2006. At that time The Washington Post stated that the death toll was 334, excluding terrorists.[1] The City of Beslan has a death toll of 335 stated on its website.[119] The death toll includes 186 children.[8]
Category of fatality
Number of fatalities
Children aged 1 to 17 186
Parents, friends and other guests 111
Teachers and school staff 17
FSB employees 10
Civilian rescuers 6
Employees of MoES 2
Employees of MoIA 1
Russia's Minister of Health and Social Reform Mikhail Zurabov said the total number of people who were injured in the crisis exceeded 1,200.[120] The exact number of people who received ambulatory assistance immediately after the crisis is not known, but is estimated to be around 700 (753 according to the UN[6]). Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer concluded on 7 September 2004 that 90% of the surviving hostages had sustained injuries. At least 437 people, including 221 children, were hospitalized; 197 children were taken to the Children's Republican Clinical Hospital in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz, and 30 were in cardiopulmonary resuscitation units in critical condition. Another 150 people were transferred to the Vladikavkaz Emergency Hospital. Sixty-two people, including 12 children, were treated in two local hospitals in Beslan, while 6 children with severe injuries were flown to Moscow for specialist treatment.[121] The majority of the children were treated for burns, gunshot injuries, shrapnel wounds, and mutilation caused by explosions.[122] Some had to have limbs amputated and eyes removed and many children were permanently disabled. One month after the attack, 240 people (160 of them children) were still being treated in hospitals in Vladikavkaz and in Beslan.[121][123] Surviving children and parents have received psychological treatment at Vladikavkaz Rehabilitation Centre.[124]
One of the hostages, a physical education teacher called Yanis Kanidis (a Caucasus Greek, originally from Georgia) who was killed in the siege, saved the lives of many children. One of the new schools built in Beslan was subsequently named in his honour.
The operation also became the bloodiest in the history of the Russian anti-terrorist special forces. Ten members of the special forces died;[125] the eleventh casualty was initially thought to be Vyacheslav Bocharov who proved to be heavily wounded in the face but alive when he regained consciousness and managed to write down his name.[126]
The fatalities included all three commanders of the assault groups: Colonel Oleg Ilyin and Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Razumovsky of Vympel, and Major Alexander Perov of Alpha.[127] At least 30 commandos suffered serious wounds.[128]
Identity of hostage-takers, motives, and responsibility[edit]
Monument in Moscow Oblast
Responsibility[edit]
Initially, the identity and origin of the attackers were not clear. It was widely assumed from day two that they were separatists from nearby Chechnya, even as Putin's presidential Chechen aide Aslambek Aslakhanov denied it, saying "they were not Chechens. When I started talking with them in Chechen, they had answered: 'We do not understand; speak Russian.'"[129] Freed hostages said that the hostage-takers spoke Russian with accents typical of Caucasians.[16]
Even though in the past Putin had rarely hesitated to blame the Chechen separatists for acts of terrorism, this time he avoided linking the attack with the Second Chechen War. Instead, he blamed the crisis on the "direct intervention of international terrorism", ignoring the nationalist roots of the crisis.[130] The Russian government sources initially claimed that nine of the militants in Beslan were Arabs and one was a black African (called "a negro" by Andreyev),[2][131] though only two Arabs were identified later.[40] Independent analysts such as that of the Moscow political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky said Putin at this moment tried to minimize the number and scale of Chechen terrorist attacks, rather than to exaggerate them as he did in the past.[22] Putin appeared to connect the events to the US-led "War on Terrorism",[76] but at the same time accused the West of indulging terrorists.[132]
On 17 September 2004, radical Chechen guerilla commander Shamil Basayev, at this time operating autonomously from the rest of the North Caucasian rebel movement, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the Beslan school siege,[133] which was strikingly similar to the Chechen raid on Budyonnovsk in 1995 and the Moscow theatre crisis in 2002, incidents in which hundreds of Russian civilians were held hostage by the Chechen rebels led by Basayev. Basayev said his Riyad-us Saliheen "brigade of martyrs" had carried out the attack and also claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist bombings in Russia in the weeks before Beslan crisis. He said that he originally planned to seize at least one school in either Moscow or Saint Petersburg, but lack of funds forced him to pick North Ossetia, "the Russian garrison in the North Caucasus". Basayev blamed the Russian authorities for "a terrible tragedy" in Beslan.[134] Basayev claimed that he had miscalculated the Kremlin's determination to end the crisis by all means possible.[9] He said he was "cruelly mistaken" and that he was "not delighted by what happened there", but also added to be "planning more Beslan-type operations in the future because we are forced to do so."[135] However, it was the last major act of terrorism in Russia until 2009, as Basayev was soon persuaded to give up indiscriminate attacks by the new rebel leader Abdul-Halim Sadulayev,[136] who made Basayev his second-in-command but banned hostage taking, kidnapping for ransom, and operations specifically targeting civilians.[137]
The Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov immediately denied that his forces were involved in the siege, calling it "a blasphemy" for which "there is no justification". Maskhadov described the perpetrators of Beslan as "madmen" driven out of their senses by Russian acts of brutality.[138] He condemned the action and all attacks against civilians via a statement issued by his envoy Akhmed Zakayev in London, blamed it on what he called a radical local group,[139] and agreed to the North Ossetian proposition to act as a negotiator. Later, he also called on western governments to initiate peace talks between Russia and Chechnya and added to "categorically refute all accusations by the Russian government that President Maskhadov had any involvement in the Beslan event."[140] Putin responded that he would not negotiate with "child-killers",[105] comparing the calls for negotiations with the appeasement of Hitler,[132] and put a $10 million bounty on Maskhadov (the same amount as put for Basayev).[141] Maskhadov was killed by Russian commandos in Chechnya on 8 March 2005,[142] and buried at an undisclosed location.[143]
Shortly after the crisis, official Russian sources stated that the attackers were part of a supposed international group led by Basayev that included a number of Arabs with connections to al-Qaeda, and claimed they picked up phone calls in Arabic from the Beslan school to Saudi Arabia and another undisclosed Middle Eastern country.[144]
Two English/Algerians were initially named as being among the identified rebels who actively participated in the attack: Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia. Another UK citizen named Kamel Rabat Bouralha, arrested while trying to leave Russia immediately following the attack, was suspected to be a key organizer. All three were linked to the Finsbury Park Mosque of north London.[145] The allegations of al-Qaeda involvement were not repeated since then by the Russian government.[19] Larussi and Benalia are not named in the Torshin report and were never identified by Russian authorities as suspects in the Beslan attack.[146]
The following people were named by the Russian government as planners and financiers of the attack:
Shamil Basayev – Chechen rebel leader who took ultimate responsibility for the attack. He died in Ingushetia in July 2006 in disputed circumstances.
Kamel Rabat Bouralha – British-Algerian suspected of organizing the attack, who was reportedly detained in Chechnya in September 2004.
Abu Omar al-Saif – Saudi national and accused financer,[147] killed in Dagestan in December 2005.
Abu Zaid Al-Kuwaiti – Kuwaiti and accused organizer, who died in Ingushetia in February 2005.
In November 2004, 28-year-old Akhmed Merzhoyev and 16-year-old Marina Korigova of Sagopshi, Ingushetia, were arrested by the Russian authorities in connection with Beslan. Merzhoyev was charged with providing food and equipment to the hostage-takers, and Korigova with having possession of a phone that Tsechoyev had phoned multiple times.[148] Korigova was released when her defence attorney showed that she was given the phone by an acquaintance after the crisis.[149]
Motives and demands[edit]
Russian negotiators say the Beslan militants never explicitly stated their demands, although they did have notes handwritten by one of the hostages on a school notebook, in which they spelled out demands of full Russian troop withdrawal from Chechnya and recognition of Chechen independence.
The hostage-takers were reported to have made the following demands on 1 September 11:00–11:30 in letter sent along with a hostage ER doctor:[150]
Recognition of the independence of Chechnya at the UN and withdrawal of Russian troops
Presence of the following people at the school: Aleksander Dzasokhov (president of North Ossetia), Murat Zyazikov (president of Ingushetia), Ruslan Aushev (former president of Ingushetia), Leonid Roshal (a paediatrician). Alternatively, instead of Roshal and Aushev, the hostage-takers might have named Vladimir Rushailo and Alu Alkhanov (pro-Moscow President of Chechnya).[44]
Dzasokhov and Zyazikov did not come to Beslan (Dzasokhov later claimed that he was forcibly stopped by "a very high-ranking general from the Interior Ministry [who] said, 'I have received orders to arrest you if you try to go'").[43] The stated reason why Zyazikov did not arrive was that he has been "sick".[65] Aushev, Zyazikov's predecessor at the post of Ingushetia's president (he was forced to resign by Putin in 2002), entered the school and secured the release of 26 hostages.
Aslakhanov said that the hostage-takers also demanded the release of some 28 to 30 suspects detained in the crackdown following the rebel raids in Ingushetia earlier in June.[15][19]
Later, Basayev said they also demanded a letter of resignation from President Putin.[134]
Hostage-takers[edit]
According to the official version of events, 32 militants participated directly in the seizure, one of whom was taken alive while the rest were killed on spot. The number and identity of hostage-takers remains a controversial topic, fuelled by the often contradictory government statements and official documents. The 3–4 September government statements said total of 26–27 militants were killed during the siege.[94] At least four militants, including two women, died prior to the Russian storming of the school.
