On April 13, 2017, the ECtHR awarded three million euros to the relatives of those killed in the 2004 Beslan school bombing. There were over 400 applicants in the case. The court found that Russia had failed to provide "satisfactory and convincing evidence" that it used only necessary and proportionate means to save people. Simply put, it was more important for the secret services to destroy the terrorists than to save the hostages. Novaya Gazeta special correspondent Elena Milashina briefly talks about what happened in Beslan in 2004, how the official investigation into the terrorist attack developed, and, finally, why today's decision of the ECtHR in the Beslan case is important for each of us.

On September 1, 2004, a group of terrorists seized school No. 1 in Beslan (the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania) without hindrance. The exact number of attackers has not been established, the official investigation speaks of 32 militants, from the testimony of witnesses it follows that there could be two and a half times more terrorists.

The hostages were 1128 people, most of whom were children.

From August 25 to August 31, 2004, the power structures of North Ossetia, as well as federal power structures, received information about a possible terrorist attack on Ossetian educational institutions, timed to coincide with September 1. A few hours before the capture, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Nurgaliev received operational information about an impending terrorist attack in one of the schools in Beslan, located near the administrative border of North Ossetia and Ingushetia.

However, the Beslan schools were practically not guarded that day, the traffic police officers, who were supposed to serve at the post near school No. 1, were deployed to guard the federal highway in order to ensure the safe passage of the President of North Ossetia, Alexander Dzasokhov. School No. 1 was guarded by an unarmed woman - an employee of the local police department. She was also held hostage.

At 9.20 on September 1, the first information about the hostage-taking appeared. Almost immediately, the authorities (both republican and federal) became aware of the huge number of hostages. At 11 a.m. on September 1, the Prosecutor's Office of the Pravoberezhny District of North Ossetia-A (to which Beslan belongs territorially) opened a criminal case into the capture of more than 600 people. However, on 1, 2 and 3 September, until the start of the military operation, the number of hostages reported by all official structures and state media varied between 120 and 354. Later it turned out that two employees sent from Moscow - an employee of the press service of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov and an employee of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Pyotr Vasiliev. The informational tactics of deliberately underestimating the number of hostages provoked the aggression of the terrorists and influenced their attitude towards people.

On the evening of September 1, deputy directors of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev, Generals Vladimir Pronichev and Vladimir Anisimov, arrived in Beslan, as well as General Alexander Tikhonov, who heads the Special Purpose Center of the FSB of the Russian Federation (Alfa and Vympel groups). It was the FSB generals who took over the real leadership of the operational headquarters of the counter-terrorist operation in Beslan. However, officially the headquarters consisted of Ossetian officials, most of whom did not even know that they were part of this headquarters, and did not make any decisions. The headquarters was headed by the President of North Ossetia, Alexander Dzasokhov, and then by the head of the local UFSB, Valery Andreev. Later, during the investigation and in court, they testified about the true role of the FSB generals in leading the operational headquarters and the counter-terrorist operation.

Despite the fact that the terrorists who took the hostages tried to establish contact with the operational headquarters, put forward their demands and, therefore, were ready to negotiate and release the hostages (on September 2, the former president of the Republic of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, was admitted to the school: he was allowed to be taken out of school 24 hostages), negotiations with them were conducted formally. The negotiator of the Zandionov, who was authorized to conduct them, did not know (testimonies at the trial) either about the demands of the terrorists, or about the number of hostages, or that the terrorists were negotiating with Aushev. Also, he did not know about the release of part of the hostages by Aushev, about the agreements with the terrorists on the removal of the bodies of the dead hostages from the school. With which of the terrorists the official negotiator negotiated, the investigation did not establish. Records of these conversations were not handed over to the investigation.

Dzasokhov, Aushev and Mikhail Gutseriev (an influential oligarch of Ingush origin) on their own initiative began to negotiate with a representative of the Chechen separatists, Akhmed Zakaev, about involving Aslan Maskhadov in the process of releasing the hostages. At that time, Maskhadov was the elected president of independent Ichkeria. Zakayev and Maskhadov agreed to participate in the negotiations if they were guaranteed unhindered access to the school seized by the terrorists. Information about negotiations with Zakayev and Maskhadov appeared on the evening of September 2. On September 3, at 12 noon, Alexander Dzasokhov spoke to the relatives of the hostages and said that new faces should enter the negotiation process. They were supposed to arrive in Beslan in the evening.

Exactly an hour later, at 13.03 and at 13.05 on September 3, two explosions sounded in the gymnasium of school No. 1, after which a military operation began to destroy the terrorists. The investigation claims that the reason for the first explosions in the gym was the detonation of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), with which the terrorists mined the gym. At the same time, the conclusions of three official examinations, which were supposed to answer questions about which IEDs, what power and where exactly exploded, radically contradict each other. The materials of the investigation contain the conclusions of the sappers of the 58th army that the IEDs installed by the terrorists exploded much later under the influence of high temperature - that is, from a fire.

Beslan. After the release of the school. Photo: EPA

The hostages, members of the parliamentary commission of North Ossetia and a member of the federal parliamentary commission, deputy from the Rodina party Yuri Savelyev (former rector of the famous St. Petersburg Voenmekh, doctor of technical sciences, specialist in the field of physics and combustion of explosions) put forward the following version. The reason for the first explosions was the shelling of the gymnasium of the Beslan school from Shmel flamethrowers and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, which are in service with the special forces of the TsSN Alfa and Vympel. This version is confirmed by numerous testimonies and physical evidence. Under the pressure of the facts, the investigation admitted that in the course of the military operation to destroy the terrorists, the FSB special forces used flamethrowers, grenade launchers, as well as tanks of the 58th army and combat helicopters. However, the investigation insisted that weapons of mass destruction were not used to shoot at the gym, they were used exclusively against terrorists, at a time when there were no longer any live hostages in the school.

The investigation also claimed that the hostages died from the first explosions in the gym. However, examinations to establish the causes of the death of the hostages were carried out "by external examination of the bodies", which is a gross violation of the law. Thus, the exact causes of death of the hostages remained unknown.

Also, the official version of the investigation that all the hostages died from the first explosions is refuted by the official protocol of the inspection of the scene (school) conducted by the investigation on September 4, 2004. According to the investigation (and according to the testimony of the hostages), the terrorists mined only the gymnasium of school No. 1. Other premises of the school were not mined. The hostages were initially held in the gym. After the first explosions, the surviving hostages were moved by the terrorists to other premises of the school. After the assault, 116 bodies of dead hostages were found in the gym. In other, non-mined premises of the school, 208 hostages were found dead. That is, most of the hostages died not from the first explosions, but during the assault, when flamethrowers, grenade launchers and tanks were used. These facts are confirmed not only by the testimony of witnesses, including police officers of the Pravoberezhny district, but also by video recording.

The widespread information that after the first explosions the terrorists began to shoot at the backs of the fleeing hostages was not confirmed by anything later.

The military renders first aid to the liberated hostage of the Beslan school, 2004. Photo: EPA

Bullets were not removed from the bodies of the hostages and ballistic examinations were not carried out, however, a detailed, almost minute-by-minute video footage of the Beslan school and the surrounding area, made during the assault, testifies to the lack of evidence of aimed fire at the hostages leaving the blown-up gym on their own.

There was no fire in the gym after the first explosions. The fire began to spread during the subsequent shelling of the school, both by the terrorists and by the special forces of the FSB of the Russian Federation (who were armed with GM-94s that could provoke a fire). The first fires in the gymnasium could be put out with a fire extinguisher (testimony of sappers of the 58th Army), however, FSB General Tikhonov, who led the storming of the school, categorically forbade employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of North Ossetia to go to extinguish the fire. Extinguishing the fire in the gym began only four hours later, when the fire actually destroyed both the traces of the first explosions (including on the roof of the gym) and the bodies of the hostages. Most of the 116 hostages found in the gymnasium were burned to such an extent that it became impossible to establish the real cause of their death (bullet, explosion or fire).

The information that the first explosions were a complete surprise for the operational headquarters, and that the FSB special forces spontaneously rushed to storm the school, is not true.

Two hours after the first explosions, the school was shelled remotely, trying to destroy the terrorists with weapons of mass destruction (grenade launchers, flamethrowers, tanks). The immediate cleansing of the school from terrorists by the forces of the Alpha and Vympel special forces began only at 15.10, when General Tikhonov gave the appropriate command (recorded by the materials of the investigation and the court).

All these years, the victims (hostages and relatives of the victims) tried to force the investigation to investigate facts that refute the official version of events. The information painstakingly collected by the victims testified that the primary task of the authorities on September 1-3, 2004 was precisely the destruction of the terrorists, and not the rescue of the hostages. Victims went through countless judicial instances in Russia without results, but heard them only in the European Court of Human Rights.

Anniversary of the tragedy in the Beslan school. Photo: EPA

Why is the decision of the ECtHR in the Beslan case important for each of us?

