La masacre de Beslán tuvo lugar el 3 de septiembre de 2004, dos días después de que un colegio de Beslán, en Osetia del Norte (Rusia), fuera asaltado por terroristas chechenos durante las celebraciones del comienzo del curso escolar.
Tras tres días de tensas e infructuosas negociaciones entre los terroristas y las fuerzas de seguridad Rusas, se inició el asalto al colegio en medio de un terrible caos, en el que participaron también algunos familiares armados de los rehenes. El balance final fue de más de 330 muertos (171 de ellos niños), unos 200 desaparecidos y cientos de heridos. Pocas tragedias conmocionaron tanto al mundo como la masacre de Beslán.
Tras tres días de tensas e infructuosas negociaciones entre los terroristas y las fuerzas de seguridad Rusas, se inició el asalto al colegio en medio de un terrible caos, en el que participaron también algunos familiares armados de los rehenes. El balance final fue de más de 330 muertos (171 de ellos niños), unos 200 desaparecidos y cientos de heridos. Pocas tragedias conmocionaron tanto al mundo como la masacre de Beslán.
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00:00:00You
00:00:30I
00:00:43Mean my name is Daria Fadiba. I'm 16 years. I live in this one. I live in this land
00:00:49And
00:00:58Me Amana, so one of the less rain is de la escuela numero uno
00:01:19I
00:01:30Can't no la encuentro sentido a nada de lo que pasó
00:01:39More than 330 personas muertas
00:01:47Muchos de ellos niños
00:01:49And
00:01:52We'll move the near alchemy in this escuela
00:01:56So I'll yank a conocían this tragedy affect o a todo el mundo a todos
00:02:07El mundo no había vivido nada igual nunca
00:02:09That's
00:02:16Russian once a Serrano, that's that's a way
00:02:23The suffering end of way was indescribable
00:02:39And I was thinking to people the persona put a giver a cable an action como esta no encuentro respuesta
00:02:51por que lo harán
00:02:56Porque soy incapaz de imaginarlo
00:03:01Why
00:03:09Oh
00:03:39Oh
00:04:09Oh
00:04:23This one was really friendly place beslam era una ciudad muy acogedora
00:04:27our town was
00:04:29realmente especial
00:04:31comparada con las demás
00:04:36No es muy grande así que
00:04:39Todo el mundo se conoce y era un lugar muy agradable para vivir
00:04:43porque había mucha variedad de nacionalidades y religiones
00:04:47Todas conviviendo en paz
00:04:52Era un lugar muy feliz
00:05:08El primer día de clase el 1 de septiembre es siempre una celebración
00:05:13Se le llama el día del conocimiento
00:05:15En toda Rusia los padres van con sus hijos al colegio y les llevan globos y regalos a los profesores
00:05:33Es un gran día en Rusia
00:05:35Todo el mundo espera con ilusión el primer día de curso además
00:05:40a los niños les encanta celebrar el primer día de clase de sus vidas
00:05:46Daria Fadiva cursa el último curso de la enseñanza secundaria
00:05:50El primer curso lo estudió en Euless, Texas justo a las afueras de Dallas como estudiante de intercambio
00:05:57Cuando se fue a Texas dejó en Rusia a su hermana pequeña de 12 años Alia
00:06:03Tenía tanta vida
00:06:06Le gustaba escribir poemas, incluso escribió un libro que editó ella misma
00:06:12Hice incluso las ilustraciones
00:06:17El 1 de septiembre de 2004 el sol brillaba y hacía calor
00:06:22Daria ayudó a Alia a prepararse para su primer día de sexto curso
00:06:27Estaba emocionadísima
00:06:30Deseando ver a sus amigas y conocer a sus compañeros
00:06:33We were preparing for this day
00:06:35Llevábamos
00:06:37todo el verano preparándonos para ese día
00:06:39Mi madre le había comprado ropa y se iba a hacer un peinado especial
00:06:43Yo la ayudé a hacérselo
00:06:48Estaba guapísima
00:06:52Le dije que luego la veía y la vi bajar las escaleras se fue al colegio sola
00:07:04Alia se dirigía a la escuela número uno de Beslán
00:07:10La escuela llevaba allí más de 100 años
00:07:13y las clases abarcaban los 11 primeros años de educación escolar lo cual supone un total de unos 900 alumnos
00:07:21Escondidos en el bosque no muy lejos de Beslán un grupo de 30 hombres y mujeres preparaban su arsenal de armas y ponían rumbo a la escuela número uno de Beslán