Many of the surviving hostages and eyewitnesses claim there were many more captors, some of whom may have escaped. It was also initially claimed that three hostage-takers were captured alive, including their leader Vladimir Khodov and a female militant.[151] Witness testimonies during the Kulayev trial involved the reported presence of a number of apparently Slavic-, unaccented Russian-, and "perfect" Ossetian-speaking individuals among the hostage-takers who were not seen among the bodies of the militants killed during the assault by Russian security forces; witnesses also said they were not seen by the day of the crisis at all.[85] The unknown men (and a woman, according to one testimony) included a man with red beard who was reportedly issuing orders to the kidnappers' leaders, and whom the hostages were forbidden to look at. He was possibly the militant known only as "Fantomas", an ethnic Russian who served as a bodyguard to Shamil Basayev.[19][85][152]
The Kesayev Report (2005) estimated that about 50 rebel fighters took part in the siege, based on witness accounts and the number of weapons left at the scene.[74]
The Savelyev Report (September 2006) said there were from 58 to 76 hostage-takers, of which many managed to escape by slipping past the cordon around the school.[74]
The Torshin Report (December 2006) determined that 34 militants were involved, of which 32 entered the school and 31 died there, and says the two accomplices remain at large (one being Yunus Matsiyev, a bodyguard of Basayev).[74]
According to Basayev, "Thirty-three mujahideen took part in Nord-West. Two of them were women. We prepared four [women] but I sent two of them to Moscow on August 24. They then boarded the two airplanes that blew up. In the group there were 12 Chechen men, two Chechen women, nine Ingush, three Russians, two Arabs, two Ossetians, one Tartar, one Kabardinian and one Gurans. The Gurans are a people who live near Lake Baikal who are practically russified."[153]
Basayev further said an FSB agent (Khodov) had been sent undercover to the rebels to persuade them to carry out an attack on a target in North Ossetia's capital, Vladikavkaz, and that the group was allowed to enter the region with ease because the FSB planned to capture them at their destination in Vladikavkaz. He also claimed that an unnamed hostage-taker had survived the siege and managed to escape.[13]
Identities[edit]
On 6 September 2004, the names and identities of seven of the assailants became known, after forensic work over the weekend and interviews with surviving hostages and a captured assailant. The forensic tests also established that 21 of the hostage-takers took heroin,[154] methamphetamine as well as morphine in a normally lethal amount;[155][156] the investigation cited the use of drugs as a reason for the militants' ability to continue fighting despite being badly wounded and presumably in great pain. In November 2004, Russian officials announced that 27 of the 32 hostage-takers had been identified. However, in September 2005, the lead prosecutor against Nur-Pashi Kulayev stated that only 22 of the 32 bodies of the captors had been identified,[157] leading to further confusion over which identities have been confirmed.
Most of the suspects, aged 20–35, were identified as Ingush or residents of Ingushetia (some of them Chechen refugees). At least five of the suspected hostage-takers were declared dead by Russian authorities before the seizure, while eight were known to have been previously arrested and then released, in some cases shortly before the Beslan attack.
The male hostage-takers were tentatively identified by the Russian government as:
Ruslan Tagirovich Khuchbarov[note 1] (32), nicknamed "Polkovnik" (Russian for "Colonel") – An ethnic Ingush and native of Galashki, Ingushetia. Reputed group leader, disputed identity, possibly escaped and at large.[19] Basayev identified him as "Col. Orstkhoyev".[19][134] Reportedly referred to by the other militants also as "Ali", he led the negotiations on behalf of the hostage-takers. Initially reported to be Ali Taziyev, an Ingush policeman-turned-rebel who was declared legally dead in 2000;[158][159][160] but this was later refuted by the Russian prosecutors.[161] During the negotiations, "Ali" had claimed his family was killed by the Russians in Chechnya.[162] Investigators thought him to be Akhmed Yevloyev ("Magas"), an Ingush rebel leader also known as Ali Taziyev, but those reports were also declared incorrect later. "Magas" was captured by the FSB in 2010.[163]
Vladimir Anatolievich Khodov[note 2] (28), nicknamed "Abdullah" – An ethnic Ossetian-Ukrainian from the village of Elkhotovo in Kirovsky District of North Ossetia, Khodov was former pupil of the Beslan SNO and one of the reputed leaders of the hostage-takers. Some of the survivors described him as the most frightening and aggressive of all the militants.[162] Khodov converted to Islam while in prison for rape. He was officially wanted for a series of bomb attacks in Vladikavkaz, yet he lived openly in his hometown for over a month before the attack.[89] Basayev claimed that Khodov was an FSB double agent code-named "Putnik" ("Traveller"), sent to infiltrate the rebel movement.[164]
Iznaur Kodzoyev – An Ingush from Kantyshevo, Ingushetia, and father of five children.[165] His cousin claimed he saw him in their home village on the second day of the siege.[153] In August 2005 the Russian forces in Igushetia killed a man identified as Iznaur Kodzoyev, who they said was one of hostage-takers, despite the fact that his body was identified among these killed in Beslan. Kodzoyev had been also previously announced by the Russians to be killed months before the Beslan crisis.[166]
Khizir-Ali Akhmedov (30) – Native of Bilto-Yurt, Chechnya.[120]
Rustam Atayev (25) – An ethnic Chechen native to Psedkah, Ingushetia. His 12-year-old younger brother and two other boys were murdered in 2002 in Grozny by unidentified men in camouflage.[167][168]
Rizvan Vakhitovich Barchashvili (26) – Native of Nesterovskaya, a Cossack village in Ingushetia. Had changed his name to Aldzbekov. His body was identified by DNA testing.[169]
Usman Magomedovich Aushev (33) – An Ingush from Ekazhevo, Ingushetia.[170][171]
Adam Magomed-Khasanovich Iliyev (20) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia. Iliyev was arrested a year before for illegal arms possession and then released.[170][171]
Ibragim Magomedovich Dzortov (28) – An Ingush from Nazran, Ingushetia.[170][171]
Ilnur Gainullin (23) – An ethnic Tatar and medical school graduate "from a good family" in Moscow.[25]
Aslangirey Beksultanovich Gatagazhev (29) – An Ingush from Sagopshi, Ingushetia.[170][171]
Sultan Kamurzoyev (27) – A Chechen from Kazakhstan.[120] Other sources say he's from Nazran, Ingushetia, and that he was arrested as a rebel fighter in Chechnya in 2000.[171]
Magomed[note 3] Khochubarov (21) – An Ingush from Nazran. Native of Surkhakhi, Ingushetia, Khochubarov had a conviction for the illegal possession of weapons.[120][171]
Khan-Pashi Kulayev (31) – A Chechen from Engenoi. He had lost his hand in Russian captivity from an untreated wound. Kulayev was the older brother of Nur-Pashi and a former bodyguard of Basayev. He was released from Russian prison before the attack.[172]
Nur-Pashi Kulayev (24) – A Chechen from Engenoi recruited to help his brother Han-Pashi despite (as he maintained) being admitted into pro-Moscow Chechen militia forces of Ramzan Kadyrov ("Kadyrovtsy"). Captured in Beslan and sentenced to life in prison.
Adam Kushtov (17) – An ethnic Ingush who as a child had fled North Ossetia during the ethnic cleansing in 1992.[173]
Abdul-Azim Labazanov (31) – A Chechen born in internal exile in Kazakhstan. He has initially fought on the Russian side in the First Chechen War before defecting to the group of Dokka Umarov.[120]
Arsen Merzhoyev (25) – A native of Engenoi, Chechnya.[174]
Adam Akhmedovich Poshev (22) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia.[170][171]
Mayrbek Said-Aliyevich Shaybekhanov[note 4] (25) – A Chechen from Engenoi who lived in Psedakh, Ingushetia. He was arrested in Ingushetia and then released shortly before the school attack.[170][171][175][176]
Islam Said-Aliyevich Shaybekhanov (20) – A Chechen from Engenoi who lived in Psedakh, Ingushetia.[171][177]
Buran Tetradze (31) – Allegedly an ethnic Georgian and native of Rustavi, Georgia. His identity/existence was refuted by Georgia's security minister.[173]
Issa Torshkhoyev[note 5] (26) – An Ingush native of Malgobek, Ingushetia. He was wanted since the shootout in 2003 when his home was raided by the police. His family asserted that his interest in joining the Chechen militant movement was incited when Torshkhoyev witnessed five of his close friends being killed by Russian security forces during the same raid. His father, who was brought in to identify his body, reportedly claimed that the body was not that of his son.[170][173][178]
Issa Zhumaldinovich Tarshkhoyev (23) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia. He was arrested for armed robbery in 1999 but later released.[161][170]
Bei-Alla Bashirovich[note 6] Tsechoyev (31) – An Ingush, had a prior conviction for possessing illegal firearms.
Musa Isayevich Tsechoyev (35) – An Ingush. Native of Sagopshi, Ingushetia, he owned the truck that drove the insurgents to the school.
