Remembering Beslan

On September 1, 2004, Beslan's Secondary School Number One was seized by a group of at least 32 Muslim fundamentalist Chechen terrorists intent on setting up a Muslim Emirate in mostly Christian North Caucausus. The siege ended on September 3 with a bloody shootout between the terrorists and Russian security forces. According to official data, 334 civilians were killed, 186 of them children, and hundreds more wounded.

The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre) began when a group of at least ten armed [1] Chechen separatists and supporters took more than 1,200 schoolchildren and adults hostage on September 1, 2004, at School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia-Alania, (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation). On the third day of the standoff, a chaotic gunbattle broke out between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. Three hundred thirty-four (334) civilians were killed,[1] including 186 children,[2] and hundreds more were wounded. Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev took responsibility for the hostage taking.

read this long article from Esquire magazine:

"A grueling, must-read account of the horror that took place in The School at Beslan."

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"Children of Beslan" documentary

part 1/6
part 2/6
part 3/6
part 4/6
part 5/6
part 6/6

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SEPTEMBER 1. AFTERNOON. THE GYM. Kazbek Misikov stared at the bomb hanging above his family. It was a simple device, a plastic bucket packed with explosive paste, nails, and small metal balls. It weighed perhaps eight pounds. The existence of this bomb had become a central focus of his life. If it exploded, Kazbek knew, it would blast shrapnel into the heads of his wife and two sons, and into him as well, killing them all.

Throughout the day he had memorized the bomb, down to the blue electrical wire linking it to the network of explosives the terrorists had strung around them hours before. Now his eyes wandered, panning the crowd of hostages. The majority were children, crouched with their parents and teachers on the basketball court. The temperature had risen with the passing hours, and their impromptu jail had become fetid and stinking with urine and fear. Many children had undressed. Sweat ran down their bare backs."

much more