00:07:51Estábamos ensayando canciones para los niños sobre la infancia que termina y la nueva fase de la vida que empieza
00:08:02Los niños deben entrar al colegio cuando empieza la canción
00:08:13Elena Kosomova es una de las profesoras más queridas del colegio y la subdirectora
00:08:18Ella es la persona a cargo de las celebraciones del primer día de clase todos los años
00:08:26Su propio hijo Timor de nueve años empezaba tercero
00:08:34Preparamos el día del conocimiento con mucho cariño porque para los del primer curso es también el primer día de clase en sus vidas y lo van a recordar siempre
00:08:42Una de esas alumnas de primero era Alana Zandarova, era la primera vez que pisaba la escuela
00:08:56Alana estaba deseando ir al colegio, yo quería esperar hasta el año siguiente porque era muy pequeña, solo tenía seis años, pero ella me dijo que no, que quería ir ya
00:09:07La madre de Alana, Zalina, llevó también a su hijo de dos años, Alan, para celebrar el primer día de colegio de su hermana
00:09:18Con los pies y los palos, con la cabeza y los brazos, con cuatro manos y seis ojos
00:09:35Mi mujer y yo estábamos muy ilusionados, me temblaban las manos de alegría porque mi niña empezaba el colegio
00:09:43La hija de Sergei Urmanov, que también se llamaba Zalina, asistió a la ceremonia llena de felicidad
00:09:51Se fue al colegio con su mejor amiga, hacía cinco días que habían celebrado su cumpleaños, y llevaban un cartel que decía, la primera vez en primero
00:10:02Llevaban también globos y les hice una foto
00:10:04Mientras los niños se encontraban con sus padres, una enorme furgoneta llegó a la entrada de la escuela número uno de Beslan
00:10:18Eran alrededor de las 9 y 20 de la mañana
00:10:21En este vídeo casero vemos a los niños justo antes del inicio de la ceremonia
00:10:35En ese momento oí como unos reventones detrás de mí
00:10:42Un grupo de hombres y mujeres armados con pistolas, granadas y bombas, entró a la escuela por esta puerta, empujando a padres, alumnos y profesores hacia el interior
00:10:53Un guardia de seguridad y un policía fueron asesinados en ese mismo momento
00:10:58Otro grupo de terroristas corrió hacia este patio en el que se reunían cientos de padres con sus hijos, y se desató la tragedia
00:11:15Hubo un tiroteo muy descontrolado, dispararon al aire, cuando corríamos hacia el gimnasio, dispararon al suelo
00:11:23No podría decir si dispararon contra gente, porque no lo vi
00:11:28Fue aterrador, hundió un intenso pánico, el tiroteo no cesaba
00:11:39Alina Zandarova también fue empujada hasta el gimnasio con sus dos hijos
00:11:44Cuando todo empezó, Alana me preguntó si así era como se celebraba el 1 de septiembre
00:11:57Fue aterrador
00:12:00Me acuerdo con miedo, de que cuando les vi las caras a los terroristas, pensé que nadie iba a salir de allí vivo
00:12:14Casi todos los alumnos de los cursos superiores lograron escapar, porque para la ceremonia los habíamos colocado en fila, al lado de la puerta
00:12:34Fueron los más pequeños los que no pudieron salir
00:12:43Fui a la peluquería a ver a mi madre, habíamos quedado allí, y entonces oí como una explosión, pero no me asusté
00:12:52De repente mi madre salió corriendo y me dijo que habían secuestrado a la escuela número uno
00:13:14Me empujaron dentro, y empezaron a perseguir a los niños que corrían hacia la entrada
00:13:22Yo trataba de ayudarles a escapar, rompiendo las ventanas y sacándolos
00:13:29Me acuerdo de que volvieron a la escuela, pero no pudieron salir
00:13:35Yo trataba de ayudarles a escapar, rompiendo las ventanas y sacándolos
00:13:42Me acuerdo de que pude sacar a la mujer de mi hermano
00:13:47Luego nos obligaron a ir al gimnasio
00:13:50Mi mujer estaba conmigo, pero no encontrábamos a nuestra hija
00:14:04Encontré a mi hijo entre un grupo de niños en un pasillo, cerca del gimnasio, y logré cogerlo de la mano para llevarlo conmigo hasta allí
00:14:15Estaba llorando y gritando, preguntándome qué pasaba
00:14:20¿Nos van a matar a todos?