Timur Magomedovich Tsokiyev[note 7] (31) – An Ingush from Sagopshi, Ingushetia.[170][171]
Aslan Akhmedovich Yaryzhev (22) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia.[170][171]
In April 2005, the identity of the shahidka female militants was revealed:[179]
Roza Nagayeva (30) – A Chechen woman from the village of Kirov-Yurt in Chechnya's Vedensky District and sister of Amnat Nagayeva, who was suspected of being the suicide bomber who blew up one of the two Russian airliners brought down on 24 August 2004. Roza Nagayeva was previously named as having bombed the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow on 31 August 2004.[63]
Mairam[note 8] Taburova (27) – A Chechen woman from the village of Mair-Tub in Chechnya's Shalinsky District.[63][170]
Earlier reports named Yacine Benalia (35) – A British-Algerian who had reportedly been killed earlier,[180] and Osman Larussi (35) – A British-Algerian, who had reportedly been killed already.[180] They are not listed in the Torshin Report.[citation needed]
Official investigations and trials[edit]
Kulayev's interrogation and trial[edit]
The captured suspect, 24-year-old Nur-Pashi Kulayev, born in Chechnya, was identified by former hostages as one of the hostage-takers. The state-controlled Channel One showed fragments of Kulayev's interrogation in which he said his group was led by a Chechnya-born man nicknamed Polkovnik and by the North Ossetia native Vladimir Khodov. According to Kulayev, Polkovnik shot another militant and detonated two female suicide bombers because they objected to capturing children.[181]
In May 2005, Kulayev was a defendant in a court in the republic of North Ossetia. He was charged with murder, terrorism, kidnapping, and other crimes and pleaded guilty on seven of the counts;[182] many former hostages denounced the trial as a "smoke screen" and "farce".[55] Some of the relatives of the victims, who used the trial in their attempts to accuse the authorities, even called for a pardon for Kulayev so he could speak freely about what happened.[66] The director of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, was summoned to give evidence, but he did not attend the trial.[19] Ten days later, on 26 May 2006, Nur-Pashi Kulayev was sentenced to life imprisonment.[183] Kulayev later disappeared in the Russian prison system.[184] Following questions about whether Kulayev had been killed or died in prison, Russian government officials said in 2007 that he was alive and awaiting the start of his sentence.[185][clarification needed]
Investigation by federal prosecutors[edit]
Family members of the victims of the attacks have accused the security forces of incompetence, and have demanded that authorities be held accountable. Putin personally promised to the Mothers of Beslan group to hold an "objective investigation". On 26 December 2005, Russian prosecutors investigating the siege on the school declared that authorities had made no mistakes whatsoever.[186]
Torshin's parliamentary commission[edit]
At a press conference with foreign journalists on 6 September 2004, Vladimir Putin rejected the prospect of an open public inquiry, but cautiously agreed with an idea of a parliamentary investigation led by the State Duma, dominated by the pro-Kremlin parties.[187][188]
In November 2004, the Interfax news agency reported Alexander Torshin, head of the parliamentary commission, as saying that there was evidence of involvement by "a foreign intelligence agency" (he declined to say which).[189] On 22 December 2006, the Russian parliamentary commission ended their investigation into the incident. Their report concluded that the number of gunmen who stormed the school was 32 and laid much of the blame on the North Ossetian police, stating that there was a severe shortcoming in security measures, but also criticizing authorities for under-reporting the number of hostages involved.[190] In addition, the commission said the attack on the school was premeditated by Chechen rebel leadership, including the moderate leader Aslan Maskhadov. In another controversial move, the commission claimed that the shoot-out that ended the siege was instigated by the hostage-takers, not security forces.[191] About the "grounded" decision to use flamethowers, Torshin said that "international law does not prohibit using them against terrorists."[192] Ella Kesayeva, an activist who leads a Beslan support group, suggested that the report was meant as a signal that Putin and his circle were no longer interested in having a discussion about the crisis.[75]
On 28 August 2006, Duma member Yuri Savelyev, a member of the federal parliamentary inquiry panel, publicized his own report which he said proves that Russian forces deliberately stormed the school using maximum force. According to Savelyev, a weapons and explosives expert, special forces fired rocket-propelled grenades without warning as a prelude to an armed assault, ignoring apparently ongoing negotiations. In February 2007, two members of the commission (Savelyev and Yuri Ivanov) denounced the investigation as a cover-up, and the Kremlin's official version of events as fabricated. They refused to sign off on the Torshin's report.[73]
Trials of the local police officials[edit]
Three local policemen of the Pravoberezhny District ROVD (district militsiya unit) were the only officials put on trial over the massacre. They were charged with negligence in failing to stop gunmen seizing the school.[193] On 30 May 2007, the Pravoberezhny Court's judge granted an amnesty to them. In response, a group of dozens of local women rioted and ransacked the courtroom by smashing windows, overturning furniture, and tearing down a Russian flag. Victims' groups said the trial had been a whitewash designed to protect their superiors from blame.[194] The victims of the siege said they would appeal against the court judgement.[195]
In June 2007, a court in Kabardino-Balkaria charged two Malgobeksky District ROVD police officials, Mukhazhir Yevloyev and Akhmed Kotiyev, with negligence, accusing them of failing to prevent the attackers from setting up their training and staging camp in Ingushetia. The two pleaded innocent,[196] and were acquitted in October 2007. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court of Ingushetia in March 2008. The victims said they would appeal the decision to the European Court for Human Rights.[197]
Criticism of the Russian government[edit]
Allegations of incompetence and rights violations[edit]
The handling of the siege by Vladimir Putin's administration was criticized by a number of observers and grassroots organizations, amongst them Mothers of Beslan and Voice of Beslan.[198] Soon after the crisis, the independent MP Vladimir Ryzhkov blamed "the top leadership" of Russia.[199] Initially, the European Union also criticized the response.[200]
Critics, including Beslan residents who survived the attack and relatives of the victims, focused on allegations that the storming of the school was ruthless. They cite the use of heavy weapons, such as tanks and Shmel rocket flamethrowers.[80][201][202] Their usage was officially confirmed.[203] The Shmel is a type of thermobaric weapon, described by a source associated with the US military as "just about the most vicious weapon you can imagine – igniting the air, sucking the oxygen out of an enclosed area and creating a massive pressure wave crushing anything unfortunate enough to have lived through the conflagration."[11] Pavel Felgenhauer has gone further and accused the government of also firing rockets from an Mi-24 attack helicopter,[204] a claim that the authorities deny.[80] Some human rights activists claim that at least 80% of the hostages were killed by indiscriminate Russian fire.[7] According to Felgenhauer, "It was not a hostage rescue operation... but an army operation aimed at wiping out the terrorists."[80] David Satter of the Hudson Institute said the incident "presents a chilling portrait of the Russian leadership and its total disregard for human life".[89]
The provincial government and police were criticised by the locals for having allowed the attack to take place, especially since police roadblocks on the way to Beslan were removed shortly before the attack.[205] Many blamed rampant corruption that allowed the attackers to bribe their way through the checkpoints; in fact, this was even what they had openly boasted to their hostages.[66][206][207] Others say the militants took the back roads used by smugglers in collusion with the police.[208] Yulia Latynina alleged that Major Gurazhev was captured after he approached the militants' truck to demand a bribe for what he thought was an oil-smuggling operation.[209] It was also alleged the federal police knew of the time and place of the planned attack; according to internal police documents obtained by Novaya Gazeta, the Moscow MVD knew about the hostage taking four hours in advance, having learned this from a militant captured in Chechnya.[7][210] According to Basayev, the road to Beslan was cleared of roadblocks because the FSB planned to ambush the group later, believing the rebels' aim was to seize the parliament of North Ossetia in Vladikavkaz.
Critics also charged that the authorities did not organize the siege properly, including failing to keep the scene secure from entry by civilians,[211] while the emergency services were not prepared during the 52 hours of the crisis.[5] The Russian government has been also heavily criticized by many of the local people who, days and even months after the siege, did not know whether their children were alive or dead, as the hospitals were isolated from the outside world.[clarification needed] Two months after the crisis, human remains and identity documents were found by a local driver, Muran Katsanov,[11] in the garbage landfill at the outskirts of Beslan; the discovery prompted further outrage.[212][213]
In addition, there were serious accusations that federal officials had not earnestly tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers (including the alleged threat from Moscow to arrest President Dzasokhov if he came to negotiate) and deliberately provided incorrect and inconsistent reports of the situation to the media.
