20: Beslan

20 years ago today (September 1, 2004) the Beslan School Siege occurred.

(Hundreds of hostages packed into the school gym with wired explosives attached to the basketball hoop.)

33 Islamist Terrorists took over a School in Beslan, Russia on the first day of classes for the year.

1,000 Hostages (including 777 Children) were taken Hostage for 3 days.

The Terrorists mined the Gym and the rest of the Building with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and surrounded it with tripwires.

 In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill 50 Hostages for every one of their own Members killed by the Police, and to kill 20 Hostages for every Gunman injured.

The Terrorists refused to give the Hostages food, water or medicine.

The Crisis was met with a near-total silence from President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the rest of Russia's Political Leaders.

Only on the second day did Putin make his first public comment on the Siege during a meeting in Moscow with King Abdullah II of Jordan.

In protest, several People at the scene raised signs reading: "Putin! Release our children! Meet their demands!" and "Putin! There are at least 800 hostages!" The locals also said that they would not allow any storming or "poisoning of their children" (an allusion to the 2002 Moscow Nord-Ost Theater Hostage Crisis where Putin ordered the use of a banned Chemical Agent and where 132 Hostages were killed and 700 (out of the 912 Hostages) were wounded and sickened from the Chemical used.)

On the 3rd Day explosions started (it is unclear if it was from the Russian Government or the Terrorists) and set the roof of the Gym on fire, collapsing the roof and killing 160 of the Hostages inside.

Russian Forces then stormed the School.

(Beslan Memorial Cemetery)

The Russians fired 9 powerful Shmel Rockets at the school from the Special Forces' positions.

The use of the Shmel Rockets, classified in Russia as Flamethrowers and in the West as Thermobaric Weapons, was initially denied, but later admitted by the Russian Government.

After the conclusion of the Crisis, many of the injured died before Patients were sent to better-equipped Facilities in Vladikavkaz, as the only Hospital in Beslan was unprepared to deal with the Casualties.

The day after the storming, bulldozers gathered the debris of the building, including the body parts of the Victims, and removed it to a garbage dump – to hide what Putin and his Forces had done.

The handling of the Siege by Vladimir Putin's Administration was criticized by a number of Observers and Grassroots Organizations, among them “Mothers of Beslan” and “Voice of Beslan.”

(Museum of the Terrorist Attack at the School in Beslan.)

334 People (including 186 Children) were killed.

783 Civilians (including Children) were wounded.

The majority of the Children were treated for burns, gunshot injuries, shrapnel wounds and mutilation caused by explosions.

Some had limbs amputated and eyes removed, and many Children were Permanently Disabled.

I was living in Russia at the time of Beslan and only received the Official Russian Government Censured Version of events from TV and the Internet (Foreign Internet Sites were blocked.)

I learned the truth of what happened when I left Russia 3 months later.