Because the court, finally, clearly stated: the hostages have the right to life, and no one can cancel it, justifying it as a “measure of extreme necessity”, without proving in any way that the “extreme necessity” actually existed. Without proving that the hostages in the Beslan school could not have been saved by other means, and the only thing that could be done was to shoot at the school with flamethrowers, grenade launchers and tanks.

Highlights of the ECtHR decision.

Terror attack prevention

Paragraph 491 of the decision. The court concluded that, at least a few days before the seizure of the Beslan school of power had information about terrorist preparations based on the territory of the Malgobek region of Ingushetia, a terrorist attack on educational institutions on September 1. The authorities had a sufficient level of control over the situation and could take measures to reduce the terrorist threat. However, the measures that were taken were clearly not sufficient and disproportionate to this threat and did not contribute to its prevention. The Russian authorities did not do everything possible to prevent the terrorist attack in Beslan and thereby violated the right to life of their citizens (Article 2 of the European Convention).

Investigation into the circumstances of the Shutrem and the causes of the death of the hostages

Item 516: The investigation was unable to collect and record sufficient data on the circumstances of the storming of the first school, which led to fatal (irrecoverable) incompleteness of official data on the circumstances of the tragedy. This, in turn, contributed to a biased and incomplete investigation into the tragedy, which is a serious violation of the State's obligations under Article 2 of the Convention (right to life).

On the preparation of the counter-terrorist operation and the functioning of the operational headquarters

Item 574: The court concluded that the Russian the authorities failed to ensure the proper effective level of leadership of the operational headquarters responsible for planning and organizing the rescue of the hostages. Thus, the Russian state violated the right to life of its citizens.

On the use of grenade launchers, flamethrowers, tanks (weapons of indiscriminate destruction) during the storming of the school

Item 527: The court concluded that the official investigation failed to adequately investigate the need for and consequences of the use of weapons of indiscriminate destruction during the assault schools, as well as to convincingly prove that these weapons were used only to destroy terrorists and not a single hostage died from its use.

Item 599: The court came to the conclusion that the Russian state failed to legislate clearly ensure the priority of the right to life of its citizens in the course of forceful response in the course of counter-terrorist operations. This was expressed in impunity (lack of legal consequences) for those whose decisions and actions to use force were not justified or inadequate in terms of the fundamental obligation of the state to respect and guarantee the right to life of its citizens.

Item 608: The court concluded that the special forces of the FSB of the Russian Federation widely and indiscriminately used weapons of mass destruction during the storming of the school: flamethrowers, grenade launchers, tanks, as well as a huge amount of small arms.

Item 609: The court concluded that the rescue of the hostages is the main goal of the counter-terrorist operation. The mass use of weapons of indiscriminate destruction by state special forces directly contradicts the achievement of this goal and in this case cannot be considered a "measure of extreme necessity."

In 2004, the Day of Knowledge in the North Ossetian Beslan became a day of tragedy for the whole of Russia. School No. 1 was captured by terrorists. 1128 civilians were taken hostage - all of them came to the holiday in honor of the beginning of the school year. For three hundred people, this September 1 was the last.

Careful preparation

The terrorists were preparing for an attack in the summer. The militants chose the building of school No. 1 in Beslan for a number of reasons. First, there were many children there. Secondly, the location of the city relative to the border with Ingushetia played into the hands of the invaders - there were only 30 kilometers from the camp where they were based to the school. The configuration of the school buildings also suited the gang group - new premises were repeatedly added to the building, erected back in 1889, over a hundred years, which made the building very confusing and made it possible for the terrorists to come up with convenient retreat routes in small groups.

According to one version, the gang members hid weapons in the school during the repair work: the labor teacher and the supply manager were repairing the rotten floor, and the militants put part of the arsenal in these cavities. There is no confirmation of this information: eyewitnesses of subsequent events said that they did not see any weapons in the broken floors.

The militants completed the formation of the detachment that was preparing for the attack in August. The leaders of the bandit underground Aslan Maskhadov, Shamil Basayev and Abu Dzeit were engaged in planning. They recruited repeat offenders, criminals, combatants - a total of 32 terrorists, whose commander Ruslan Khuchbarov was chosen. At that time, Khuchbarov was already on the federal wanted list - he was charged with murder.

explosive chain

The summer of 2004 in Beslan turned out to be especially hot. The August heat continued in September, because of which children and parents were warned: the line at the school would begin earlier than usual - not at 10 am, but at 9. Ossetian families went to Knowledge Day in full force: several kindergartens in the city were closed for repairs, therefore, parents were forced to take with them their younger children, who had no one to leave with.

At the same time, terrorists broke into the city. They had two cars - "GAZ-66" and "Seven", which they took away from the district police officer on the way. In the arsenal of the militants there were 22 AKs, 2 RPK-74 machine guns, 2 PKM machine guns, a Kalashnikov tank machine gun, 2 RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launchers and RPG-18 Mukha grenade launchers. The invaders also had medicines and provisions with them.

The militants broke into the school from the side of Shkolny Lane in order to block possible escape routes for civilians. The policemen, seeing what was happening, opened fire to kill, but only one militant was killed. No one will approach his body for another three days. When the corpse turns black, rumors will spread in Beslan that there were African Americans among the invaders.

Members of the illegal armed formations took 1,100 people hostage. Two men were shot during the capture. Children, parents and school staff were herded into the gym, which was located in the center of the school. The phones of the hostages were taken away and they were forbidden to speak their native language: they could only communicate in Russian.

Two dozen civilian men were immediately ordered to barricade the entrances and exits. The terrorists ordered furniture to be moved towards them, and windows to be broken out in order to minimize the chances of law enforcement agencies for a successful gas attack. The corridors of the building were mined with improvised explosive devices made of plastite and submunitions. The gym itself was also filled with bombs - IEDs were hung on basketball hoops. The terrorists could set the explosives in action with the help of pedals, on which they were on duty in shifts until the end of the capture. Later, when the forensics examine the building, they will find numbers on all the bombs and conclude that this is a carefully planned "explosive chain".

The first of the hostages to be shot was Ruslan Betrozov. He broke a taboo - he tried to calm the children who were in captivity in the Ossetian language. Vadim Bolloev was the second to die. He refused to kneel. The militants inflicted injuries on him, from which he died in agony.

Death by correspondence

An hour after the start of the attack, an operational headquarters was formed near school No. 1. At the head was the president of North Ossetia-Alania, Alexander Dzasokhov, who was later replaced by the head of the republican FSB. Residents of neighboring houses were evacuated by order of the security forces, cars were removed from the roads, and the school itself was cordoned off. Nikolai Patrushev, who in those years served as director of the Russian FSB, ordered an emergency dispatch to the reinforcement facility. Special Forces detachments arrived at the scene from Vladikavkaz, Khankala, Moscow and Essentuki. In total, 250 law enforcement officers found themselves outside the school building. The snipers took positions on the rooftops of nearby houses. The headquarters also gave the command to conduct reconnaissance of the area in order to discover possible hidden approaches to the school.

At 11:05 a.m., the terrorists got in touch with the security forces. Not personally: the militants released Larisa Mamitova from school, who delivered a note with demands to the operational headquarters. Mamitova wrote the note under dictation. It followed from the text that the invaders insisted on negotiations with the President of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, as well as Dzasokhov and Rashailo. The hostage confused the name of the last politician on the list with the name of Roshal, so she made a note below - “det. doctor". The phone number given in the note could not be reached.

By 16:30, the number of civilians killed by terrorists reached 21 people. The bodies of the dead were thrown out of the windows by the hostages. For 33-year-old Aslan Kudzaev, this was a salvation: he guessed the moment and jumped out of the window, thus managing to escape. From the next note, handed over by Mamitova, it followed that people were killed because no one called the phone number indicated in the message. The number was listed again.

By evening, Leonid Roshal arrived in Beslan. He tried to negotiate with the terrorists, offered them food and water. The militants refused to talk to the doctor and did not let him into the building.

Festive flowers become food

By the morning of September 2, after an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, the terrorists were offered money and a corridor for a safe retreat. They refused. President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov tried to act through his own connections - he contacted Akhmed Zakaev, one of the leaders of the CRI, who had access to Maskhadov. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya also called Zakayev with a request to contact the organizer of the terrorist attack and convince him to release the hostages. Taimuraz Mamsurov, who in those years served as the representative of the President of Russia in North Ossetia, also turned to Zakayev with a request for assistance. Two of Mamsurov's children were among the hostages.

President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev arrived at the captured school at 16:00 on the second day of the attack. Aushev was the only one who managed to talk to the terrorists. The militants refused to hand over water and food brought by the head of the republic to civilians, and reported that the hostages were voluntarily holding a "dry" hunger strike. By the way, at that time, people were forced to eat flower petals that they brought with them to the holiday, and suck the liquid out of their clothes, the edges of which were lowered into garbage cans. Aushev was able to negotiate the release of 24 hostages. Together with the people, members of the bandit group gave the politician a letter allegedly written by Shamil Basayev. The letter spoke of the possibility of concluding a truce - if the CRI gains independence, the militants promised peace for the Russians and a cessation of hostilities. This principle was referred to in the letter as "independence in exchange for security."