Independent reports[edit]
The report by Yuri Savelyev, a dissenting parliamentary investigator and one of Russia's leading rocket scientists, placed the responsibility for the final massacre on actions of the Russian forces and the highest-placed officials in the federal government.[214] Savelyev's 2006 report, devoting 280 pages to determining responsibility for the initial blast, concludes that the authorities decided to storm the school building, but wanted to create the impression they were acting in response to actions taken by the terrorists.[74][note 9] Savelyev, the only expert on the physics of combustion on the commission, accused Torshin of "deliberate falsification".[89]
A separate public inquiry by the North Ossetian parliament (headed by Kesayev) concluded on 29 November 2005 that both local and federal law enforcement mishandled the situation.[77]
European Court complaint[edit]
On 26 June 2007, 89 relatives of victims lodged a joint complaint against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The applicants say their rights were violated both during the hostage-taking and the trials that followed.[196][215] The case was brought by over 400 Russians.[216]
In an April 2017 judgement that supported the prosecutors, the court deemed that Russia's failure to act on "sufficient" evidence about a likely attack on a North Ossetia school had violated the "right to life" guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. The court stated the error was made worse by the Russian use of "indiscriminate force."[217] Result were published in April 2017, and found that Russian actions in using tank cannons, flame-throwers and grenade launchers "contributed to the casualties among the hostages", and had "not been compatible with the requirement under Article 2 that lethal force be used 'no more than [is] absolutely necessary." The report also said that "The authorities had been in possession of sufficiently specific information of a planned terrorist attack in the area, linked to an educational institution," "nevertheless, not enough had been done to disrupt the terrorists meeting and preparing," or to warn schools or the public.[216][218][219]
The ECHR court in Strasbourg ordered Russia to pay €2.9m in damages and €88,000 in legal costs. The Court's findings were rejected by the Russian Government.[216][220] Although obligated to accept the ruling because it is a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Kremlin called the ruling "absolutely unacceptable."[217] The Russian government challenged it in a higher chamber: it argued that several of the court's conclusions were "not backed up", but ultimately agreed to the ruling after the complaints were rejected by the Strasbourg-based court.[221]
Alleged threats, disinformation and suppression of information[edit]
See also: Russian government censorship of Chechnya coverage § Beslan hostage crisis
Russian television reporting and false information[edit]
In opposition to the coverage on foreign television news channels (such as CNN and the BBC), the crisis was not broadcast live by the three major state-owned Russian television networks.[111] The two main state-owned broadcasters, Channel One and Rossiya, did not interrupt their regular programming following the school seizure.[199] After explosions and gunfire started on the third day, NTV Russia shifted away from the scenes of mayhem to broadcast a World War II soap opera.[52] According to the Ekho Moskvy ("Echo of Moscow") radio station, 92% of the people polled said that Russian TV channels concealed parts of information.[98]
Russian state-controlled television only reported official information about the number of hostages during the course of the crisis. The figure of 354 people was persistently given, initially reported by Lev Dzugayev (the press secretary of Dzasokhov)[note 10][222] and Valery Andreyev (the chief of the republican FSB). It was later claimed that Dzugayev only disseminated information given to him by "Russian presidential staff who were located in Beslan from September 1".[63] Torshin laid the blame squarely at Andreyev, for whom he reserved special scorn.[223]
The deliberately false figure had grave consequences for the treatment of the hostages by their angered captors (the hostage-takers were reported saying, "Maybe we should kill enough of you to get down to that number") and contributed to the declaration of a "hunger strike".[41][190] One inquiry has suggested that it may have prompted the militants to kill the group of male hostages shot on the first day.[223] The government disinformation also sparked incidents of violence by the local residents, aware of the real numbers, against the members of Russian and foreign media.[98]
On 8 September 2004, several leading Russian and international human rights organizations – including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Memorial, and Moscow Helsinki Group – issued a joint statement in which they pointed out the responsibility that Russian authorities bore in disseminating false information:
We are also seriously concerned with the fact that authorities concealed the true scale of the crisis by, inter alia, misinforming Russian society about the number of hostages. We call on Russian authorities to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances of the Beslan events which should include an examination of how authorities informed the whole society and the families of the hostages. We call on making the results of such an investigation public."[98]
The Moscow daily tabloid Moskovskij Komsomolets ran a rubric headlined "Chronicle of Lies", detailing various initial reports put out by government officials about the hostage taking, which later turned out to be false.[105]
Incidents involving Russian and foreign journalists[edit]
The late Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had negotiated during the 2002 Moscow siege, was twice prevented by the authorities from boarding a flight. When she eventually succeeded, she fell into a coma after being poisoned aboard an aeroplane bound to Rostov-on-Don.[98][224] American journalist Larisa Alexandrovna of The Raw Story has suggested that Politkovskaya might have been later murdered in Moscow because she had discovered evidence of the Russian government's complicity in Beslan.[225]
According to the report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), several correspondents were detained or otherwise harassed after arriving in Beslan (including Russians Anna Gorbatova and Oksana Semyonova from Novye Izvestia, Madina Shavlokhova from Moskovskij Komsomolets, Elena Milashina from Novaya Gazeta, and Simon Ostrovskiy from The Moscow Times). Several foreign journalists were also briefly detained, including a group of journalists from the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza, French Libération, and British The Guardian. Many foreign journalists were exposed to pressure from the security forces and materials were confiscated from TV crews ZDF and ARD (Germany), AP Television News (USA), and Rustavi 2 (Georgia). The crew of Rustavi 2 was arrested; the Georgian Minister of Health said that the correspondent Nana Lezhava, who had been kept for five days in the Russian pre-trial detention centers, had been poisoned with dangerous psychotropic drugs (like Politkovskaya, Lezhava had passed out after being given a cup of tea). The crew from another Georgian TV channel, Mze, was expelled from Beslan.[98]
Raf Shakirov, chief editor of the Russia's leading newspaper, Izvestia, was forced to resign after criticism by the major shareholders of both style and content of the issue of 4 September 2004.[226] In contrast to the less emotional coverage by other Russian newspapers, Izvestia had featured large pictures of dead or injured hostages. It also expressed doubts about the government's version of events.[227]
Secret video materials[edit]
The video tape made by the hostage-takers and given to Ruslan Aushev on the second day was declared by the officials as being "blank".[228] Aushev himself did not watch the tape before he handed it to government agents. A fragment of tape shot by the hostage-takers was shown on Russian NTV television several days after the crisis.[229] Another fragment of a tape shot by the hostage-takers was acquired by media and publicised in January 2005.[34][206]
In July 2007, the Mothers of Beslan asked the FSB to declassify video and audio archives on Beslan, saying there should be no secrets in the investigation.[230] They did not receive any official answer to this request.[231] However, the Mothers received an anonymous video, which they disclosed saying it might prove that the Russian security forces started the massacre by firing rocket-propelled grenades on the besieged building.[232] The film had been kept secret by the authorities for nearly three years before being officially released by the Mothers on 4 September 2007.[233][234] The graphic film apparently shows the prosecutors and military experts surveying the unexploded shrapnel-based bombs of the militants and structural damage in the school in Beslan shortly after the massacre. Footage shows a large hole in the wall of the sports hall, with a man saying, "The hole in the wall is not from this [kind of] explosion. Apparently someone fired [there]," adding that many victims bear no sign of shrapnel wounds. In another scene filmed next morning, a uniformed investigator points out that most of the IEDs in the school actually did not go off, and then points out a hole in the floor which he calls a "puncture of an explosive character".[235]
Conspiracy theories[edit]
Several hostage-takers, including one of the leaders, Vladimir Khodov, had been previously involved in terrorist activities, but released from government custody prior to the attack despite their high profiles. According to a publication in Novaya Gazeta, "the so-called Beslan terrorists were agents of our own special forces – UBOP [Center for Countering Extremism] and FSB."[236] According to FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian secret services must have been aware of the plot beforehand, and therefore they themselves must have organised the attack as a false flag operation. He said that the previously arrested terrorists only would have been freed if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under a strict surveillance regime that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed.[237] According to Mothers of Beslan and Ella Kesayeva, the hostage taking might have been an "inside job", citing the fact that the militants had planted weapons in the school prior to the incident.[238] In September 2007, Taimuraz Chedzhemov, the lawyer representing the Mothers of Beslan, who was seeking to prosecute Russian officials over the massacre, said he had withdrawn from the case because of an anonymous death threat to his family. He said he believed the death threat was linked to a decision by the group he represented to name senior officials involved in the chaotic rescue operation whom they want put on trial.[239]
Government response[edit]
In general, the criticism was rejected by the Russian government. President Vladimir Putin specifically dismissed the foreign criticism as Cold War mentality and said that the West wants to "pull the strings so that Russia won't raise its head."[111]
The Russian government defended the use of tanks and other heavy weaponry, arguing that it was used only after surviving hostages escaped from the school. However, this contradicts the eyewitness accounts, including by the reporters and former hostages.[240] According to the survivors and other witnesses, many hostages were seriously wounded and could not possibly escape by themselves, while others were kept by the militants as human shields and moved through the building.[58]
Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Nikolai Shepel, acting as deputy prosecutor at the trial of Kulayev, found no fault with the security forces in handling the siege, "According to the conclusions of the investigation, the expert commission did not find any violations that could be responsible for the harmful consequences."[29][241] Shepel acknowledged that commandos fired flamethrowers, but said this could not have sparked the fire that caused most of the deaths;[84] he also said that the troops did not use napalm during the attack.[13]
To address doubts, Putin launched a Duma parliamentary investigation led by Alexander Torshin,[242] resulting in the report which criticised the federal government only indirectly[243] and instead put blame for "a whole number of blunders and shortcomings" on local authorities.[244] The findings of the federal and the North Ossetian commissions differed widely in many main aspects.[74] Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov, sent by Putin in September 2005 to investigate the circumstances, concluded on 30 September that "the actions of the military personnel were justified, and there are no grounds to open a criminal investigation."[245]
In 2005, previously unreleased documents by the national commission in Moscow were made available to Der Spiegel. According to the paper, "instead of calling for self-criticism in the wake of the disaster, the commission recommended the Russian government to crack down harder."[2]
Dismissals and trials[edit]
Three local top officials resigned in the aftermath of the tragedy:[note 11][246]
North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev resigned shortly after the crisis, saying that after what happened in Beslan, he "[didn't] have the right to occupy this post as an officer and a man."[94][247]
Valery Andreyev, the chief of the Ossetia's FSB, also submitted his resignation soon after. However, he was later elevated to the prestigious position of Deputy Rector of FSB Academy.[48][248]
Alexander Dzasokhov, the president of North Ossetia, resigned his post on 31 May 2005, after a series of demonstrations against him in Beslan and public pressure from Mothers of Beslan on Putin to have him dismissed.[105][249]
Five Ossetian and Ingush police officers were tried in the local courts; all of them were subsequently amnestied or acquitted in 2007. As of December 2009, none of the Russian federal officials suffered consequences in connection with the Beslan events.