00:14:24Todos los niños estaban igual
00:14:29Cuando llegamos al gimnasio nos sentaron
00:14:33Nos trataron muy mal, empujándonos con las culatas de los rifles
00:14:38Nos dijeron que todos éramos rehenes
00:14:43Conté a unas 16 personas, incluidas dos mujeres terroristas suicidas
00:14:49Esta gente fue la que entró en el gimnasio con nosotros, y nos vigilaba
00:14:56No dejaban de hablar de la muerte, de que nadie saldría vivo
00:15:01Decía que habían ido allí a morir, y que nosotros moriríamos con ellos
00:15:12La noticia del secuestro enseguida se extendió por todo Beslán, una ciudad de apenas 34.000 habitantes
00:15:22La milicia local, junto con ciudadanos armados, enseguida pensó en asaltar el colegio
00:15:27Casi todo el mundo conocía a alguien que estaba dentro
00:15:33Pero los francotiradores de los terroristas disparaban a cualquiera que se acercaba
00:15:51Daria Fadiba fue corriendo hacia la escuela con su madre
00:15:55En ese momento nadie sabía aún qué pasaba exactamente, ni qué les habría ocurrido a sus hijos
00:16:01Nosotras tampoco sabíamos lo que habría pasado a Alia
00:16:05Mi madre se puso a llorar, se arrepentía de haberla dejado ir sola
00:16:10Como otras muchas veces, yo pensé que tenía que estar ahí con ella
00:16:15Eso fue lo que pensé, y que si me dejaran cambiarme por ella, lo haría
00:16:24La noticia del ataque terrorista también llegó a Moscú, a 1.600 kilómetros de distancia
00:16:42Me llamo Dmitri Beliakov, y soy reportero fotográfico freelance
00:16:50Aquel día era también muy importante para mí
00:16:54Yo mismo estaba con mi mujer y mi hijo en el colegio
00:16:59Lo habíamos llevado juntos, y estando en el patio, me sonó el teléfono
00:17:08Un amigo me preguntó si me había enterado
00:17:11Me contó lo que estaba pasando, salí corriendo a casa
00:17:16Metí mis cosas en una maleta y me fui al aeropuerto
00:17:25Fui en un avión lleno de periodistas de todo el mundo
00:17:32Creo que nadie comprende cómo se puede tomar a niños como rehenes
00:17:38Había más de 1.000 personas en el gimnasio
00:17:41Fuera hacía mucho calor, y dentro era ya insoportable
00:17:45Prácticamente estábamos sentados unos encima de otros
00:17:51En el aeropuerto de Moscú, en el aeropuerto de Moscú
00:17:55Había un par de personas en el gimnasio
00:17:58Había un par de personas en el gimnasio
00:18:01Había un par de personas en el gimnasio
00:18:04Estaban sentadas unos encima de otros
00:18:07Fuera hacía mucho calor. Había un par de personas en el gimnasio
00:18:14Había un par de personas en el gimnasio
00:18:17Estaban sentadas unos encima de otros
00:18:29Y me grita un hombre
00:18:33They took all the men out of the gym.
