As
Russia began three days of events to mark a massacre that horrified the
world, mourning in Beslan and remembrance ceremonies elsewhere in the
country were accompanied by renewed questioning of the role of top
Russian officials in the crisis and accusations of high-level
responsibility and coverup from victims' families.
The bell rang at precisely 9.15am (0515 GMT) and was
followed by Mozart's Requiem played quietly at the site of the attack
as hundreds of people, victims' families and others, gathered to lay
flowers in the ruins of the school's gymnasium where most of the
victims died.
Security was tight and streets in the area around the
destroyed school were cordoned off by police while people were required
to pass through metal detectors to enter the school grounds and walk
outside the gymnasium, where photographs of the victims were posted on
walls.
Rising toll
A young woman who had been in a coma since being
wounded in the crisis died several weeks ago, bringing to 331 the
number of victims killed in the tragedy, 186 of whom were children.
 |
|
Sussana Dudiyeva heads the
Beslan Mother's Committee |
Thirty-one
of the armed men who took more than 1100 people hostage, to demand that
Russian troops pull out of Chechnya, were also killed when the
three-day crisis climaxed in a fierce battle with security forces.
A sole surviving hostage-taker is currently on trial.
The anniversary revived both intense grief and impassioned debate about how the crisis happened and what has been done since.
Relatives of children killed at Beslan, in an open
letter read outside the school ruins by a victim's mother, used the
occasion to lash out at President Vladimir Putin, saying they had lost
any hope of an impartial investigation and asking for asylum abroad.
Putin "sacrificed our children and our loved ones for a dirty policy", the letter read, according to a copy obtained by AFP.
It was signed by dozens of Beslan residents and
stated that they had "lost all hope of learning the truth about the
main people".
Putin meeting
The Russian leader was scheduled to meet face-to-face
at the Kremlin on Friday with a group of victims' mothers who have
demanded that he and other top officials be held to account for the
tragedy, the deadliest hostage-taking in recent memory.
 |
|
Intense grief and impassioned
debate marks the anniversary |
The
Kremlin's special envoy to the volatile North Caucasus region, Dmitry
Kozak, met with some of the family members in Beslan and admitted
afterwards that he had tried to "reassure" them but not to address
their complaints.
Putin meanwhile joined students and faculty at a university, where he led a moment of silence.
"Millions of people in our country and abroad, anyone
with a heart who heard about this terrible catastrophe, of course
remembers this nightmare," Putin said in the southern city of Krasnodar.
"Let us not speak useless words in this situation but
instead observe several seconds of silence. Remember our children,
those who are dead, who were victims of terrorists."
Loved ones
The walls of the Beslan school were draped with red
cloth decorated with white doves, and people circled the school in
small groups, laying flowers and lighting candles beneath the
photographs of their loved ones.
"Why? Why is he dead?" one victim's mother wailed, trying to stanch the flow of her tears with a corner of her headscarf.
At the entrance to the gym, water ran over two black
marble plaques that frame the door in a "wall of tears" as local
residents waited in a long line to visit the ruins of the building,
many of the women dressed in black.
Kozak and provincial leaders were present at the
school, where the crowd of those who came to pay their respects reached
around 1000 people.
 |
|
Nurpachi Kulaiyev is the only
alleged hostage-taker on trial |