After negotiations with Aushev, hell broke out at the school. The terrorists, threatening to shoot them, forbade the hostages to drink water. Going to the toilet has also become taboo. People were told that there was poison in the water. And offered them to drink their own urine.

"Shoot to the last"

On the third day, the headquarters agreed with the terrorists to take the bodies of those who died on the first day - civilians who were thrown out of the windows after the execution. The invaders made a condition: an open van would come to collect the bodies so that they could see everything that was happening. The condition was accepted. Four rescuers went to the walls of the school, but the terrorists opened fire on them. Dmitry Kormilin was killed immediately. Valery Zamaraev died later from blood loss. Taking advantage of the situation, the hostages, who by that time were already in a fainting state, rushed to run - this was their chance for salvation. The terrorists stopped the attempt with automatic bursts. 29 people died.

The commander of the detachment Khuchbarov gave the order to the members of the group - to shoot back to the last and stop all negotiations, reports trud.ru. After the connection was cut off unilaterally, the security services managed to intercept the conversation of the leader of the group of invaders with Alikhan Merzhoev, a militant of the Ingush Jamaat "Khalifat".

Merzhoev, during the conversation, gave the go-ahead to Khuchbarov's plan. There were explosions at the school.

Liberation

By order of the headquarters, sniper fire was opened on the terrorists. Two combat groups of the FSB advanced to the school building. The liberators entered in three directions - through the dining room, the library and the gym. The militants used the women and children as living lives. At the same time, the evacuation of people began. Everyone participated - the special services, the police, and local residents who did not have weapons. In the assault operation, 10 intelligence officers and 6 civilian rescuers were killed.

There were not enough stretchers for the wounded people - they were made from ladders. There were also not enough ambulances, so people loaded the victims into their cars and took them to the local hospital. Those who received especially serious injuries were taken to Vladikavkaz. In total, more than 700 people were hospitalized, most of whom were children.

The operation to destroy the invaders on September 3 lasted until midnight. The squad was destroyed. Only one militant survived - Nurpasha Kulaev. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and is being held in the Polar Owl special regime colony.

Compared to war

The number of dead could not be calculated immediately - almost two hundred people were considered missing due to the fact that some simply could not be identified. According to the final data, 333 people became victims of the tragedy. 186 of them were children. 111 - relatives and friends of schoolchildren. The terrorist act left 17 teenagers orphans. The statistics did not include relatives of the hostages who could not endure grief and stress - they died due to severe psychological trauma. North Ossetia lost almost as many people in 3 days as in 4 years of the Great Patriotic War - then 357 men died at the front.

On September 6 and 7, 2004, Russia mourned for those who died in school No. 1 in Beslan. A temple is being built next to the building, which became the place of death of children and innocent people.

• © AiF / Evgeny Zinoviev
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  © AiF / Evgeny Zinoviev
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  © AiF / Evgeny Zinoviev
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  © AiF / Evgeny Zinoviev
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After firing indiscriminately into the air, the militants ordered everyone present to enter the school building, but most - mostly high school students and adults - were able to simply run away. Those who could not do it - the elementary school students and their parents and part of the teachers - were driven into the gym by the bandits.

In total, according to the education committee of the Beslan administration, there were 895 students and 59 teachers and technical staff of the school on the line. The number of parents who came to take their children to school is unknown.

In the very first minutes of the seizure, employees of the city police department began to run to the school at the sound of shots. Three people were killed in a chaotic firefight. One body lay at the entrance to the building, the other two - on the roadway near the fence. All the dead are civilians. Throughout the day, the militants did not allow the bodies to be taken away, opening fire when people approached the school.

10:15 am - Vladimir Yakovlev, presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District, confirmed the fact that terrorists had seized a secondary school in the city of Beslan in North Ossetia.

10:40 - The head of the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia, Ismel Shaov, said that the school was seized by 17 terrorists, including men and women equipped with suicide belts. The terrorists got in touch and said that they would put forward some demands in the near future.

10:50 - parents of some children who were taken hostage received calls from their mobile phones. According to preliminary data, shooting was opened in the school building, there are victims among teachers.

At about 11:00 am, the terrorists began to threaten to blow up the school building in the event of an assault.

11:35 am - The terrorists demanded that the President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov, the head of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov and the pediatrician Leonid Roshal be summoned to talks. The note with this demand was handed over by the terrorists through a woman whom they released from the seized school.

At about 11:40 a.m., the details of what happened became known: the terrorists managed to seize a police car with a traffic police major, who, together with a GAZ‑66 car, which contained the entire arsenal of militants, then drove to the school grounds and seized it. The policeman subsequently managed to escape. According to him, there are 17 militants, two of them are female suicide bombers. In addition, they had two dogs with them.

11:50 - head of the press service of the President of North Ossetia Lev Dzugaev said that the militants mined the gym where the hostages are. According to him, several people were able to escape from the school, who said that in front of their eyes, militants armed with grenade launchers and small arms mined the gym.

11:55 - President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov and chairman of the government of the republic Mikhail Shatalov arrived at the school seized by militants.

12:10 - The terrorists who seized the school in Beslan handed over to law enforcement agencies with one of the released hostages a note with the text: "Wait."

About 50 children managed to escape from the captured school. According to some reports, they managed to hide from the bandits at the time of the attack on the school.

12:20 - in connection with the seizure of the school in Beslan, an operational headquarters was formed, headed by the President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov, all the power ministers of the republic were included in the headquarters. Blocked traffic on the federal highway "Kavkaz". All entrances to North Ossetia from adjacent regions are closed. All important objects are taken under enhanced protection. Increased security measures have been taken in all settlements. All educational institutions, including kindergartens, schools and universities, have been taken under enhanced protection. Beslan airport is closed.

12:25 - the terrorists entered into negotiations and handed over a video cassette with a record of what was happening at the school. They also handed over a note in which they demanded the release of the militants who attacked Ingushetia on the night of June 22.

Around 12:30, the operational headquarters for the release of the hostages tried to start negotiations with the terrorists. The shooting near the school stopped.

13:00 - Russian President Vladimir Putin interrupted his vacation in Sochi and returned to Moscow. During the flight, Putin had a telephone conversation with North Ossetian President Alexander Dzasokhov, who briefed the head of state on the situation in the republic. Upon arrival in Moscow, the President of the Russian Federation held a meeting with the security forces at the airport.

In connection with the seizure of a school in Beslan, security measures have been strengthened on the Chechen-Ingush and Chechen-Ossetian sections of the administrative border. Access control has been tightened at all border checkpoints. All vehicles are thoroughly inspected. A general check of documents of citizens is carried out.

13:20 - the militants demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. This demand was contained in a note they threw out of the window.
In the handed note, the terrorists provided a phone number by which they could negotiate, but it was blocked.

13:30 - militants put children taken hostage in the windows of the school to prevent a possible assault on the building. They announced that they would shoot 20 hostages for each killed member of the group and 10 for each wounded.

13:45 - Mufti of North Ossetia Ruslan Valgatov entered the building of the captured school. He tried to enter into dialogue with the terrorists.

At about 13:55, it became known that the video cassette, which the militants handed over to law enforcement officers, turned out to be empty.

14:09 - The terrorists refused to negotiate with Mufti Ruslan Valgasov and Beslan Prosecutor Alan Batagov. They did not let the mufti and the prosecutor inside the school building, and after a 20-minute conversation in the backyard, both returned behind the cordon ring. According to the mufti, the terrorists reiterated that they would only talk to Dzasokhov, Zyazikov and Roshal.

At about 2:30 pm, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev arrived in North Ossetia.

14:45 - militants fired from underbarrel grenade launchers on an armored personnel carrier of law enforcement agencies, which was maneuvering near the school.

As of 15:30, the militants who seized the school are members of the so-called "Ingush jamaat", closely associated with the militants of Shamil Basayev. According to the security officials, the action to seize the school in Beslan was planned in Chechnya by the leaders of the gangs Basayev and Maskhadov, and Doku Umarov, one of the leaders of the gangs operating in Chechnya, can lead this action. Umarov, according to intelligence agencies, led the militants' attack on Ingushetia.

The operational headquarters at the scene reported that several radio stations had been handed over to the terrorists, but the militants had not yet made contact.

At about 3:30 p.m., a fire broke out in the area of ​​the school occupied by the terrorists. A few minutes before the start of the fire, several single shots and a grenade launcher were heard from the side of the captured school. The fire occurred after one of the terrorists set fire to the roof of a neighboring residential building with a burst of tracer bullets.

15:38 - militants threaten to shoot 50 hostages for each killed member of the group and 20 for each wounded, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia said.

15:50 - The Russian Air Force began to deliver special forces units to Beslan.