00:18:37There was one who tried to calm the others,
00:18:40and they shot him in the neck.
00:18:44They put us in the corridor, one in each window.
00:18:50They ordered us to make barricades in doors and windows,
00:18:55and that if the barricade broke,
00:18:58they would kill the man who had built it.
00:19:04The terrorists waited for the men to finish,
00:19:07and then killed some of them.
00:19:10Then they connected more than a dozen bombs
00:19:13that they placed in the gym around and on the hostages.
00:19:20Sergei Urmanov, electrician,
00:19:23watched the process carefully.
00:19:26In the basketball court,
00:19:29there were three bombs tied with duct tape
00:19:32and one on the board,
00:19:35from which some cables came out,
00:19:38which connected it to the other two.
00:19:41The cables led to a pedal on the floor.
00:19:44One of the terrorists had stepped on it.
00:19:47As soon as he raised his foot,
00:19:50everything exploded.
00:19:54As soon as he raised his foot,
00:19:57everything exploded.
00:20:04Alana asked me what was hanging over us.
00:20:07Are they bombs? She told me.
00:20:10I told her they were just cans, not bombs.
00:20:13And she asked me why they told us
00:20:16that everything would explode if someone touched the cans.
00:20:20They told us to be careful with the cables.
00:20:23One of the bombs was so low
00:20:26that we touched it every time we went to the bathroom.
00:20:32Once the bombs were installed and the building was secured,
00:20:35the terrorists sent a note
00:20:38with the names of the four only government officials
00:20:41they would negotiate with.
00:20:44In addition, the note contained the following threat.
00:20:48For every wounded one of us, there will be 20 dead hostages.
00:20:51For every dead one of us,
00:20:5450 hostages will die.
00:21:01An immense group of people
00:21:04were piloting on the street.
00:21:07They all wanted to go through and do something.
00:21:10They didn't care what could happen to them,
00:21:13as if they were killed.
00:21:16We couldn't go any closer
00:21:19because a tank of the army was posted right in that corner.
00:21:33A few hours after the attack,
00:21:36the units of the Russian army began to arrive.
00:21:39They could hardly advance,
00:21:42detained by the local militia
00:21:45and completely out of control.
00:21:52The parents of the children, the families and the whole city
00:21:55were desperate in the absence of news.
00:21:58The only thing we could do was wait
00:22:01and that was killing us.
00:22:04It was like an endless nightmare.
00:22:07The information was scarce and sometimes incredibly imprecise.
00:22:15354 people were detained.
00:22:24Everyone knew that the official sources were lying.
00:22:27It seemed that the Russian government was trying to minimize the crisis.
00:22:30I was completely sure
00:22:33that there had to be more than a thousand people.
00:22:36Just counting the relatives waiting outside,
00:22:39it couldn't be just 354.
00:22:42There were almost 1,200 hostages in the school.
00:22:45But if there was any doubt about the number of kidnappers,
00:22:48what everyone knew for sure
00:22:51was that the kidnappers were Chechens.
00:22:54We were told that they were protesting
00:22:57against the war in Chechnya.
00:23:00One of the terrorists said
00:23:03that a Russian plane
00:23:06that left our airport had killed his entire family.
00:23:09The only thing he wanted was to kill
00:23:12and that he didn't care if it was a boy or a girl.
00:23:19Chechnya is a neighboring republic
00:23:22of 15,700 square kilometers
00:23:25whose war of independence against Russia
00:23:28has been going on for years.
00:23:31The Russians have fought bloody battles
00:23:34that have claimed many victims
00:23:38Dozens of thousands of Chechens, including numerous children,
00:23:41have been killed.
00:23:48The Chechens have led the war to Moscow
00:23:51and have provoked hundreds of victims in terrorist attacks
00:23:54such as the infamous kidnapping of the theater in 2002.