Other incidents and controversies[edit]
Escalation of the Ingush-Ossetian hostility[edit]
Nur-Pashi Kulayev claimed that attacking a school and targeting mothers and young children was not merely coincidental, but was deliberately designed for maximum outrage with the purpose of igniting a wider war in the Caucasus. According to Kulayev, the attackers hoped that the mostly Orthodox Ossetians would attack their mostly Muslim Ingush and Chechen neighbours to seek revenge, encouraging ethnic and religious hatred and strife throughout the North Caucasus.[250] North Ossetia and Ingushetia had previously been involved in a brief but bloody conflict in 1992 over disputed land in the North Ossetian Prigorodny District, leaving up to 1,000 dead and some 40,000 to 60,000 displaced persons, mostly Ingush.[40] Indeed, shortly after the Beslan massacre, 3,000 people demonstrated in Vladikavkaz calling for revenge against the ethnic Ingush.[40]
The expected backlash against neighbouring nations failed to materialise on a massive scale. In one noted incident, a group of ethnic Ossetian soldiers led by a Russian officer detained two Chechen Spetsnaz soldiers and executed one of them.[251] In July 2007, the office of the presidential envoy for the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak announced that a North Ossetian armed group engaged in abductions as retaliation for the Beslan school hostage-taking.[40][101][252] FSB Lieutenant Colonel Alikhan Kalimatov, sent from Moscow to investigate these cases, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in September 2007.[253]
Grabovoy affair and the charges against Beslan activists[edit]
In September 2005, the self-proclaimed faith healer and miracle-maker Grigory Grabovoy promised he could resurrect the murdered children. Grabovoy was arrested and indicted of fraud in April 2006, amidst the accusations that he was being used by the government as a tool to discredit the Mothers of Beslan.[254]
In January 2008, the Voice of Beslan group, which in the previous year had been court-ordered to disband, was charged by Russian prosecutors with "extremism" for their appeals in 2005 to the European Parliament to help establish an international investigation.[202][255][256] This was soon followed with other charges, some of them relating to the 2007 court incident. As of February 2008, the group was charged in total of four different criminal cases.[257]
Memorial[edit]
Russian Patriarch Alexius II's plans to build an Orthodox church as part of the Beslan monument have caused a serious conflict between the Orthodox Church and the leadership of the Russian Muslims in 2007.[258] Beslan victims organizations also spoke against the project and many in Beslan want the ruins of the school to be preserved, opposing the government plan of its demolition to begin with.[259]
International response[edit]
Main article: International response to the Beslan school siege
The attack at Beslan was met with international abhorrence and universal condemnation. Countries and charities around the world donated to funds set up to assist the families and children that were involved in the Beslan crisis.
At the end of 2004, the International Foundation For Terror Act Victims had raised over $1.2 million with a goal of $10 million.[260] The Israeli government offered help in rehabilitating freed hostages, and during Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's visit to China in November 2005, the Chinese Health Ministry announced that they were sending doctors to Beslan, and offered free medical care to any of the victims who still needed treatment.[261] The then mayor of Croatia's capital Zagreb, Vlasta Pavić, offered free vacations to the Adriatic Sea to the Beslan children.[262]
On 1 September 2005, UNICEF marked the first anniversary of the Beslan school tragedy by calling on all adults to shield children from war and conflict.[263]
Maria Sharapova and many other female Russian tennis players wore black ribbons during the 2004 US Open in memory of the tragedy.
In August 2005, two new schools were built in Beslan, paid for by the Moscow government.[264]
Media portrayal[edit]
Films[edit]
Children of Beslan (2005), a HBO Documentary Films and BBC co-production, produced and directed by Ewa Ewart and Leslie Woodhead, nominated in three different categories under the 2006 Emmy Award festival, and awarded the Royal Television Society prize in the category Best Single Documentary. It also won a Peabody Award in 2005.[265]
The Beslan Siege (2005), a TV-documentary by October Films, directed by Richard Alwyn and produced by Liana Pomeranzev, won the Prix Italia Documentary Award for 2006[266]
Return to Beslan (Terug naar Beslan) (2005) A Dutch documentary produced by Netherlands Public Broadcasting, won an Emmy Award in 2005 for "Best Continuing News Coverage"[267]
Three Days in September (2006), directed by Joe Halderman and narrated by Julia Roberts[268]
Beslan (in development but later shelved), a proposed feature film that was set to be produced by Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment.[269]
"The First Day At School" by The Tangent[citation needed]
"Black Widow's Eyes" by The Who[270]
"Living Shields" by After Forever[271]
"Prayer for Beslan" by PFR[citation needed]
"Beslan" by Vitas[citation needed]
"Why?" by Geir Rönning[citation needed]
"Boys and Girls" by Angelica Agurbash[citation needed]
"Know them by name" by Yuri Strelkin
Books[edit]
House of Meetings, by Martin Amis, references this massacre several times, in part to show how deeply skeptical Russian citizens were of government-disseminated information.
Beslan: The Tragedy of School Number 1 by Timothy Phillips[272]
Innocent Targets: When Terrorism Comes to School is a school terrorism textbook that features a chapter dedicated to the incident as well as several other chapters devoted to commentary on the topic in general.[273]
Mother Tongue, by Julie Mayhew, is a fictionalised account following a young woman who lost her sister in the tragedy.[274]
The incident is also mentioned multiple times in novels written by Tom Clancy[citation needed]
Theatre[edit]
Us/Them - ("Wij/Zij") is a production by BRONKS Theatre for a Young Audience first performed in 2015, written and directed by Carly Wijs, which presents a physical storytelling of the crisis from the point of view of two of the students.
Russia portal
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Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis
List of hostage crises
List of massacres in Russia
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Ma'alot massacre
2010 Manila bus hostage crisis
2014 Peshawar school attack
^ Also spelled Khochubarov
^ Not to be confused with the head of the Beslan administration in 2004, also named Vladimir Khodov.
^ Also spelled Magomet
^ Also spelled Mairbek Shebikhanov
^ Also spelled Isa Torshkhoev
^ Also spelled Bay Ala
^ Also spelled Tsokiev
^ Also spelled Maryam
^ These allegations are discussed in more detail elsewhere in this article.
^ After the crisis, Dzugayev was promoted and a made minister for culture and mass communications of the republic.
^ President Zyazikov of Ingushetia was forced to resign in 2008 but for unrelated reasons: the death of oppositionist journalist Magomed Yevloyev, who was shot in police detention.
^ a b c "Woman injured in 2004 Russian siege dies". The Boston Globe. 8 December 2006. Archived from the original on 17 October 2007. Retrieved 9 January 2007. [...]bringing the total death toll to 334, a Beslan activist said.[...]Two other former hostages died of their wounds last year and another died last August, which had brought the overall death toll to 333 -- a figure that does not include the hostage-takers.
^ a b c The Beslan Aftermath: New Papers Critical of Russian Security Forces, Der Spiegel, 4 July 2005.
^ Beslan mothers' futile quest for relief, BBC News, 4 June 2005.
^ Beslan School Massacre One Year Later Archived 13 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Department of State, 31 August 2005
^ a b c Putin's legacy is a massacre, say the mothers of Beslan, The Independent, 26 February 2008.
^ a b 31 August 2006: Beslan – Two Years On, UNICEF
^ a b c d e f g h i The Truth About Beslan. What Putin's government is covering up., by David Satter, The Weekly Standard, 13 November 2006, Volume 012, Issue 09.
^ a b "Putin meets angry Beslan mothers". BBC News. 2 September 2005. Retrieved 28 July 2006. Of those who died, 186 were children.
^ a b c Chechnya Vow Cast a Long Shadow The Moscow Times, 26 February 2008.
^ a b Russia 'impeded media' in Beslan, BBC News, 16 September 2004.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n ACHING TO KNOW, Los Angeles Times, 27 August 2005.
^ Beslan's unanswered questions Archived 14 June 2006 at the Wayback Machine, International Herald Tribune, 30 May 2006.
^ a b c d Beslan siege still a mystery, BBC News, 2 September 2005.
^ "One Year Later, Beslan's School Tragedy Still Haunts". The Boston Globe. 2 September 2005.
^ a b c Insurgents seize school in Russia and hold scores, The New York Times, 2 September 2004.
^ a b c d e f g h i j When hell came calling at Beslan's School No 1, The Guardian, 5 September 2004.
^ Kulaev trial further erodes official version of Beslan Archived 29 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, The Jamestown Foundation, 22 June 2005.
^ a b Beslan still a raw nerve for Russia, BBC News, 1 September 2006.
^ a b c d e f g h The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-Terrorism, Prospect Magazine, July 2006.
^ "Mr. John and the Day of Knowledge". Peace Corps. Archived from the original on 3 October 2006. Retrieved 27 March 2007.
^ St. Petersburg in Pictures: The First of September – the Day of Knowledge, City of St. Petersburg
^ a b Officials evade responsibility as death toll remains in doubt, The Jamestown Foundation, 6 October 2004.
^ Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1 ISBN 978-1-862-07993-9 p. 23
^ a b Storm Warnings // Relatives of the Hostages Swear They Won't Let the Special Forces into the School Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant, 3 September 2004.
^ a b Our Native Wiesenthal, The Moscow Times, 9 January 2008.
^ a b "One little boy was shouting: 'Mama!' She couldn't hear him. She was dead". The Daily Telegraph. London. 5 September 2004. Archived from the original on 21 July 2006. Retrieved 28 July 2006.
^ Attackers storm Russian school, BBC News, 1 September 2004.
^ How Beslan is coping one year on Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, 10 September 2007.
^ a b Prosecutors clear authorities in Russian school siege, USA Today, 27 December 2005.
^ a b "Beslan Children Testify". St. Petersburg Times. 26 August 2005. Archived from the original on 19 May 2006. Retrieved 28 July 2006.
^ a b c d "The School". CJ. Chivers, Esquire. June 2006. Archived from the original on 11 November 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Russians are Coming Archived 22 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant, 9 September 2004.
^ a b "Government snipers triggered Beslan bloodbath, court told". CBC News. 1 June 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ a b c New Video Of Beslan School Terror Archived 15 July 2006 at the Wayback Machine, CBS, 21 January 2005.
^ School Is Symbol of Death for Haunted Children of Beslan, The Washington Post, 28 August 2005.
