Three years on from Beslan: Russian mistrust for government’s “truth”
Moscow (AsiaNews) – Public demonstrations and religious ceremonies will mark the third anniversary of the massacre in primary school no. 1 in Beslan, Northern Ossetia. Three years on from the tragedy (1 – 3 September 2004), the victims’ families are still waiting for clarification. Official investigations continue to fail to allow video evidence which indicates the Russian army as responsible for the massacre and one of the organisations committed to shedding light on the event has been outlawed by authorities.
A district court in the southern Russian city of Vladikavkaz on August 25 ruled that “Voice of Beslan” public organization - under its current leadership and with its current membership - was illegitimate. The court withdrew the group's registration and reregistered it with new leaders and members. Voice of Beslan chaired by Ella Kesayeva has been fiercely critical of Russian authorities for their handling of the siege and has called for an international investigation. The group has vowed to appeal the court's decision and says that it will continue its activity.
While the only person to be charged with the slaughter remains the Chechen terrorist, N. Kulaev, public trust in the results of investigations into Beslan continues to slide. According to the data of non-governmental researching organization “Levada Analytical Center” (“Levada-Center”) 81% of Russian citizens to a variable extent do not trust official information about Beslan. Data obtained during the representative poll of 1600 Russians held on 10-13 August 2007 show that only 8% of the population believe that authorities tell the people all the truth about Beslan hostage crisis. It is worth to note that in last three years this figure is decreasing from 13 to 8 percent.
But as Mothers of Beslan organization reports the process is far from the end and officials are not ready to make public all the circumstances of the crisis. In July news agencies reported that relatives of victims of the Beslan school siege have released a video that they say proves Russian security forces caused the massacre by firing grenades on the besieged building. Aneta Gadiyeva, a member of the Beslan Mothers Committee told that the committee is appealing to investigators to watch the video, who upon till now have “pretended it didn’t exist”.
According to the official information 331 people died, among them 317 hostages, 186 of whom were children. 728 hostages and citizens, 55 military men, policemen and emergency services representatives were injured. Hundreds remain missing to this day; there bodies have never been found.
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