Around 16:00, a small explosion thundered in the school building.

According to updated data at 17:10, there were probably 300-400 hostages in the captured school. These figures were announced by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia, Kazbek Dzantiev.

18:30 - It is established that 132 children are held hostage.

Around 19:00, the militants themselves got in touch on the mobile phone given to them earlier, and demanded that food and water be handed over to them. This was announced by the head of the Federal Security Service of North Ossetia Valery Andreev. The militants still insist on a meeting with Dr. Roshal. Attitude towards children is "more or less tolerable". Employees of the operational headquarters are trying to negotiate with the terrorists on the transfer of food, medicine and warm clothes for the hostages.

At about 20.00, pediatrician Leonid Roshal arrived at the operational headquarters in Beslan. Negotiations began on the transfer of food.

20:00-21:00 - Lev Dzugaev, a representative of the administration of the President of North Ossetia, said that about 1,000 people, mostly relatives of the hostages, had gathered near the building of the seized school.

The bandits refused to hand over water, food and medicine to the hostages, arguing that the food and medicine might contain psychotropic substances. At the same time, during telephone contacts, the terrorists claimed that everything was fine with the children, and none of them were injured, the children were kept separately from adults, they were taken to the toilet and given water - the school had running water. Negotiations are ongoing.

According to the FSB of North Ossetia at 23:45, about 300 hostages were being held in the school seized by the terrorists.

As of 06:28, 354 people are being held hostage in the Beslan school.

7:40 - the militants refused all offers: they did not take food and medicine, they refused to replace children with adults, they did not accept guarantees of a free corridor to Chechnya or Ingushetia.

8:05 am - Radio station "Echo of Moscow" reported that the relatives of the hostages recorded a video message to Russian President Vladimir Putin. They ask the president to comply with the demands of the terrorists.

9:00-10:00 - on the fact of hostage-taking at school N1 in Beslan, a criminal case was initiated under three articles of the Criminal Code (RF) - "murder", "terrorism", "hostage-taking". This was stated by the head of the Federal Security Service for North Ossetia Valery Andreev.

Law enforcement agencies managed to identify some members of the gang who seized the school in Beslan. This was reported to journalists by the head of the Republican Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for North Ossetia Valery Andreev.

10:45 - Children's doctor Leonid Roshal failed to resume negotiations with the terrorists, which were interrupted at 3 am after the bandits rejected all the proposals of the authorities.

11:10 am - Akram Khazam, head of the Moscow bureau of the Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera, denied information about the channel's intentions to act as an intermediary in negotiations with the militants who seized the school building in North Ossetia. Earlier, Valery Andreev, head of the Republican Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation for North Ossetia, said that the Arab television channels Al-Alam and Al-Jazeera offered their assistance in establishing contact with terrorists.

At about 11:30 a.m., the director of the school, who was among the hostages, phoned the operational headquarters. She reported that all the children are alive and their condition is satisfactory. It was not possible to find out the details.

11:45 am - "12 civilians were killed" in a terrorist attack on a school in Beslan. Such data was given to journalists by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia, Kazbek Dzantiev, who came out to them after a meeting of the operational headquarters. "Data on the number of wounded are being specified, since some of them may be inside the occupied building," he said.

12:00 - technical negotiations are being held with the militants who seized a school building in North Ossetia via mobile communications. This was announced by the Vice-Speaker of the Parliament of North Ossetia Stanislav Kesaev. He noted that according to the information received from the militants, they treat children with restraint, the condition of the children is satisfactory. Food and water were not handed over to the children. Sources in the power structures of North Ossetia do not confirm the words of Kesaev.

13:00 - Head of the Federal Security Service for North Ossetia, Valery Andreev, said that the use of force to solve the problem with hostages at the Beslan school is out of the question. "The question of the use of force is not at present. Long and intensive negotiations are ahead," Andreev said.

13:40 - law enforcement officers detained a suspicious young man in the area of ​​the school captured by militants. According to some reports, this man could be one of the informers of the militants who seized the school. Later it turned out that the detainee had nothing to do with the terrorists. It's just a local.

14:00 - The President of Russia made his first statement. He stated that the main task is to save the life and health of people who were held hostage in Beslan, and the actions of the forces involved in the problem of their release will be subordinated exclusively to this task.

14:10 - President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov announced that negotiations would be intensified after 15:00 and new prominent figures would arrive in Beslan for negotiations.

15:25 - Two powerful explosions thundered near the school building. The terrorists holding the hostages fired grenade launchers at cars parked next to the school. According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, no one was injured in the car fire.

16:15 - An empty bus was driven up to the school building with the hostages. The bus with 50 seats stopped about a hundred meters from the building, already inside the security zone established by law enforcement agencies.

16:37 - The terrorists released a group of 26 women with babies.

The hostages were released largely thanks to the former President of the Republic of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, who managed to conduct successful negotiations with the terrorists.

20:45 - Leonid Roshal said that he is constantly negotiating with a man who calls himself a highlander Shoihu, but he can not agree on the transfer of food, water and medicines to children and adults at school. He added that the terrorists have not yet made specific demands.

00:30 - two explosions thundered in the school area. According to preliminary data, the militants fired two shots from an RGD grenade launcher. A fire broke out in the area where the shells hit, clouds of thick black smoke rise into the sky. Policeman wounded.

At about 01:30 Moscow time, contacts with the terrorists who seized the school in Beslan were suspended on their initiative. This was announced by the press secretary of the President of North Ossetia Lev Dzugaev. At the same time, Dzugaev said that there would be no storming of the school as long as there was an opportunity to release the hostages through negotiations.

According to the information provided by the operational headquarters at 03:00, it was planned to resume negotiations with the terrorists from the early morning. The militants still refused to accept food. Despite this, fresh food was constantly brought to the school in the hope that it could be passed on to the children. The people kept in the gymnasium of the school moved little, saving their strength.

06:30 - two more explosions thundered near the school building, automatic bursts were heard. The representative of the operational headquarters, Lev Dzugaev, said on the air of the NTV channel that militants from grenade launchers were shooting through the square between the captured school and the House of Culture of Beslan. According to Dzugaev, it seemed to the militants that "there is some kind of activity."

06:40 - The released hostages told Russian journalists that over 1,000 hostages could be held at the school, and not 354, as was officially announced on the morning of September 2.

07:30 - the operational headquarters resumed contact with the terrorists. Attempts to establish contact continued throughout the night. This was done only early in the morning. The terrorists have once again been asked to be allowed to deliver food and water to the building, but there has been no progress in resolving this issue.

07:30 - doctor Leonid Roshal said that there is no threat to the lives of children who are in the school building without food and water. “We have eight to nine days left. Today, not a single child is in danger of life, even without water. I am telling you this as a pediatrician,” Roshal assured.

08:15 - Leonid Roshal said that during the day the lists of hostages would be updated. The initial list included 354 names, but later released hostages told reporters that there could be more than 1,000 hostages in the captured school. This information was also confirmed by former President of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev.

11:05 - President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov began a meeting with relatives of the hostages. The meeting was held without the press in the city's House of Culture. Dzasokhov communicated with people in the Ossetian language.

13:00 - Reuters TV channel reported that the evacuation of the bodies of the dead had begun from the school building in Beslan, a car drove up to the school building, into which the bodies of the hostages killed by terrorists would be loaded. It was reported that an agreement was reached on the evacuation of the bodies of those who died during the seizure of the school.

13:04 - Two powerful explosions thundered near the school building. Puffs of black smoke rose from the building. A fierce gunfight began. Shots were fired from the side of the school in an unknown direction. For security reasons, people were pushed back from the cordon zone.

13:15 - A group of hostages escaped from the school building.

13:20 - a fierce battle was going on near the school building. Explosions, shooting from large-caliber weapons and machine guns were heard. The soldiers began to carry the children away from the school.

13:31 - the operational headquarters reported that the terrorists blew up the explosive devices previously installed in the captured school at the time of the evacuation of the bodies of the dead by the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The roof of the school collapsed. The militants fired indiscriminately at people and buildings.

13:32 - Mi-8 combat helicopters appeared in the sky over the site near the school in Beslan.

Around 13:36, dozens of children broke out of the school. Television showed how the evacuated children were hugged by their parents. The children were dressed only in underwear, many of them had no clothes on.

Around 13:37 - Several terrorists ran out of the school and tried to escape, firing indiscriminately around.

13:38 - a group of special forces arrived at the school building in Beslan.

13:50 - according to eyewitnesses, Russian special forces entered the school building.

Dozens of children have been evacuated from a school building in Beslan, and dozens of ambulances are taking out the wounded.

13:55 - Special Forces fought with militants who tried to hide in a residential area near the school. The militants made an attempt to escape from the school to the city, but the fighters of the internal troops blocked their way.

Around 13:56 - the operational headquarters confirmed that special forces soldiers had entered the school building.

14:05 - shooting around the school. SWAT was in the school building. Several escaped militants tried to escape.