^ "The insurgents, who have taken a school in Beslan, have shot fifteen hostages" (in Russian). YTRU. 2 September 2004. Retrieved 13 August 2006.
^ a b "Killers Set Terms, a Mother Chooses". Los Angeles Times/Pulitzer Prize. 3 September 2004. Archived from the original on 25 September 2006. Retrieved 28 July 2006.
^ Hostages murder detailed report Archived 28 September 2004 at the Wayback Machine, Caucasus Times, 2 September 2004.
^ "Бывший заложник Беслана рассказал NEWSru.com, что уже после штурма пропали живые дети". NEWSru.com (in Russian). 17 September 2004. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ a b c d e f g h Defenseless Targets, TIME, 5 September 2004.
^ a b c d e f For Russians, Wounds Linger in School Siege, The New York Times, 26 August 2005.
^ The Beslan Massacre: `Accidental' bomb blast was trigger for, Independent on Sunday, 5 September 2004.
^ a b c Communication Breakdown, TIME, 12 September 2004.
^ a b "Beslan terrorists confused Roshal with Rushailo". Russian Information Network. 7 October 2005. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ a b c The Truth About Beslan by Marina Litvinovich
^ "Security Council, in presidential statement, condemns hostage-taking". United Nations. September 2002. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ Talks begin in school siege drama, BBC News, September 2, 2004.
^ a b "The Security Organs of the Russian Federation (Part IV)". Archived from the original on 16 October 2008. Retrieved 3 March 2014. Post-Soviet Armies Newsletter
^ Report: Beslan HQ Was Run by Others Archived 29 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, St. Petersburg Times, 19 April 2005.
^ "Lies provoked terrorists' aggression". Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). 6 September 2004. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
^ "Vladimir Khodov: Where were the Arabs from? Where were the blacks from? And this number – 354 hostages..." Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). 18 October 2004. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
^ a b c E. Hoffman, David (4 September 2004). "Putin's Silence on Crisis Underscores Chilling Trend". The Washington Post. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
^ a b Russia: Recounting The Beslan Hostage Siege – A Chronology, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 9 September 2004.
^ "New Video Of Beslan School Terror". CBS News. 21 January 2005. Archived from the original on 15 July 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ a b Beslan mothers tell Putin: stay away, The Times, 28 August 2005.
^ "Boy in Hostage Videotape Recounts How He Survived the Beslan Ordeal". St. Petersburg Times. 14 September 2004. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Timeline: Russian school siege". BBC News. 3 September 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ a b MARK MacKINNON uncovers the true story of the gruesome hostage-taking at Beslan. Archived 22 February 2017 at the Wayback Machine, The Globe and Mail, 11 September 2004.
^ "Drug addiction among the Beslan terrorists". Pravda Online. 19 November 2004. Archived from the original on 29 October 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Osborn, Andrew (18 October 2004). "Beslan hostage-takers 'were on drugs'". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 16 December 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ Zakayev Was Asked to Assist in Negotiations at the School Archived 27 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Moscow Times, 6 September 2004.
^ New details emerge on Maskhadov's bid to mediate in Beslan, The Jamestown Foundation, 6 January 2006.
^ a b c d e Documents suggest the feds were in charge in Beslan, The Jamestown Foundation, 20 April 2005.
^ a b Who Should We Kill Now, Zarema? Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant, 24 December 2005.
^ a b c Critics Detail Missteps in School Crisis, The New York Times, 17 September 2004.
^ a b c d e Who's To Blame for Beslan?, Slate, 22 July 2005.
^ Russian Report Faults Rescue Efforts in Beslan, The New York Times, 29 November 2005.
^ Kesayev Report Points a Finger in Beslan Archived 17 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The St. Petersburg Times, 9 December 2005.
^ Yelena Milashina (1 September 2014). "Беслан. 10 лет после теракта". Novaya Gazeta. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
^ "Russian forces faulted in Beslan school tragedy". The Christian Science Monitor. 1 September 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ Russia: Independent Beslan Investigation Sparks Controversy, The Jamestown Foundation, 29 August 2006.
^ "Grenades 'caused Beslan tragedy'". BBC News. 29 August 2006. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ a b "Beslan school siege inquiry 'a cover-up'". Sunday Herald. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ a b c d e f g h i Russia: Beslan Reports Compared, The Jamestown Foundation, 3 January 2007.
^ a b Chivers, C. J. (23 December 2006). "Questions Linger as Kremlin Reports on '04 School Siege". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ a b "The Whole World Is Crying", TIME, 12 September 2004.
^ a b Russian military, politicians handled Beslan siege poorly: inquiry head, CBC News, 28 June 2005.
^ Top officials blamed for Beslan, BBC News, 22 December 2004.
^ Beslan Rescue Lacked Direction, Says Ex-FSB Head, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 16 December 2005.
^ a b c d e Flame-throwers used at Beslan siege, The Independent, 24 October 2004.
^ "Soldiers fled, special forces borrowed bullets at siege end". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 September 2004. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ "Russia: Rumors, Theories Still Swirl Around Beslan Tragedy". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 26 October 2004. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ Searching for Traces of "Shmel" in Beslan School Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant, 12 September 2005.
^ a b A Reversal Over Beslan Only Fuels Speculation, The Moscow Times, 21 July 2005.
^ a b c Kulaev trial: The missing Slavic snipers, The Jamestown Foundation, 3 August 2005 (mistake: "RPG-25")
^ Tanks that fired in Beslan were under FSB command, The Jamestown Foundation, 23 November 2005.
^ 'Mondrage' in Beslan: Inside the School Siege, National Public Radio, 31 August 2006.
^ KULAEV TRIAL PROVIDES NEW BESLAN DETAILS, The Jamestown Foundation (North Caucasus Weekly), 16 June 2005.
^ a b c d The Aftermath of Beslan Archived 26 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Hudson Institute, 15 November 2006.
^ What happened in Beslan?, BBC News, 10 September 2004.
^ Kesayev, S. Хронология террористического акта в СОШ № 1 г. Беслана Республики Северная Осетия-Алания (in Russian). PravdaBeslana.ru. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Beslan Militant Calms Down Victims Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant, 17 August 2005.
^ Beslan residents lynch disguised terrorist, Pravda, 10 September 2004.
^ a b c d e Timeline: the Beslan school siege, The Guardian, 6 September 2004.
^ More Than 200 Bodies Recovered From Russian School Archived 20 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, San Diego News, 3 September 2004.
^ Beslan's Hospital Shocked Doctors and Putin Archived 23 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Moscow Times, 20 December 2007.
^ Triggle, Nick (6 September 2004). "The strain on Russia's health service". BBC News. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ a b c d e f Miklós Haraszti (16 September 2004). "Report on Russian media coverage of the Beslan tragedy: Access to information and journalists' working conditions" (PDF). Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ On medical workers having phones removed Archived 5 April 2005 at the Wayback Machine, Gazeta.ru, 4 September 2004. Machine-translated by http://www.online-translator.com
^ "120 funerals in one day for Russian town". CBS News. 6 September 2004. Archived from the original on 21 March 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ a b Frantic search for missing as Beslan begins to bury its dead, The Guardian, 6 September 2004.
^ "Психиатры борются за жизнь бывших заложников ("Psychiatrists struggle for a life of former hostages")". Kommersant (in Russian). 10 September 2004. Archived from the original on 14 November 2005. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Putin overture angers Beslan mothers, The Times, 30 August 2005.
^ Inside the horror of Russia's Beslan school, The Age, 9 September 2004.
^ a b c d Russia: Putin Rejects Open Inquiry Into Beslan Tragedy As Critical Voices Mount, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 7 September 2004.
^ 10,000 rounded up in Moscow terrorist hunt, The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2004.
^ Милиционеры избили космонавта за "чеченскую" фамилию (in Russian). 10 September 2004. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
^ "How to end terrorism in Russia?" (in Russian). 16 September 2004.
^ The Beslan Massacre Archived 14 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ Russian Duma backs Putin reforms, BBC News, 29 October 2004.
^ a b c "A Deafening Silence". The Moscow Times. 12 October 2007. Archived from the original on 25 December 2007.
^ After Beslan, the Media in Shackles 4 September 2006.
^ Fuller, Liz. "Are Ingushetia, North Ossetia on the Verge of New Hostilities?", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 28 March 2006.
^ Fred Weir, "Russia Struggles to Keep Its Grip on the Caucasus", The Christian Science Monitor, 13 September 2005.
^ Alan Tskhurbayev and Valery Dzutsev, 'Fear and Tension in Siege Town', IWPR Caucasus Reporting Service, 2 September 2004.
^ Pape, Robert A.; O'Rourke, Lindsey; McDermit, Jenna (31 March 2010). "What Makes Chechen Women So Dangerous?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 April 2010.
^ Under a 'Crying' Sky, Beslan's Dead Are Laid to Rest, The Washington Post, 7 September 2004.
^ Torshin report, p. 169. "Неопознанных тел не осталось."
^ "В память о погибших... Мы помним - О событиях." City of Beslan. Retrieved on January 30, 2018. "Результатом этого чудовищного террористического акта стало 335 человеческих жизней,[...]"
^ a b c d e Russian Domestic Policy: July–September 2004, British Defence Academy Archived 8 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ a b "Full list of victims of Beslan in Moscow hospitals (Word doc)" (DOC). 23 September 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Latest Follow Up on Beslan Children". PR Web. 7 October 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Children in the Russian Federation (Word Doc)". UNICEF. 16 November 2004. Archived from the original (DOC) on 25 June 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "One year after siege, Beslan's children still need help". UNICEF. September 2005. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Monument to special forces and rescuers unveiled in Beslan Archived 25 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, NEWS.rin.ru, 2 September 2006.
