Time hasn’t solved riddles of Beslan

Oleg Kusov, exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza

North Ossetia will hold mourning events on September, 1-3. They will be devoted to the tragedy which happened in the 1st Beslan school in 2004. The school was taken over on September 1st, 2004, at 9:15 a.m. Armed terrorists intruded on the school’s territory where a celebratory assembly was taking place. Almost all the people were forced to go to a gym hall. On September 3rd at 01:05 p.m. explosions thundered and fire started. A part of the gym hall collapsed, where hostages had been staying for three days. After the first explosions hostages began to escape from the school. The school was chaotically stormed. Not only special services, but also local residents participated in it. As a result of the storm, 334 people were killed, 186 of them were children. Only one terrorist was captured – Nurpashi Kulayev; he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Shamil Basayev stated that he was responsible for the terrorist attack. The investigation of the case, which was started on September 1st, 2004, by the General Prosecution, hasn’t been dismissed yet.

Ten years after the Beslan terrorist attack is a landmark which provides answers to many questions. For example, it concerns the so-called main case. Formally the investigation continues, but people in Beslan don’t hope that it will ever end. Moreover, the main question has no answer – why explosions took place and fire started. Deputy Yuri Savelyev tried to answer the question, but his arguments were not officially recognized; while the General Prosecution’s version – terrorist exploded their bombs and shells – is not confirmed by convincing arguments.

Is there a guarantee that such a situation won’t happen in Russia again, including the North Caucasus? There is a reason for optimism. Of course nobody can give such a guarantee, but the fact that this tragedy was the last in Russia gives us a hope. According to data of Andrei Vashenko, an expert on Caucasus problems, two parliamentary commissions on the Beslan terrorist attack played a big role in this – the Federal Council and the North Ossetian legislative power. Even though the commissions of Alexander Torshev and Stanislav Kasayev didn’t answer public questions, they collected a huge number of materials on the terrorist attack, which are kept in secret by the authorities. The MPs managed to find out many paradoxical facts, and this was a kind of preventive measure against terrorist attacks in the Caucasus. For example, it turned out that ahead of the terrorist attack the authorities of North Ossetia dismissed the police group which was responsible for guarding the border with Ingushetia – the terrorist group came from this republic. The step was made for internal reasons, but it made the terrorists’ arrival in Beslan easy. At the same time, officials and police staff were not punished for this, but the experience was considered.

The other fact was that on the day when the school was attacked, there was another group of terrorists in North Ossetia, which had to take over an administrative building (the Republican House of the Government). The terrorists probably planned to make a dummy manoeuvre, but we cannot exclude an attempt to attack the leadership of the republic to paralyze North Ossetia. However, according to some data, on September 1st the leaders of the militants ordered their staff to leave Vladikavkaz.

Why did the terrorists choose Beslan as a target? There are many views on this. According to one of them, terrorists who had devoted their lives to struggling against Russia and its political supporters in the region wanted to attack the ethnic consciousness of the Ossetians, who are thought to be the most pro-Russian nation in the North Caucasus. Beslan is a real major Ossetian town, as Vladikavkaz and Mazdok used to be Russian fortresses in the past. Beslan gave birth to many well-known Ossetian cultural and social activists. The importance of the town in the spiritual life of the Ossetians is great. Beslan is the second capital of the republic. Today this is the gate to North Ossetia, a major airport and railway station are situated there.

Probably I exaggerate the importance of Beslan, as this is my native town. I was raised in the suburbs of the town, in a village near the Beslan Corn Integrated Plant which was built in the 1930s by American and Belgian experts who were invited to the Soviet Union. Residents of neighboring villages were shocked when they saw a new wonderful village. It was a unique residential area for Ossetia: cottages were surrounded by fruit gardens. All necessary facilities were in the center of the village: a restaurant, consumer service enterprises. There was a park which was built according to the English tradition; it had a pond and a bandstand. There was a music hall and cinema. This was a different life; people in other Ossetian villages were generally farmers. Our village was situated in the western part of Beslan.

There was a unique atmosphere in the town; it was created by two lifestyles – an ethnic and a Western one, which was brought by the American and Belgian architects and builders. Beslan couldn’t be compared with other towns of North Ossetia. People were happy and devoted to their town. But all this has gone. The Beslan terrorist attack dipped the town into everlasting mourning. Many mothers of killed children intend to wear black clothes till the end of their days.

Once residents of Beslan met the former head of the North Ossetian parliamentary commission on investigation of the attack, Stanislav Kesayev. The vice-speaker of the parliament and his colleagues did a lot and found out many facts about the circumstances. People wanted to ask him about the main thing about the terrorist attack. But the vice-speaker couldn’t tell them it, as he couldn’t make statements before publishing a final report.

“When will the whole truth about the terrorist attack in Beslan be known?” one of the residents asked Kesayev.

“Do you mean the absolutely whole truth?” he asked in turn.

“Yes!”

“Not during our lifetime,” Kesayev answered.

Nobody doubts this in Beslan, marking ten years of the tragedy.