00:23:57There, the hostages secretly used their mobile phones
00:24:00to communicate with the police.
00:24:03To put an end to the kidnapping,
00:24:06the Russian forces launched
00:24:09gas bombs inside.
00:24:17More than 30 terrorists died
00:24:20but also 130 hostages.
00:24:32It was clear.
00:24:36The assailants had learned
00:24:39the lesson of kidnapping to the theater.
00:24:42They broke the windows to keep the school ventilated.
00:24:45They watched the kidnapped more closely.
00:24:49When at first we were told
00:24:52to give the mobile phones,
00:24:55we didn't give them all.
00:24:58But they knew and said
00:25:01that if they found a phone,
00:25:04we would shoot them and other 20 people.
00:25:11So the people gave all the phones.
00:25:22At the end of the first day,
00:25:25photographer Dmitry Belyakov arrived in Beslan.
00:25:28I arrived very late, on the night of September 1.
00:25:31And I started looking for the unit
00:25:34of the special forces
00:25:37to which I was supposed to go.
00:25:40He found the SPETNAS,
00:25:43the troop of the special forces he was looking for.
00:25:46Belyakov already knew the men
00:25:49from when he was covering the war in Chechnya.
00:25:52As I was waiting for them,
00:25:55I started looking at the photos of my wife and my son
00:25:58The situation was very strange
00:26:01because I couldn't help but think
00:26:04that just on the other side of the wall
00:26:07a kidnapping was taking place.
00:26:10I started thinking,
00:26:13what would I have done in that situation?
00:26:16I don't know the truth.
00:26:29A storm broke out and it started to rain.
00:26:32I don't think there was any shooting.
00:26:35I don't remember if there was any on the first night,
00:26:38but the sound of the rain was such
00:26:41that I didn't hear it either.
00:26:44Maybe there were shots, but we didn't hear them.
00:26:59When the children fell asleep,
00:27:02the occasional shots woke them up
00:27:05in a flash.
00:27:08They asked me if anyone had died
00:27:11and I said no.
00:27:14Why are you shooting then?
00:27:17And I told them to go to sleep
00:27:20and not be afraid.
00:27:23Everyone thought it was not normal
00:27:26that the children were subjected to that
00:27:29and we kept the hope that they would realize
00:27:32what they were doing and let them go.
00:27:35On the first night in the streets of Beslan,
00:27:38hopes were still kept.
00:27:41However, within school number one,
00:27:44the hostages were convinced
00:27:47that the terrorists had planned to kill them.
00:27:50All I asked for was for the end to come soon.
00:27:56BETWEEN CHILDREN AND THE HOSTAGES
00:28:21When my children fell asleep,
00:28:24that what had to happen to them would happen to them before they woke up.
00:28:55It was September 2nd,
00:28:59when I found these guys from the Spetsnaz
00:29:03I wanted to be with.
00:29:05They had been located in the building of the Radio Technical College,
00:29:10which was on the other side of the train track.
00:29:18One is a captain, the other a sniper.
00:29:21Two soldiers of the Russian special forces Spetsnaz.
00:29:25Their identities must remain hidden.
00:29:30The terrorists shoot from time to time.
00:29:44Sometimes for some purpose,
00:29:46others just to let us know that they are not asleep,
00:29:49that they keep the guard.
00:29:57I knew there were at least 20 terrorists,
00:30:00snipers and some with a gun,
00:30:03and that there were many hostages.
00:30:11Inside the school, the terrorists also shot to the ceiling.
00:30:15Each shot had its echo in the crowd of family members waiting outside.
00:30:24A mother began to cry inconsolably.
00:30:27Some people were attacked to the heart right there,
00:30:31of concern.
00:30:46Lidia Salilleva celebrated her 24 years as principal of the school.
00:30:50From the first moment she tried to reason with the terrorists.
00:30:54They told me that if they listened to their demands,
00:30:57they would go and they would not kill anyone.