Around 14:08 - almost the entire school is under the control of special forces. There were about 100 special forces in the building.

According to preliminary data, at 14:15, 5 militants were killed as a result of a skirmish with special forces.

14:15 - According to eyewitnesses, about 40 more children were taken out of the building of the seized school in Beslan. In addition, many children were able to run out of school on their own. Law enforcement officers put them in cars and sent them to hospitals.

14:26 - shooting around the school, which stopped some time ago, began with renewed vigor. Several shots were fired from the side of the school towards the House of Culture. Helicopters reappeared in the air. Law enforcement officials tried to stop the militants' attempt to escape into the city.

14:30 - Medics with a stretcher entered the school building. Almost the entire school building was under the control of special forces. 158 wounded children have already been delivered to Beslan hospitals.

Around 14:34 - three armored personnel carriers with soldiers on armor drove up to the school building. There is a fierce firefight going on in the neighborhood. Eyewitnesses reported powerful explosions near the school building. Among the special forces there are wounded.

14:40 - the wounded are carried out from the side of the school. To facilitate the evacuation of the wounded, the special forces blasted a hole in the wall of the school building.

14:50 - mobile army hospitals are deployed near the school in Beslan. The evacuation of wounded hostages continues.

2:55 p.m. - Shooting is heard in the school building. It was carried out especially intensively in that part of the school that faced the railroad. Contrary to reports that the militants had left the school, it became clear that some of them were still there and were shooting back. Shots from grenade launchers were heard from the side of the building, return shots were heard from the street.

About 200 wounded hostages were delivered to Beslan hospitals. Seriously wounded hostages were taken to Vladikavkaz.

15:08 - near the operational headquarters in Beslan, police detained an alleged accomplice of the terrorists, who supplied them with information.

15:15 - a small group of militants who managed to escape from the school took refuge in one of the houses within the first cordon ring. SWAT units surrounded the house. Several powerful explosions thundered in the area of ​​the school itself. Smoke was visible above the building.

15:17 - law enforcement officials reported that the area around the school was mined by terrorists. All the hostages have been evacuated from the gymnasium at the school.

15:22 - the house where the terrorists took refuge was shot at by tanks. Combat helicopters loitered in the sky.

15:24 - in the gymnasium of the school, sappers began to clear numerous mines and stretch marks, which are stuffed with bolts and screws to enhance the damaging effect.

15:47 - After the explosion, a fire broke out in the school building. Firefighters and the Ministry of Emergency Situations could not drive up to the school because of the shootout.

15:50 - special forces broke into the building of the school gym. Shooting inside the gym. There was information that there could still be hostages in the gym. The school building was fired upon by snipers from neighboring buildings. "Alpha" and "Vympel" carried out the demining of the school.

15:55 - Shooting at the school building subsided. Shots are heard in the center of Beslan. There is a major fire in the school building where the hostages were held. Due to the cordon ring installed by the security forces, fire trucks cannot drive up to the school building.

Officials said 310 people were injured, of which 180 were children.

16:00 - the police and the military created a transport corridor near the school for the passage of ambulances.

16:10 - The school building is on fire. The source of ignition was observed in the gym, where there were children hostages. Cleanups are underway in the surrounding area.

16:20 - the fight in the school area stopped, rescuers and doctors entered the building.

17:05 - rescuers began preparations for the removal of rubble in the burned-out gymnasium of the school.

17:15 - A suicide bomber was detained at the operational headquarters in Beslan. Dressed in a white coat, the terrorist at first tried to enter the hospital building, however, frightened by the police cordons, she went to the operational headquarters, where she was detained.

17:20 The head of the FSB department for North Ossetia said that the operational headquarters did not plan forceful actions to rescue the hostages at the school in Beslan.

17:25 - The fire in the sports hall of the school in Beslan is extinguished, but mines and stretch marks remained there.

17:40 - Some of the militants sat down in the school annex and continued to offer fierce resistance, the special forces fired at them to kill. Sporadic skirmishes took place with the use of grenade launchers.

18:00 - Shooting continued on the school grounds. The shooting was no longer as active as before, but there were several pockets of resistance.

18:20 - the special services admitted that the seizure of the school in Beslan was carried out on the orders of Basayev. According to preliminary data from the security forces, the operation to seize the school in Beslan was developed by Shamil Basayev, and carried out by Ali Taziyev, nicknamed "Magas".

18:30 - it became known that the leader of the terrorists and his accomplices are blocked in the basement of the school.

As of 18:45, 429 victims of the terrorist act in Beslan were in hospitals. This was reported in the operational headquarters.

19:05 - Fight resumed near the school building.

19:08 - it became known that the terrorists still have children as hostages.

At about 7:10 pm, Aslambek Aslakhanov, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, said that the number of victims of the terrorist attack in Beslan could be much more than 150 people.

20:00 - a strong explosion was heard in one of the buildings of the school complex.

20:05 - more than 50 hostages are released from the school.

20:18 - The FSB announced that among the 20 terrorists killed in Beslan - 9 Arabs and a Negro.

Around 20:25, 556 victims of the terrorist attack in Beslan were already taken to hospitals. According to the operational headquarters, most of the victims had gunshot wounds.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations at 21:00, as a result of the terrorist attack in Beslan, 646 people were hospitalized, of which 332 were children.

21:30 - 79 victims of the terrorist attack in Beslan identified, the operation to free the hostages continues.

22:30 - Commander of the 58th Army, Lieutenant-General Viktor Sobolev, said that tanks were used to destroy the militants. According to him, some bandits were hiding, but the security forces took all measures to neutralize them. Most of the bandits are destroyed. "It is unlikely that any of them left," Sobolev said.

23:10 - the resistance of the militants was suppressed, but four of them managed to escape.

According to the Ministry of Emergency Situations of North Ossetia, 704 people were hospitalized at 23:50. The bodies of 95 dead have been identified.

00:20 - Ministry of Health: more than 200 people died as a result of shelling by militants or died from their wounds, the cause of which was the actuation of explosive devices by militants.

01:45 — According to the Ministry of Health of North Ossetia, 531 victims of the terrorist act in Beslan, including 283 children, remained in medical institutions of the republic. In the past few hours, about 200 victims have been discharged from hospitals.

02:00 - Operational headquarters: 27 militants were killed during the special operation.

According to the operational headquarters at 07:30 Moscow time, the death toll as a result of hostage-taking by terrorists in a school in the city of Beslan reached 250 people.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia at 08:00, more than ten soldiers of special forces died during the operation to free the hostages.

9:35 am - 60 dead bodies are recovered from the rubble of a school in Beslan.

According to investigators, at 11:23 a.m., while preparing a terrorist attack in Beslan, militants disguised themselves as construction teams hid a large arsenal of weapons, ammunition and explosives under the gym back in July.

11:44 a.m. - Bodies of 210 victims of the terrorist attack are recovered from the rubble at the school.

14:40 - 322 people were killed during the capture of a school in Beslan. This was stated by Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Sergei Fridinsky. Among the dead - 155 children.

19:39 - There were 1,181 hostages in the Beslan school. This was announced by a representative of the Ministry of Public Education of North Ossetia.

09:21 - EMERCOM employees completed their work in Beslan. Rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia, who took part in search and rescue operations in Beslan, returned to their places of permanent deployment.

The result of the terrorist action was 334 dead and died from wounds, including 318 hostages, of which 186 were children, as well as 10 employees of the Special Purpose Center of the FSB of the Russian Federation (TsSN FSB of the Russian Federation), two employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, 15 police officers and a resident of Beslan, who received participation in the rescue of hostages.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources

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Department of Life Safety and Civil Defense

Abstract on the topic: "Beslan tragedy"

Discipline: "Life safety"

Introduction

1.1 First day

1.2 Second day

1.3 Third day

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

The problem of terrorism is one of the most acute problems of the modern world. The fight against terror, international cooperation in this area are key issues at all negotiations and top-level meetings. For Russia, which occupies a special geopolitical position, the problem of combating terrorism plays a key role in the life of the country, since in recent years it was in Russia that a large number of terrorist attacks occurred that destabilized the situation in the state. And, perhaps, the most terrible was the seizure of the school in Beslan.

The terrorist act in Beslan is a hostage-taking at school No. 1 in the city of Beslan (North Ossetia), committed by terrorists on the morning of September 1, 2004, during a solemn assembly dedicated to the beginning of the school year. For two and a half days, the terrorists kept more than 1,100 hostages in a mined building (mostly children, their parents and school staff) in the most difficult conditions, denying people even the minimum natural needs.

The lack of major works makes it difficult to study this topic. However, the attack was widely covered in the media, whose assessments of this tragedy vary greatly. To understand and analyze what happened in Beslan in September 2004, one can only study all the versions of the Beslan tragedy and commentaries on them.

Targetwork- Cover the terrorist attack in Beslan.

