Moscow opens art project about Beslan victims

The art project of Yekaterinburg painters named "Beslan", dedicated to the victims of the 2004 terror act in North Ossetia, was opened on September 1 inMoscow and will last in the Marat Gelman's Gallery at the Winery till the evening of September 5. Besides, within the public campaign "Remember Beslan!", by the anniversary of the tragedy, activist published brochures containing the data of the independent investigation into the circumstances of the tragedy.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on September 1, 2004, a grouping of terrorists seized 1128 hostages at the School No. 1 of Beslan. The special operation to free the hostages was completed only on September 3, 2004. 186 children and 148 adults fell victim to the terror act. 12 special agents and one local resident, who helped in freeing the hostages, were killed during the storming of the school building. 810 persons of hostages, FSB special fighters, staff members of the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), and internal troops were injured.

The authors of the brochure "The Truth of Beslan" try to reconstruct the events of the terror act with the use of the information received from witnesses and hostages. Special attention is given to the assault of the school building with tanks, which, according to the authors of the brochure, caused the death of most of the hostages.

The brochure also notes that, according to the official version of the investigation, terrorists arrived in BeslanSchool in two trucks; there were 32 of them; and in the course of the assault only one of them, Nurpasha Kulaev, survived. However, according to testimonies of hostages, there were several militants' capture groups, and they came to the school from different directions in several vehicles.

According to the campaigners "Remember Beslan!", the brochure can be distributed over the Internet and printed by people themselves. It is also possible to receive professionally printed copies of the brochure in Moscow, Saint Petersburg and other cities, and disseminate them free of charge.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.