00:31:00I asked them what they wanted,
00:31:02and they told me that the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya.
00:31:10Who were the terrorists then?
00:31:13A dramatic tape of video appeared later,
00:31:16reveals the novice face of the story.
00:31:20It is a video that begins on the morning of September 1
00:31:23at the house of Asana Saporova.
00:31:26This is her seven-year-old daughter, Linda.
00:31:33It was Linda's first year of school,
00:31:36and my husband wanted to record her going to class for the first time.
00:31:39He also recorded his friends.
00:31:43I went to school with joy.
00:31:55But when the terrorists took control of the school,
00:31:58they ordered the hostages to hand over not only the cell phones,
00:32:01but also their cameras.
00:32:04They told us to leave the cameras and cell phones.
00:32:08My husband, Aslan, took his and threw it in the pile.
00:32:20Aslan's camera became that of the terrorists.
00:32:29When the kidnapping ended,
00:32:31the lost tape was discovered among the rubble,
00:32:34but not by Russian investigators,
00:32:36but by a group of local teenagers.
00:32:39What it shows is a look inside the school
00:32:42from the point of view of the terrorists.
00:32:47This is Ruslan Kucharov,
00:32:49who was called the colonel,
00:32:51who seemed to be the most responsible.
00:33:01He was of medium height,
00:33:04he had a sniper rifle,
00:33:06just like the Spetsnaz,
00:33:09a calm and confident man.
00:33:16The man you see on the screen is going to negotiate with the colonel.
00:33:22His name is Ausev, Ruslan Ausev,
00:33:25former general and former president of the neighboring Russian Republic of Ingushetia.
00:33:30He traveled from Moscow to dialogue with the terrorists.
00:33:36Two masked terrorists came to my meeting,
00:33:39who introduced me to the school.
00:33:43I saw the gym where people were pinned like canned sardines.
00:33:50It was the authentic image of some people who knew they were about to die.
00:33:55When he entered the gym,
00:33:57everyone began to murmur, Ausev, Ausev.
00:34:00He shook his head and left the gym.
00:34:05The air was full.
00:34:07The children had taken off their clothes,
00:34:09and the air was suffocated, it smelled of sweat.
00:34:11No one was crying, but everyone sensed that the situation was serious.
00:34:17Panic was seen in his eyes, I could see it.
00:34:21He came in, looked at us, and said, I have it, and left.
00:34:32Ausev and the colonel spoke in the teachers' room on the second floor.
00:34:36The presence of Lidia Salieva, the principal of the school, was required.
00:34:42We've been waiting a long time.
00:34:44We are very happy that you were the first to respond,
00:34:47I shouldn't cry.
00:34:50Ausev tried to calm her down so that Lidia could speak to the colonel.
00:34:56I just ask that, for God's sake, for Christ's sake,
00:35:00don't hurt any of my children.
00:35:07The head of the terrorists told Ausev
00:35:10his willingness to negotiate for the release of hostages.
00:35:14He took out a piece of paper and showed me his demands.
00:35:17There were seven or eight.
00:35:19The main one was to put an end to the war in Chechnya.
00:35:22It was a letter from Samir Basayev to President Putin.
00:35:30Samir Basayev, the most wanted man in Russia,
00:35:33is the recognized leader of the Chechen terrorists.
00:35:36The man behind the kidnapping to the Moscow theater
00:35:39and many other terrorist acts.
00:35:41The Russian government grants a reward of 10 million dollars for his head.
00:35:46This tape shows Basayev planning the coup with the terrorists in Beslan
00:35:51a few weeks before the attack on the school.
00:35:56I've heard that there are some Chechen websites
00:35:59in which Basayev himself personally recognizes the authorship of the crimes.
00:36:02I don't know what kind of scum can do that.
00:36:10Assaulting a school and holding hundreds of children as hostages,
00:36:14Basayev intended to force the Kremlin to stop the war in Chechnya.