^ "Exclude from the casualties list". FSB. January 2007. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
^ "Beslan's tragic end: Spontaneous or planned?". 18 October 2004. Archived from the original on 20 October 2004. Retrieved 16 September 2006.
^ After School Siege, Russia Also Mourns Secret Heroes, The New York Times, 13 September 2004.
^ На этом этапе мы должны быть бдительны (in Russian). Radio Mayak. 8 September 2004. Archived from the original on 6 January 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
^ Russia: On Beslan, Putin Looks Beyond Chechnya, Sees International Terror, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 7 September 2004.
^ Chechnya: 'War on terror' legends debunked[permanent dead link]
^ a b "Putin: Western governments soft on terror". American Foreign Policy Council. 17 September 2004. Archived from the original on 19 November 2005. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Chechen 'claims Beslan attack'". CNN. 17 September 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ a b c Excerpts: Basayev claims Beslan, BBC News, 17 September 2004.
^ We're going to do it again, says man behind Beslan bloodbath The Times, 3 February 2005.
^ No Terrorist Acts in Russia Since Beslan: Whom to Thank?, The Jamestown Foundation, 24 May 2007.
^ Beslan massacre chief promoted The Independent, 27 August 2005.
^ Obituary: Aslan Maskhadov, BBC News, 8 March 2005.
^ VOA News report, Globalsecurity.org, 14 September 2004.
^ Chechen envoy warns of bloodshed, BBC News, 14 September 2004.
^ Putin's Chechnya options narrow, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 September 2004.
^ Chechen leader Maskhadov killed, BBC News, 8 March 2005.
^ Russia buries Maskhadov in secret, BBC News, 22 April 2005.
^ "Beslan militants 'called Middle East'". The Guardian. London. 27 September 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Burke, Jason (3 October 2004). "London mosque link to Beslan". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ See the Torshin report's list of perpetrators; their names are absent.
^ Abu Omar reportedly killed, Jamestown Foundation, 15 December 2005.
^ Two Arrested in Russia for School Hostage Situation Archived 6 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine, EliteTV.com, November 2004.
^ Girl suspected of links with Beslan terrorists released, Prague Watchdog, 2 December 2004.
^ "Interview with hostage ER doctor from SNO". Novaya Gazeta (in Russian). 29 November 2004. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Beslan hostage-takers were allowed to flee, soldier says, The Independent, 9 November 2004.
^ When hell came calling at Beslan's School No 1, The Guardian, 5 September 2004.
^ a b Confusion Surrounds Beslan Band, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 23 September 2004.
^ The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-terrorism ISBN 978-3-838-25608-5 p. 50
^ "Federal commission delivers report on Beslan". Memorial. 28 December 2005. Archived from the original on 13 May 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Negotiating with Terrorists: Strategy, Tactics, and Politics ISBN 978-0-415-56629-2 p. 138
^ "Russian Prosecutor Says International Terrorists Planned Beslan". Mosnews. 12 September 2004.
^ Beslan judge reads witness testimony on third day of trial Archived 18 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine, 18 May 2006.
^ The Investigation is Hitting it on the Head Archived 3 January 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant, 16 September 2004.
^ Beslan militant 'lived to kill again', The Guardian, 26 May 2006.
^ a b Beslan: Russia's 9/11?, Peace in the Caucasus
^ a b Dispatches, Beslan, Channel 4 documentary, 2005.
^ Beslan's Main Terrorist Finally Caught, The Moscow Times, 16 June 2010.
^ Basayev makes major statement, Memorial, 30 August 2005.
^ Special services believe the terrorists had an accomplice in Beslan, Pravda, 6 September 2004.
^ State of Siege: The terror of daily life in Beslan Archived 18 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Village Voice, 5 August 2005.
^ Our children suffered too, say families of the killers, by Sebastian Smith, The Times, 2 September 2005.
^ (in Russian) Опубликованы фотографии террористов, захвативших школу в Беслане Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
^ (in Russian) О работе Парламентской комиссии (материалы средств массовой информации) Archived 25 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Security Council of Russia, November 2005.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Russian) В распоряжении «Новой» — прижизненные фотографии бесланских террористов. Публикуются впервые, Novaya Gazeta, 2005.
^ a b c d e f g h i j k (in Russian) Террористическая война против России (хронология терактов в России) Archived 9 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
^ School hostage-takers released from prison, Russia Journal, 7 September 2004.
^ a b c Terror at Beslan: A Chronicle of On-going Tragedy and a Government's Failed Response Archived 8 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Ridgway.Pitt.edu, 12 March 2007
^ Beslan rogues gallery published, BBC News, 15 September 2004.
^ "Girl, 16, Held in Beslan Investigation". The Moscow Times. Archived from the original on 11 November 2005. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Basaev Directed the Seizure by Phone Archived 28 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Kommersant, 7 September 2004.
^ (in Russian) Неопознанными остаются три жертвы теракта в Беслане (Северная Осетия)
^ Tracing a tragedy, The Guardian, 30 September 2004.
^ Walsh, Nick Paton (22 April 2005). "Russia blames Chechen sisters for suicide bombings". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 January 2018.
^ a b "Algerian-born UK man linked to Beslan attack". Russian and Eurasian Security Network. 4 October 2004. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Ingush ex-cop reportedly among hostage-takers, The Jamestown Foundation, 8 September 2004.
^ "Victims of Beslan hostage crisis demand death penalty to the only arrested terrorist". pravda.ru. 18 May 2006. Archived from the original on 18 June 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Beslan attacker jailed for life". BBC News. 26 May 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Head of Beslan commission to check information on Kulaev's death, Memorial, 5 January 2007.
^ FPES refutes information on Kulaev's death, Memorial, 6 January 2007.
^ "'No mistakes', Beslan report says". BBC News. 26 December 2005. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Putin does not see a link between Chechnya and Beslan". Nezavisimaya Gazeta, cited by kremlin.ru. 8 September 2004. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 20 February 2007.
^ Angry Putin rejects public Beslan inquiry, The Guardian, 7 September 2004.
^ "Foreign intelligence involved in Beslan school capture". Interfax, cited by NEWSru. 27 November 2004. Retrieved 20 February 2007.
^ a b Beefed-up security could have prevented Beslan siege, probe head says, CBC News, 28 December 2005.
^ Rebels blamed for Beslan deaths, BBC News, 22 December 2006.
^ FSB flamethrowers caused no fire at Beslan school, RIA Novosti, 28 December 2005.
^ Hundreds still missing in Beslan, BBC News, 21 September 2004.
^ Amnesty granted to Beslan siege police, Reuters, 29 May 2007.
^ Amnesty act applied to Beslan militiamen will be appealed against, Memorial, 30 May 2007.
^ a b Beslan Mothers Sue in Strasbourg Archived 11 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The Moscow Times, 29 June 2007.
^ Supreme Court upholds acquittal of Ingush militiamen on Beslan events Archived 23 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Caucasian Knot, 6 March 2008.
^ Beslan Mothers Stay In Court All Night, The Moscow Times, 4 May 2007.
^ a b Putin's media censorship, The Telegraph, 7 September 2004.
^ Smith, David (5 September 2004). "EU doubts shatter unity". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 31 July 2006.
^ Beslan Residents Say Forces Used Grenades Archived 26 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, The Moscow Times, 6 April 2005.
^ a b Beslan moms blame Putin, face charges[dead link], Chicago Tribune, 18 January 2008.
^ The sensational statement of the representative of public prosecutor: "Tanks and flame throwers were used during the storm", Novaya Gazeta 7 April 2005 (Pravda Beslana translation/mirror)
^ How The School Was Stormed, Novaya Gazeta, 7 October 2004.
^ Beslan victims talk to Kulayev Archived 19 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Memorial, 7 July 2005.
^ a b Terrorist leader laughs in chilling Beslan video, The Telegraph, 23 January 2005.
^ North Ossetia: Quit While You're Behind, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 9 June 2005.
^ So Much for Glasnost, Slate, 28 December 2005.
^ Too Many Exceptions to Be a Rule Archived 27 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine, The St. Petersburg Times, 29 December 2006.
^ Police Under Fire for Beslan, The Moscow Times, 20 June 2007.
^ Civilians 'began siege shooting', BBC News, 7 September 2004.
^ Victims of Beslan siege found in a rubbish dump, The Times, 26 February 2005.
^ New remains discovered in Beslan: Incompetence or crime?, The Jamestown Foundation, 4 March 2005.
^ Russian's Links to Iran Offer a Case Study in Arms Leak, The New York Times, 10 May 2000.
^ Relatives Of Beslan Victims Apply To European Court, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 26 June 2007.
^ a b c "Russia's Beslan school siege 'failings' breached human rights". Sky News. 13 April 2017.
^ a b https://www.ft.com/content/a241456c-2034-11e7-a454-ab04428977f9
^ "European Court of Human Rights finds 'serious failings' by Russia in Beslan school siege". Straights Times. 13 April 2017.
^ "Serious failings in the response of the Russian authorities to the Beslan attack". Registrar of The European Court of Human Rights. 13 April 2017.
^ "Russia furious at European court's ruling of how it handled Beslan school siege that left 330 dead". South China Morning Post. 13 April 2017.
^ "Russia agrees to accept court ruling on Beslan compensation". Retrieved 3 September 2020.
^ Backslash in Beslan, The Independent, 31 January 2005.
^ a b Beslan siege investigation chief points finger, The Independent, 29 December 2005.
^ On Anna Politkovskaya falling into a coma, Novaya Gazeta, 4 September 2004.