1. Terrorist attack

1.1 First day

capture

On September 1, 2004, a group of armed militants drove up to the building of School No. 1 in Beslan in a tented GAZ-66 and VAZ-2107. "VAZ" was captured on the way to Beslan in the village of Khurikau from the district police officer Sultan Gurazhev, who was also brought to the school, but then managed to escape. On the site next to the school at that moment there was a line dedicated to the Day of Knowledge, transferred due to the heat from the traditional 10 am to 9 am. Shooting into the air, the terrorists drove more than 1,100 people into the school building - children, their parents and as well as school staff. Several terrorists bypassed the school from School Lane to cut off people's escape route. Despite the environment, according to various estimates, from 50 to 150 people escaped capture - mostly high school students who managed to run out of the yard in the confusion. However, many children of preschool age turned out to be hostages: out of nine Beslan kindergartens, four did not work due to protracted repairs, as a result of which many parents brought their kids with them to the lineup.

During the initial stage of the capture by the terrorists, two men were killed, although one of the local residents managed to shoot one militant. Also, the terrorist Vladimir Khodov received a gunshot wound to the hand, and another terrorist was wounded in the stomach. This was the only act of resistance: police major Fatima Dudiyeva, who was responsible for maintaining public order, was unarmed. The corpse of the militant, having lain on the street for three days, decomposed and turned black to such an extent that there were rumors about the presence of a representative of the Negroid race in the gang.

Most of the hostages were herded into the main gym, while the rest ended up in the gym, showers, and dining room. The terrorists thoroughly knew the plan of the building, which made it possible to capture within a few minutes. Having driven the hostages into the building, the terrorists forced everyone to hand over their photo and video equipment, as well as mobile phones, which they had smashed. Surveillance cameras were installed outside the school, and ammunition, heavy weapons and explosives were unloaded from the GAZ-66. In general, the weapons of the terrorists were at least 22 Kalashnikov assault rifles of various modifications, including those with underbarrel grenade launchers; two Kalashnikov light machine guns; two modernized Kalashnikov machine guns; one machine gun Kalashnikov tank; two RPG-7 hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers and Mukha grenade launchers. The terrorists also had gas masks, first-aid kits and a supply of provisions. beslan terrorist hostage

The next step of the invaders was to barricade the building. For this purpose, they selected about 20 men and high school students, who were forced to pull chairs and desks to the exits and windows. The windows themselves were ordered to be broken: the terrorists initially deprived law enforcement agencies of the opportunity to use gas, as was done when the theater center on Dubrovka was liberated; the only place where the windows remained tightly closed was the gym. At the entrances and in the corridors, improvised explosive devices were installed, made using plastite and ready-made submunitions (metal balls). In the gym, explosives were laid out on chairs (IEDs based on MON-90 with 6 kg of TNT equivalent) and hung on basketball hoops and two cables stretched between them. The wires from the bombs were brought to two closing pedals (the so-called "electric contactors of the unloading action") located at opposite ends of the hall. The terrorists alternated on duty on the pedals throughout the capture. Also, the so-called. "khattabki" - IEDs based on the VOG-17 fragmentation grenade - and at least six IEDs made on the basis of anti-personnel fragmentation mines of circular destruction "OZM-72" industrial production with home-made modifications (in particular, expelling charges were removed and holes drilled for electric detonators). The installation of an explosive chain in the hall and the installation of IEDs in other areas of the school were planned in advance, as evidenced later by the tags with numbers on the wires found by the sappers.

The hostages were ordered to speak only in Russian, and the slightest deviation from the order was cruelly suppressed. The father of two, Ruslan Betrozov, tried to calm the frightened hostages in Ossetian, and was shot dead in front of everyone for public intimidation. Another hostage, Vadim Bolloev, was severely wounded by a gunshot for refusing to kneel and later died. When the hostages began to cry or make noise, the terrorists shot at the ceiling or pulled out a hostage from the crowd, regardless of age and gender, threatening to be shot. Such actions of intimidation were used throughout the entire seizure, along with bullying and insults.

Siege

At 10:30, an operational headquarters was formed near the school, headed by the President of North Ossetia-Alania Alexander Dzasokhov. In this post, Dzasokhov was almost immediately de facto replaced by the head of the FSB for North Ossetia-Alania, Valery Andreev (the official decision on the appointment of Andreev to the post of chief of staff was issued the next day). By that time, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was in Sochi, had been notified of the capture, and he canceled his planned visit to Karachay-Cherkessia and flew to Moscow for an emergency meeting with representatives of law enforcement agencies. The operational headquarters ordered to evacuate the residents of nearby houses, form a cordon by police forces, organize control over radio broadcasts and, without responding to provocative fire from the school, blockade nearby areas, remove all vehicles from the places under fire and block traffic along the Beslan-Vladikavkaz railway.

The first demands of the terrorists were voiced by the hostage Larisa Mamitova, who was released from the school at 11:05. In a note sent from Mamitova, the terrorists demanded negotiations with "Zyazikov" (President of Ingushetia), "Dzasokhov" and "Rashilo". Mamitova wrote a note under dictation and, having heard the name “Rashailo”, decided that it was about Leonid Roshal, so she signed “det. doctor." The phone was also listed with an error, and communication could not be established. The operational headquarters tried to organize negotiations with the terrorists using loudspeakers and without involving the persons they requested. In particular, Mufti of North Ossetia Ruslan Valgasov was involved, but in response to his attempt to establish contact, the militants opened fire.

Between 4 pm and 4.30 pm there was an explosion in the school building and shots were fired. Near the hostages barricading the building, one of the shahids was blown up. As a result of the explosion, a militant who was nearby was seriously injured, and the terrorists shot the hostages who survived in order to avoid potential resistance. The number of people killed was 21 people. After some time, Mamitova again ran out of the building and again handed over the note; this time the number was listed, right. In response to an attempt by a professional negotiator, Vitaly Zangionov, to clarify the situation, the militant, who called himself a Shahid, said that the hostages were killed because the invaders were not contacted by the phone number they had previously transmitted. During a telephone conversation, the terrorists also demanded Aslambek Aslakhanov, adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, to negotiate, but only as part of a group of people previously indicated by them.

The terrorists told the people in the hall that "your people fired at you from a tank." The bodies of those killed were thrown out of the second floor window by the hands of two hostages, one of whom, 33-year-old Aslan Kudzaev, took advantage of the moment to jump out of the window and managed to escape. In addition to Kudzaev, Yuri Aylarov managed to escape: pretending to be dead, he seized the moment and jumped out of the window, under which he stood out of sight of the militants until dark. Also during the day, several more hostages managed to escape: 15 people hid during the capture in the boiler room, and several children managed to escape from the school building. Earlier, during the terrorists' mining of the gym, 35-year-old Vladimir Daurov also escaped, who managed to escape through the exit to the yard from the side of the gym.

In the evening, Dr. Roshal flew to Beslan, who took part in the negotiations during the terrorist attack on Dubrovka in 2002. The terrorists, who were waiting for Rushailo's arrival, refused to let the doctor into the building and accept the water and food offered to him. By that time, the hostages were forced to eat the petals of the flowers they brought and wet their clothes in the occasionally brought garbage cans, sucking out this liquid. But even so, water simply did not reach many.

1.2 Second day

At an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, held on the night of September 1-2, Moscow time, members of the council condemned the act of hostage-taking and demanded their immediate and unconditional release. The demands were ignored; moreover, in the morning, the terrorists gave some of the hostages the opportunity to talk on the phone with their relatives, forcing them to put pressure on the latter to help prevent the storming of the school. The offer of money and the organization of a corridor for a safe exit outside Ossetia, made by the operational headquarters through the well-known Ingush businessman, Mikhail Gutseriev, who was involved in the negotiations, was refused by the terrorists.

On the morning of September 2, the media, referring to the press secretary of Alexander Dzasokhov, Lev Dzugaev, reported that the number of those captured was 354 people. This circumstance subsequently became a source of controversy and disputes.

At about 11 am Alexander Dzasokhov got in touch by phone with Akhmed Zakaev, the vice-president of the CRI who was on the international wanted list and a confidant of Aslan Maskhadov. Dzasokhov asked Zakayev to contact Maskhadov and ask him to fly to Beslan to negotiate with the terrorists. Zakayev replied that he would contact Maskhadov, while noting that his connection with the latter was one-way. Earlier that day, journalist Anna Politkovskaya called Zakayev, also asking him and Maskhadov to mediate the release of the hostages. Separately from the others, Taimuraz Mamsurov, head of the North Ossetian parliament, whose two children were among the hostages, tried to contact Maskhadov. Contacting Maskhadov's representative in Baku, Mamsurov demanded the intervention of the President of the CRI, but despite the representative's promises, he never received a call from Maskhadov.

When I was taken to the gymnasium, what I saw shocked me.

