26 July 2005, 10:11
Beslan victims give evidence
People who suffered in the course of the terrorist act in school No 1 in Beslan continue to give evidence at North Ossetia's Supreme Court that hears the case of Nurpasha Kulayev, the only surviving participant in the attack.
Most victims who spoke today maintain that the terrorists were disposed to hold talks on 1 and 2 September. "The terrorists were waiting for talks. I remember Khodov (a terrorist - ed.) running about the hall, the rebels called him Abdullah. He was drawing up lists of hostages under seven. To tell the truth, I thought they would let at least those children go," one of the victims said, quoted by Gazeta.ru.
Those interrogated continue to describe the seizure and subsequent onslaught on the school paying increasingly more attention to the latter. Zhanna Dzeboyev with her daughter spent three September days in the school. "We were running from the school during the onslaught, going over people who were disfigured, but still alive. This was prior to the large, third blast. There were so many wounded children. One man stood up, he was all over in blood, and said, perplexed, 'Hey, what is that going on here.' But they all burnt down, burnt down alive," Caucasian Knot's correspondent cites Ms Dzeboyev.
"When I heard loud claps, I thought balloons started to burst," she told about the beginning of the seizure. "I understood what was going on when the rebels had driven us into the school. Two women, suicide bombers, were already in the corridor there, with handguns. The rebels were many. Very many. They stood outdoors and inside the school. Literally in the first minutes of the school seizure they killed a man who was trying to calm down the crying children. One rebel ran up to him and shouted, 'So, you are the smartest one here!' and shot him dead with his submachine gun right there. Later, I learnt the surname of the killed man: Betrozov."
"Next they began to take out our men, hostages, in groups. Only two came back: judge Sergei Bziyev and one Armenian whose eye poured out. One terrorist later gave us a lecture. In his monologue, he accused us of that we had not come forward in defence of the Chechen people. Then Aushev came. He came to the hall literally for two minutes. The rebels took out the headmaster following him. When Aushev had gone away, the rebels began to treat us in a very bad way. They were being nervous. They later made the school's military instructor and several other men rip up the floor in several places," Dzeboyev said.
"On the first day they even spoke about releasing some schoolchildren. They wanted to free everyone to the fourth form inclusive. They were drawing up lists. Next, their attitude changed rapidly. It influenced them that the media were speaking about 350 hostages."
Another victim, Irina Midziyev, was in the school with two children. "After they had driven us in, they were mining the hall for 30 minutes or so, not more. All their work was well-coordinated, their organisation was good. I had an impression they all were in a separate room, the rebels in the hall constantly replaced each other."
To the question of the prosecutor about how the terrorists had behaved with respect to the hostages, Ms Midziyev said, "Some of the terrorists behaved quite tolerably, they gave children dates, bubblegum, and sweets. One of them even broke the window for us, so that the air came in better. But at the moment some one of the senior rebels entered whom they obeyed and made him wish so much he had not done that. Then an explosion occurred. And another one following it in a few seconds. This was unexpected to us, hostages, and the rebels, too.
Irina Midziyev remembered defendant Kulayev and told how he gave children biscuits and water. "My opinion is that someone had sent them there and set them up later. Especially after Aushev, they behaved as if they did not know what to do," she recollected. "I saw rebels bring gasmasks in the hall, lots of gasmasks." The victim asked Nurpasha Kulayev about the gasmasks, to which the latter replied in the same quiet and incomprehensible manner, "There were no masks in the vehicle I was going in. The brought them from the first floor."
Larissa Kudziyev who contacted the rebels many times during the seizure was interrogated as a victim. She said the capturers suggested that she should join the ranks of the suicide bombers: "I came to the school with my son and daughter. Now there was shooting, seizure, and we found ourselves in the school. A wounded man was sitting beside me. A rebel had shot him in the arm deliberately, he was bleeding. I began to cry that bandages and water were needed. One rebel saw that and told me, 'Come out and stand in the corner.' I stood up and got entangled in cords when going, so he hit me with his gun butt in the back. I stood in the corner and he pointed the barrel of his submachine gun at me and ordered me to kneel. Then I began to cry what you are doing, your children rest in our sanatoria, your women bear in our hospitals. He said, 'Those are not our children, those are all Kadyrov spawn.' Another rebel noticed our squabble, everyone called him Abdula. He told me, 'Go back, sit down to your place, don't your see what is going on here.'"
Larissa Kudziyev told about the terrorists' demands, about the withdrawal of federal forces from Chechnya and release of all Muslims from prison. "On 2 September, Abdula told me to stand up again and asked me why I wore black and if I was Ingush. To my negative answer, he told me, 'Stand up and put on the suicide bomber belt.' I asked him where their suicide bombers were and he answered, 'Yesterday they tried to attack us and our girls died.' I asked him to give me time to think and sat down. The heat was sticky and nasty on the second day, they didn't give us water, nor let us go to the toilet, and then we saw that some their demands were not fulfilled."
Ms Kudziyev explained to the court that someone Ali was responsible for negotiations among the rebels. "Round about midday the one called Ali said, 'You will be sitting here until the last federal leaves Chechnya. You will have all conditions here, but only if our demands are fulfilled.'"
"By the way, he is not among the killed rebels. He disappeared. He was already away on 2 and 3 September. By the way, Colonel and Ali are two different people. I know that for sure."
"There was an impression on the third day that there were only small fry left. It looked like their actions were dictated to them by phone. I heard one of the terrorist say by phone, 'I cannot decide on this, I am just a press secretary, I will ask Amir.' Then a blast - that no one had expected. I was afraid to open my eyes and see what was up. Other rebels ran into the hall and a second blast occurred. One rebel, Ibrahim by name, demanded that I lead the people out of the hall and pointed to the burning roof. We were going cautiously, afraid to step on dead bodies. In the canteen, they told us to sit down on the floor and were firing in response for a long while."
More and more victims stick to the same opinion that many hostages burnt alive. Today's hearing confirmed that once again. Albina Dzestelov, a former hostage, drew the court's attention to an important detail: "I don't understand why no one said this at once, but after the two explosions I ran out of the hall and I remember quite well a block of fire, five metres or so in size, falling down into the school from the roof. There were many children in the hall at the moment, they were wounded, but still alive, all over in blood, they couldn't stand up and that fire collapsed on them."
Three hundred and thirty people died as a result of the terrorist act in Beslan: 317 hostages, one Beslan resident who took part in rescuing hostages, two officers of the Russian Emergencies Ministry and 10 officers of Russian special forces.