00:36:35In the tape found, Ausev made a visit to the colonel.
00:36:45They showed me 21 corpses that had been thrown from the window of the second floor.
00:36:50They were people who had been killed at the time of the school's takeover.
00:37:07I think he was trying to show me his determination.
00:37:14In short, they were serious.
00:37:16They told me, this is what we demand.
00:37:18I asked them if they had more demands and they told me no.
00:37:21They gave me the paper and ordered me to present them.
00:37:26When they answered, they would release the hostages.
00:37:36But before leaving, Ausev managed to convince the colonel to release some of the kidnapped.
00:37:45I told the commander that I understood his demands,
00:37:48but that they could not be answered immediately.
00:37:51So, at least let the babies out, he promised me he would.
00:38:06Zalina Zandarova in the gym with her six-year-old daughter, Alana,
00:38:10and her two-year-old son, Alan, was eager to calm them down.
00:38:14Alan kept saying that he wanted to go home, that he was hungry and thirsty.
00:38:19He kept crying.
00:38:25At first, when they told us that we could get the children out,
00:38:28joy invaded us.
00:38:30Alana too.
00:38:32But at the gym entrance,
00:38:35a terrorist took Alana from me and told me to leave.
00:38:41I won't leave, I told him.
00:38:43If my daughter stays.
00:38:49Zalina was forced to choose between putting little Alan safe and leaving Alana,
00:38:53or staying and risking losing her two children.
00:38:58She went with Alan.
00:39:02Alana told me, Mom, what are you going to do?
00:39:06When they took her from my arms, she started screaming and kicking.
00:39:18One by one, the procession of anguished mothers left the building.
00:39:23This is Zalina with Alan.
00:39:29The feeling of leaving my daughter there is something that cannot be explained.
00:39:35I have to learn to live with it.
00:39:51Most of these mothers had to leave an older child inside.
00:39:55We can hear one of them scream from the living room.
00:40:00I want to go with my mother, she screams.
00:40:05Eleven mothers gave birth to 14 babies.
00:40:09At the last moment, a terrorist gave another baby to Ausef.
00:40:14The mother of the child could not leave and leave her older son inside.
00:40:19I took the last baby myself.
00:40:21I took it and left.
00:40:26Ausef never returned to school.
00:40:30He was the only representative of the government
00:40:33who met face to face with the terrorists.
00:40:36He had sincere hope of being able to continue negotiating with them.
00:40:41To get people out two by two or three by three to relax the situation.
00:40:46The situation has been very difficult.
00:40:49We have been talking about it for a long time.
00:40:51We have talked about it for a long time.
00:40:54We have to make the decision.
00:40:57It is necessary to have the necessary conditions for the negotiation.
00:41:01The situation has been very difficult.
00:41:03of three by three to relax the situation.
00:41:17Everything changed as soon as Yousef left.
00:41:26They stopped giving us water and prevented us from going to the bathroom.
00:41:30They became more aggressive.
00:41:37They may also lock themselves up.
00:41:40Among the kidnappers there were at least two women.
00:41:46It is impossible not to recognize them.
00:41:49They wore long black tunics.
00:41:51You could only see their eyes.
00:41:53They wore belts with suicide bombs and pistols.
00:41:58They are known as black widows, sahidki, women who have lost their entire family in
00:42:02the Chechen War.
00:42:04Witnesses say that the women had not been told that the objective was a school, and
00:42:09that they did not seem to agree to take the children as hostages.
00:42:15They started arguing with each other.
00:42:18We heard some shots.
00:42:22The sequence of events is not very clear, but at some point during the kidnapping,
00:42:27the bombs carried by one of the women or both exploded.
00:42:30Incredible, it flew through the air like a balloon full of blood.
00:42:39The explosion occurred on my left.
00:42:42It was huge.
00:42:44When the dust settled, one of the terrorists approached me and ordered me to pick up my
00:42:48head.
00:42:50Then I realized that behind me was the head of one of the sahidki.