At 4 p.m., the captured school was visited by the former president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, the only one who managed to negotiate with the terrorists face to face. At the request of Aushev to be allowed to give the hostages food and water, the terrorist leader said that the hostages were voluntarily on a dry hunger strike, but agreed to release a group of 24 hostages (mothers with infants). Also with Aushev, the terrorists handed over a note allegedly written by Basayev demanding the withdrawal of federal forces from the Chechen Republic and an offer of a truce "on the principle of independence in exchange for security." In particular, the author of the note demanded the recognition of the independence of the CRI and the observance of freedom of religion in Russia, while promising on behalf of all Muslims in Russia to abandon armed actions against the Russian Federation “for at least 10-15 years”, to become part of the CIS and not with anyone conclude political, military and economic alliances against Russia.

A few hours after Aushev's departure, the terrorists became noticeably embittered: initially releasing the hostages to the toilet and bringing buckets of water to the gym, the militants refused both, forcing the hostages to drink their own urine. Hot weather, stench and lack of ventilation in the hall further aggravated the condition of the hostages: many lost consciousness. When asked to give water, the terrorists replied that it was poisoned: only a few managed to get into the toilet or shower. However, having learned that some of his subordinates give indulgences to the hostages, Khuchbarov ordered to break the taps and threatened to kill anyone who would give the hostages water. According to the recollections of the hostages, the terrorists looked as if they were waiting for an order from outside, but for some reason their plan was thwarted. Attempts by the operational headquarters to deliver water, food and medicine to the hostages continued until the end of the second day, but the militants invariably rejected all proposals.

1.3 The third day

By the morning of the third day, the hostages were exhausted to such an extent that they already reacted poorly to terrorist threats. Many, especially children and diabetics, fainted, while others raved and experienced hallucinations. Outside, around the same time, Dr. Roshal held a meeting with the residents of Beslan at the local Palace of Culture. During the meeting, Roshal mentioned that children can be without water and food for 8-9 days, and stated that "today, there is no threat to life, even without water, not a single child", causing criticism in his address in the future. .

In the hall, the terrorists rewired the explosive chain, in particular, by moving some IEDs from the floor to the walls, and fired several shots from grenade launchers at the nearby area, injuring one policeman.

At about 11:00 Mikhail Gutseriev agreed with the terrorists on the evacuation of the bodies of men thrown out of the window on the first day. At the same time, the militants set the condition that a car without sides would drive up to the building, and the operational headquarters gave the order to prepare the transport. At 12:40 a car with four rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations drove up to the school building, and the rescuers, under the supervision of a militant, began to evacuate the corpses.

At 13:05, two powerful explosions occurred in succession in the gymnasium with an interval of about half a minute, resulting in a partial collapse of the roof.

Immediately after the explosions, the terrorists opened fire on the rescuers. Dmitry Kormilin was killed on the spot, Valery Zamaraev was seriously wounded and then died from blood loss, and the other two rescuers received minor injuries.

A few minutes later, the hostages began to jump out of the windows and run out through the front door into the school yard. The terrorists, who were in the southern wing (which included a canteen and workshops), opened fire on them from automatic weapons and grenade launchers, as a result of which 29 people were killed.

The militants began to transfer the survivors from the gym to the assembly hall and dining room, while many of the hostages, unable to move independently, were finished off by the terrorists with machine guns and grenades.

Five minutes after the first explosions, Valery Andreev gave the order to the TsSN FSB unit to begin an operation to rescue the hostages and neutralize the terrorists. Snipers, who were part of the reconnaissance and surveillance groups, opened aimed fire to defeat the terrorists, covering the evacuation of the hostages, while two operational-combat groups of the TsSN FSB, located at the 58th Army training ground, advanced to Beslan. Fighters of the 58th Army, local policemen and civilians, both armed and unarmed, rushed to the school to evacuate the hostages. Stretchers were in short supply, so the locals made them from whatever material was available, including blankets and portable ladders. There were also not enough ambulances, and Beslan residents took the victims in their own cars to the city hospital, and the most seriously wounded to Vladikavkaz.

At 14:51, the Beslan fire service recorded a fire in the gym, but due to the lack of an order from the operational headquarters, fire brigades began to extinguish the fire only at 15:20, and for the first half an hour the extinguishing was carried out by local residents. The area adjacent to the school was shot through by militants, which limited the access of firefighters to fires and fire hydrants. The fire was extinguished at 21:09, after which firefighters let water into the hall to cool the room in order to prevent re-ignitions.

Storm

The breakthrough of the TsSN FSB fighters into the building was carried out from three main directions: the southern wing (canteen and workshops), a gym and a library. Near the southern wing, the operational-combat groups of the TsSN FSB took up combat positions 25-30 minutes after the first explosions, but the barricaded windows did not allow them to enter the building for more than an hour. At about 13:50, officers of the engineering troops of the 58th Army entered the gym through the windows of the gym and began to clear the premises. At this time, the terrorists fired machine guns and grenade launchers at the gym from the dining room, forcing the hostages to stand on the windows as a "human shield". The order to bring the main group of special forces into the building was given by Alexander Tikhonov, head of the Central Security Service of the FSB, at 15:05.

On the second floor, a group of militants offered fierce resistance, spreading out over equipped firing points in classrooms, corridors and an assembly hall. According to the testimony of the participants in the assault, as in the dining room, the terrorists covered themselves with a “human shield” of children and women, as a result of which many fighters were forced to sacrifice their own lives to save the hostages. Thus, Vympel Major Mikhail Kuznetsov evacuated more than 20 wounded hostages under terrorist fire, but, having received mortal wounds, died later in the evening, and Major Roman Katasonov, rescuing two children, entered into battle with a machine-gun crew of militants. In addition, the uncoordinated actions of a large number of armed civilians, "baptized" by the press as "militias", created a great obstacle for the special forces. Many of them fired indiscriminately at the school building, sometimes even shooting through areas inaccessible to terrorists, risking offending the special forces. Local residents also beat at least four men, including one hostage, who were mistaken for militants. Many Beslan residents and representatives of a number of media who watched the beating regarded what happened as the detention of terrorists.

The operation to eliminate the terrorists lasted almost until midnight. During the operation, the building was hit by 125-mm high-explosive fragmentation shells from the T-72 tank and shots from RPO-A Shmel flamethrowers. The use of flamethrowers and tanks subsequently became one of the most controversial issues regarding the conduct of the assault (for more details, see: Investigation into the circumstances of the terrorist attack in Beslan and Use of tanks and flamethrowers during the assault on SSO No. 1). In particular, the time of use (a number of people claim that tanks and flamethrowers were used while the hostages were in the building) and expediency (a number of people claim that the storming of the building and the fire caused by flamethrowers caused the death of many hostages) were repeatedly disputed.

2. Victims

dead

As a result of the terrorist attack in Beslan, 334 people died, most of them hostages, including 186 children. In the first few days, about 200 people were considered missing, including those who were not identified, but the Ministry of Health denied this claim.

The last victim of the terrorist attack was 33-year-old Elena Avdonina, who died in December 2006, despite the efforts of doctors. In 66 families, from 2 to 6 people died, and 17 children were left completely orphans (relatives of the victims who died as a result of severe psychological trauma are not included in these figures). To assess the scale of the terrorist attack, it is enough to say that during the four years of the Great Patriotic War, Beslan lost 357 men on various fronts.

Also, during the storming of the building, 10 employees of the Central Security Service of the FSB were killed - the largest number of losses during a single operation in the history of Russian special forces. Among the dead were all the commanders of the three assault groups: Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Ilyin, Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Razumovsky (both Vympel) and Major Alexander Perov (Alpha). All three were posthumously presented with the title of "Hero of Russia". Also, this title was posthumously awarded to Vympel lieutenant Andrey Turkin. Rescuing three hostages from an explosion, Turkin covered a grenade thrown by a terrorist with his body.

Rumors that there were 11, not 10, employees of the CSN were based on the fact that the commander of one of the Vympel groups, Vyacheslav Bocharov, was first listed among the dead. During the assault, Bocharov received a bullet wound in the head, as a result of which his face was severely disfigured. A few days later, while in the hospital, Bocharov came to his senses and managed to write his name on a piece of paper. For courage and heroism shown during the assault, Vyacheslav Bocharov was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.

Forensic-medical examination

The forensic medical examination, which included the identification of the dead and the establishment of the causes of death, was carried out in extremely difficult conditions: the district branch of the Bureau of Forensic Medical Examination (BSME) was not ready to receive such a large number of dead, and the bodies were piled up in the open. The lack of coordination of the actions of experts at the initial stage led to errors in the registration and marking of corpses, and the decision to carry out identification before the examination led to great pandemonium in the yard of the BSME. The situation worsened with the worsening of the weather, as a result of which the relatives of the victims began to complain about the lack of elementary conditions for the preservation of the corpses and their identification. The bodies were moved by soldiers under tents and tents, and later into refrigerated trucks, but due to the repeated rough movement of the bodies, this led to the loss of fragments of clothing, shoes and other items important for the identification process. Additional difficulties were caused by the lack of preliminary systematization of search features (the experts focused only on the meager oral information of relatives) and the lack of a single information center (the experts were forced to respond to requests from various departments themselves, being distracted from their main activities).