^ Was former KGB agent murdered over false-flag terrorism in Russia?, The Raw Story, 26 November 2006.
^ "The Current for Show September 8, 2004". CBC Radio One. 8 September 2004. Archived from the original on 5 May 2007. Retrieved 14 February 2007.
^ Izvestia, 4 September 2004; "p. 1" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 2" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 3" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 4" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 5" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 6" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 7" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 8" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 9" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 10" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 11" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016. , "p. 12" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 March 2009. Retrieved 1 November 2016.
^ Report: 16 Killed in Russian School Standoff Fox News, 2 September 2004.
^ Russian TV shows school siege terror, BBC News, 8 September 2004.
^ "Beslan Mothers" ask FSB to declassify video and audio archives on Beslan Archived 28 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Memorial, 27 July 2007.
^ No answer from FSB to request of "Beslan Mothers" to declassify the video archive of the tragedy Archived 11 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Caucasian Knot, 14 August 2007.
^ Beslan Mothers Say New Video Refutes Official Version, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 30 July 2007.
^ Video Reopens Debate Over Beslan Attack, The Guardian, 31 July 2007.
^ [Beslan Mothers Release a Film Beslan Mothers Release a Film], The Moscow Times, 4 September 2007.
^ Beslan mothers claim truth of siege covered up, ABC, 29 July 2007.
^ Terrorists or Agents? Strange facts about the Beslan tragedy Archived 7 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Novaya Gazeta, 20 October 2008.
^ A. Litvinenko: "The identities of the terrorists prove 100% the participation of the FSB in the seizure of the school in Beslan", Chechenpress, 8 September 2004.
^ Beslan mothers: Putin is culpable, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 August 2007.
^ Mothers of Beslan dead reject Kremlin promise, 1 September 2007, Reuters
^ Video reopens debate over Beslan attack, Associated Press, 31 July 2007.
^ Probe clears handling of Beslan siege, The Independent, 28 December 2005.
^ "Putin agrees to public inquiry into Beslan siege". CBC News. 10 September 2004. Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 31 July 2006.
^ Beslan siege: The blame Archived 2 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine, International Herald Tribune, 29 December 2005.
^ Finn, Peter (29 December 2005). "New Report Puts Blame on Local Officials In Beslan Siege". The Washington Post. Retrieved 31 July 2006.
^ Russian army cleared over Beslan, BBC News, 20 October 2005.
^ "Putin: 'An attack on our country'". CNN. 4 September 2004. Retrieved 31 July 2006.
^ Hostage town buries its children BBC News, 5 September 2004.
^ "Ex-North Ossetian law-enforcer describes endemic corruption". The Jamestown Foundation. 13 September 2004. Archived from the original on 18 July 2006. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ Beslan mothers trust Putin, demand Dzasakhov's head, The Jamestown Foundation, 24 February 2005.
^ Shermatova, Sanobar (15 October 2004). "Basayev knew there to hit". Moskovskiye Novosti N39 (in Russian). Archived from the original on 18 October 2007. Retrieved 11 September 2007.
^ Armed Clashes Between Federal Military Servicemen and Personnel of Republican Security Agencies Archived 11 March 2008 at the Wayback Machine, Memorial, January 2005.
^ Federal Official suggests Ingush abductions are revenge for Beslan, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 17 July 2007.
^ High-ranking security officer killed in Ingushetia Archived 27 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine, ITAR-TASS, 18 September 2007.
^ "Cult Leader Takes Heat Off Kremlin". The Moscow Times. 28 September 2005. Archived from the original on 1 January 2006.
^ Beslan siege group says faces trial over campaign, Reuters, 10 January 2008.
^ Beslan siege support group charged with extremism, ABC, 13 March 2008.
^ Another case initiated against "Voice of Beslan" Archived 23 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Caucasian Knot, 25 February 2008.
^ Beslan memorial sparks religious tension in North Ossetia, The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2007.
^ Beslan residents are against erection of a temple in the place of the tragedy Archived 1 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Memorial, 17 May 2007.
^ "Frequently Asked Questions". International Foundation for Terror Act Victims. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
^ "China To Offer Treatment To Beslan Survivors". Radio Free Europe. 4 November 2005. Retrieved 29 July 2006.
^ "Bandić zabranio V. Pavić da primi rusko odličje". Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2015.
^ Beslan one year on: UNICEF Calls On Adults to Shield Children from Conflict, UNICEF, 1 September 2005.
^ Memories haunt new Beslan schools, BBC News, 18 August 2005.
^ 65th Annual Peabody Awards, May 2006.
^ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487077/
^ https://web.archive.org/web/20071222204146/http://www.nposales.com/%3Bjsessionid%3D6F9587F1E645E5A07D19F250EBC47ACB?article=3130&template=program
^ https://archive.today/20121217183940/http://www.sho.com/site/threedaysinseptember/home.do
^ Hollywood to film Beslan tragedy, BBC News, 18 May 2006.
^ "The Who-Black Widow's Eyes liner notes". Retrieved 7 November 2014.
^ After Forever|Interview @ Metalmessage Online Magazine
^ Phillips, Timothy (2007). Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1. ISBN 9781862079274.
^ Dorn, Michael Stephen; Dorn, Michael Christopher (2005). Innocent Targets: When Terrorism Comes to School. ISBN 097412401X.
^ Mayhew, Julie (2016). Mother Tongue. ISBN 9781471405945.
"ДОКЛАД Парламентской комиссии по расследованию причин и обстоятель ствсовершения террористического акта в городе Беслане Республики Северная Осетия–Алания 1 – 3 сентября 2004 года." (REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE CAUSES AND CONDITIONS OF THE TERRORISM ACT IN BESLAN, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, September 1–3, 2004) - Text of the Torshin report (in Russian)
Page 188 (PDF p. 188/240) has a list of 25 of the perpetrators
Beslan: Shattered Innocence by Lynn Milburn Lansford (ISBN 1419639951)
Beslan: The Tragedy of School Number 1 by Timothy Phillips (ISBN 1862079277) - Read online
John B. Dunlop. The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-Terrorism / Donald N. Jensen. — Columbia University Press, 2006. — 166 p. — ISBN 9783838256085. — ISBN 3838256085.
The Beslan School Siege and Separatist Terrorism by Michael V. Uschan (preview available)
Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools by John Giduck (ISBN 978-0976775300)
The Beslan Massacre: Myths & Facts by Alexander Burakov (ISBN 978-1500400965)
Adam Dolnik. The siege of Beslan's School No. 1 // Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century: International Perspectives / James J. F. Forest; Praeger Security International. — Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. — Т. 3. — 646 p. — ISBN 9780275990374. — ISBN 0275990370. — ISBN 0275990346. — ISBN 9780275990343.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beslan school hostage crisis.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Beslan school siege
Les archives de Beslan : Database of French and foreign archives devoted to the hostage-taking of School No. 1 in Beslan.
"Tragedy in Beslan. Five years later. We remember…." EMERCOM.
"Beslan school tragedy." Directory of related articles from The Guardian.
"В память о погибших..." City of Beslan. (in Russian)
The School. Feature by C.J. Chivers. Esquire, June 2006, Volume 145, Issue 6. Last Retrieved 16 November 2009.
Chechen rebels' hostage history, BBC News, 1 September 2004
Aching to Know, by Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times, 27 August 2005.
Beslan Timeline: How the School Siege Unfolded, by Kelly McEvers, NPR, 31 August 2006
Pravda Beslana, public investigation of Beslan events (Beslan's Truth, Russian: Правда Беслана).
Voice of Beslan English translation
Hope for Beslan. Last accessed 4 October 2007
Day-by-day transcriptions from criminal trial (in Russian), . machine translation. Last Retrieved 17 July 2006.
Remembering Beslan: A Crime Against Humanity
(in French) French humanitarian association "Solidarité Enfants de Beslan"
Reports[edit]
"Заседание № 202 22.12.2006 ХРОНИКА заседания Государственной Думы 22 декабря 2006 года." Russian Duma. (in Russian) - Transcript of a Duma meeting
McDaniel, Michael C. (Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Lansing, Michigan) and Cali Mortenson Ellis (RAND Graduate School). "The Beslan Hostage Crisis: A Case Study for Emergency Responders." Journal of Applied Security Research, 4:21- 35, 2009.
"Report on Russian media coverage of the Beslan tragedy." Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
"Application no. 26562/07 Emma Lazarovna TAGAYEVA and Others against Russia and 6 other applications (see list appended)."
"Chamber hearing concerning Russian authorities' response to the 2004 terrorist attack on school in Beslan." ECHR 296 (2014) 14.10.2014.
Giel, Dustin James. "The tragedy of Beslan 2004: Was this event a turning point in Russia's approach to counter-terrorism? " (master's degree thesis). University of Leiden. 2015.
Photos and videos[edit]
BBC Footage of the Beslan School Massacre on YouTube
SCHOOL NO. 1. Documentary film by Novaya Gazeta (2019, in Russian).
In pictures. The Beslan School Siege, The Guardian, September 2004.
Russian TV broadcasts siege video, BBC News, 7 September 2004
New Video Of Beslan School Terror, CBS, 21 January 2005
Photo report by the German journalist Christian Kautz, visiting Beslan school at 2005
Beslan. To remember school siege victims, BBC News
"Missing hostages' photos", Novye Izvestia. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com.
Pictures of children, teachers and parents who were killed during the event at the Voice of Beslan website.
Fund for victims of Beslan attack. Last accessed 1 August 2006.
Russian Red Cross Beslan page. Last accessed 1 August 2006.
Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) Beslan page. Last accessed 4 February 2008.
Russian government censorship
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