By September 12, 2004, 329 bodies of the deceased were examined at the BSME, and in 213 cases the following causes of death were established:

From gunshot wounds - 51 (15.5% of the total number of examined)

From shrapnel wounds - 148 (45%)

From thermal burns - 10 (3%)

From damage by blunt objects - 4 (1.2%)

In 116 (35.6%) cases, the cause of death was not established due to pronounced signs of injury from an open flame, up to complete charring of the bodies.

Wounded

By the morning of September 4, hospitals in Beslan and Vladikavkaz had received over 700 wounded, more than half of whom were children. Many of the wounded were evacuated by the aviation of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, accompanied by medical teams of the VTSMK "Zaschita" to various medical centers of federal subordination.

The exact number of those injured in the attack is not known for certain, as examinations were carried out in North Ossetia, Moscow and the Rostov region, as a result of which some victims may have been examined several times. There are no publicly available documents certifying the exact number of examinations, but it is known that the number of wounded exceeded 800 people. Of these, 72 children and 69 adults became disabled.

It should be noted that the severity of the injury was repeatedly reviewed by forensic experts. The most common reasons for reclassifying the severity of harm to health were mental disorders associated with trauma and treatment outcomes. There are also cases when a more severe wound was re-registered as a lighter one, due to the bureaucratic red tape that many former hostages had to face.

The clan society and close ties between neighbors, characteristic of North Ossetia, played a dual role: on the one hand, they created the possibility of emotional and material mutual support. So, none of the orphaned children was sent to an orphanage, all of them were taken in by relatives. On the other hand, elements of the communal way of life contributed to the widespread secondary traumatization, as a result of which an acute condition was observed in many people who were not directly affected and did not lose any of their closest relatives.

Conclusion

The terrorist attack in Beslan is perhaps the most brutal in the history of Russia. The demands of the terrorists are understandable, but unrealistic in execution. I re-read the material several times, watched dozens of videos and listened to a dozen more songs about the Beslan tragedy. But even a few weeks after that, I still could not understand: Why? Why were very young children killed? In the name of Allah? But there were also Muslims among the hostages. And in general, to hell with the god for whom children are killed.

The list of the dead included the names of very young children aged 2-4, well, how could they be to blame for the conflict in Chechnya, they didn’t even know how to speak plainly.

Of the 34 terrorists, only one carries a life sentence, the rest were destroyed during those three days, which became a nightmare for the hostages. All the terrorists were ready to die and were ready to take with them not even dozens, but hundreds of innocent lives.

A few years after the tragedy, it was decided to “mothball” the school building in memory of what happened. At first, they wanted to make an Orthodox church out of the gym, but the victims and their relatives were against it, as a representative of the organization put it: “the hostages were not only Orthodox, but also Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, but we want to make this a place of memory, without religion and politicians". In the same way, Russians and Ossetians lie nearby at the memorial cemetery, because there are no nationalities for death and sorrow.

Bibliography

1. Site "Facts and Myths of Beslan" - http://www.reyndar.org

2. List of hostages who were in school No. 1 in Beslan on September 1-3, 2004 - http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/trigoda/spisok_z.htm

4. Memoirs of the hostage Agunda Vatayeva Day one - http://agunya.livejournal.com/12584.html, Day two - http://agunya.livejournal.com/12906.html, Day three - http://agunya.livejournal .com/13392.html

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Exactly 13 years ago, a tragedy occurred in the city of Beslan - as a result of the capture of one of the schools by Chechen fighters and the ensuing hostilities, several hundred people died. I well remember the September events of those days and how literally everyone followed the developments in Beslan on radio and television.

There is no excuse for people taking hostages (especially children) for some political purpose, but there is also no excuse for the reckless use of military force in releasing hostages. As stated in the code of one of the military special forces of Britain - any military operation to free the hostages is obviously a tragedy, force majeure and the failure of the authorities.

13 years have passed since the Beslan tragedy, several new ones were built instead of the old school No. 1, and the building of the former school itself was turned into a memorial complex, but the investigation of everything that happened there in 2004 still leaves more questions than it answers.

So, in today's post - a brief story about what happened in Beslan in 2004, as well as several questions that have not been answered so far.

02. The hostage-taking took place at school No. 1 in the city of Beslan, it happened on the morning of September 1, 2004 at a solemn line dedicated to the beginning of the school year. The militants captured all 1128 participants in the line, including school staff, children and their parents - the militants simply drove up in cars to the school building, after which they drove everyone inside the building at gunpoint.

03. The school was seized by Chechen militants under the leadership of the well-known commander Shamil Basayev. The detachment was well prepared to capture the building - the militants chose the oldest school in North Ossetia (built in 1889) with a very complex system of corridors - according to the plan of the militants, this was supposed to complicate a possible assault on the building and prevent the use of special equipment like sleeping gas.

04. The seizure of the school itself took place very quickly (the militants knew the plan of the building thoroughly), the hostages were scattered around the gym, gym and showers. All the hostages were forced to hand over their photographic equipment and mobile phones. The militants were preparing for a possible assault and forced 20 men from among the hostages to barricade the windows with chairs, desks and other furniture. Also, all the windows in the building were knocked out in order to make it impossible for a gas attack from the special forces.

05. At 10:30, near the seized school building, the authorities formed an operational headquarters to counter the militants - the school area was cordoned off, nearby areas were blocked, and traffic was blocked. Army special forces began to be drawn to Beslan.

06. The demand of the militants who seized the school (who were handed over in a note along with one of the hostages) was the immediate withdrawal of federal troops from Chechnya and a truce on the principle of "independence in exchange for security." In the event that Chechnya is granted independence, the authors of the note promised an end to all terrorist attacks, Chechnya's joining the CIS and not joining any military, economic or political unions other than Russia.

07. Negotiations with the militants, which lasted several days, did not lead to anything significant. On the third day, the authorities agreed with the militants to evacuate the bodies that had been thrown out of the window on September 1 - on that day (according to one of the versions), a suicide bomber was blown up in the school, after which the bodies of all those who died in this room were thrown out of the window by the militants.

08. At 12:40 a car with an open body drove up to the school building, and four rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations began evacuating the bodies. At 13:05, two powerful explosions thundered in the gym, after which the militants immediately opened fire on the rescuers of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, many hostages began to run away, but the terrorists opened fire on them.

09. After the explosions at the school, the authorities decided to storm the building, the main forces that carried out the assault were the FSB special forces, Alfa and Vympel. The soldiers ran into strong resistance from the militants, in fact, the assault on the school turned into a fierce battle with the use of all available equipment. During the assault, heavy weapons were used - the building was fired from a T-72 tank and Shmel flamethrowers.

According to the official version, heavy weapons were already used when the hostages were taken out of the building, but some researchers of the Beslan tragedy claim that tanks and flamethrowers were fired at the school even when there were hostages inside.

10. As a result of the terrorist attack in Beslan, 333 people died, including 186 children ...

To this day, the tragedy in Beslan is the subject of controversy and discussion, since the official investigation did not provide clear answers to some questions, here are the main ones:

The explosions that thundered in the gym (there were two in total, one after the other) served as a pretext for starting the storming of the school. There are currently three main versions about the cause of the explosions - the first (official) says that the terrorists blew up their explosive devices. Why did they have to do this in the midst of negotiations, what kind of devices they were and where they were - there are no answers.

The second version says that these explosions are the result of special forces shelling the school (from a helicopter or from a tank). And finally, the third version says that these explosions generally occurred much later, after the start of the assault.

2. Who negotiated with the terrorists who seized the school?

It sounds strange, but the investigation has not yet established who exactly negotiated with the militants. On September 2, the terrorists allowed the former president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, to enter the school, who was allowed to take 24 hostages out of the school - mothers with babies.

Further, all negotiations with the terrorists were carried out in fits and starts, and all negotiations with the persons demanded by the militants (President of Ingushetia Murat Zyazikov, President of North Ossetia Alexander Dzasokhov, CIS Executive Secretary Vladimir Rushailo) did not take place. Vitaly Zangionov (chairman of the North Ossetian government) was authorized to conduct "official negotiations" with the terrorists, but in court he stated that he did not know about any demands of the terrorists and did not conduct any negotiations.

In general, who exactly and what negotiated with the terrorists after September 1 has not yet been established.

3. How exactly did the hostages die?

The main version of the investigation, which investigated the Beslan tragedy, says that most of the hostages died precisely because of the explosions that allegedly thundered before the assault. However, 208 bodies of the hostages were found not at all in the mined gym, but in completely different rooms, where the terrorists took the survivors. In an alternative version of events, it is said that most of the hostages died as a result of the assault due to the use of heavy weapons by the special forces and the fire that arose as a result of the assault.

In general, as you can see, the Beslan tragedy leaves a lot of questions to this day.

Do you believe in the official version of everything that happened there?

And if not, when will we find out the truth?