00:42:54He told me to put it next to the body.
00:43:00Nobody knows if the women committed suicide or were killed by another terrorist.
00:43:07After two days in the overcrowded and suffocating gymnasium, despair took over everyone.
00:43:16The children were eating the flowers they had taken to school.
00:43:24They shared with each other.
00:43:30I took a little dirt from a pot and squeezed it with my shirt to get the water out.
00:43:36One of them told me that if I moved again, he would shoot me.
00:43:41He was interrupting the prayer.
00:43:51When they stopped letting us go to the bathroom, they threw us a few empty plastic bottles
00:43:56so that the children could pee.
00:43:58The girls did it on some clothes.
00:44:04When children and adults began to not bear thirst, some drank urine.
00:44:10I was nauseous and I was about to pass out when I realized that I was also prepared
00:44:16to drink it.
00:44:18I told my son that I would drink his, he did not believe me.
00:44:21Are you really going to drink it, mommy?
00:44:28And I said yes.
00:44:29I began to drink from the bottle he had used, covering my nose with my hand.
00:44:35He looked at me and said, leave me a sip, mom.
00:45:02I could not eat, nor could my mother, no one could during all that time because they knew
00:45:07that their children inside had nothing to eat, nothing.
00:45:21I was with my wife, my daughter, my sister and my two nieces.
00:45:26The youngest was diabetic.
00:45:29On the second day, he entered a state of semi-coma and stopped talking.
00:45:34He died on the second night.
00:45:55For the morning, everyone was crying, hysterical.
00:45:59On the morning of September 3, the terrorists made me kneel in the gym and said that if
00:46:05I could not calm people down, they would kill me.
00:46:10I tried to calm my spirits and said, listen to me, otherwise they will kill us.
00:46:24I remember the morning of September 3.
00:46:27It was as if something in the air told us that something had to happen.
00:46:34The morning of September 3 brought more agony to the inmates inside the school and more suffering
00:46:40contained to those outside.
00:46:49We could not do absolutely nothing, feel helpless and think about how defenseless the
00:46:55people inside the school were.
00:46:58Almost 50 hours had passed.
00:47:02It was a distressing wait because we did not know what was happening.
00:47:11I began to think that if they did not release the children, the mothers themselves would
00:47:16be about to enter the school, no matter what could happen to them.
00:47:21The only thing those mothers could think about was that their children were dying of hunger
00:47:26and thirst.
00:47:39Waiting and impotence were the worst.
00:47:42That kills you.
00:47:44I could not believe that I was going to see my daughter alive and unharmed again.
00:47:52It would have been easier to stay in school and see what they were shooting, than to listen
00:47:57to the shots from the outside and guess who they would be aimed at.
00:48:03I knew that all the shots we heard were against the children, against Alana.
00:48:21My daughter Zalina was too smart for her age.
00:48:26I told her that the soldiers would not take long and that they would save us.
00:48:30My wife saw how I was about to come down.
00:48:33He was an angel.
00:48:35My other half.
00:48:36He took a book and covered us with it.
00:48:42The swords contained fire, preparing for a possible assault on the school.
00:48:48We took positions, we positioned ourselves and established communications.
00:48:56Everyone felt very responsible.
00:49:02We were positioned 50 meters from the school.
00:49:05The entire left wing was in our charge.
00:49:11We were all the time reassuring the children, telling them that they were going to be released
00:49:15soon, that the cars were already waiting for us outside, that nothing was going to happen.
00:49:21But the adults, we denied with our heads.
00:49:26And on the last day, no one had any hope left.
00:49:32Some of the children seemed lost and began to delirious.
00:49:38My son Timor could not stand it anymore.
00:49:41He got up and said he was going to his grandfather's house to drink water.
00:49:46I got angry with him.
00:49:47But are you crazy?
00:49:48Sit down, I told him.
00:49:49I kept praying that my sister would be fine.
00:49:57Although the terrorists and the government spoke on the phone, the conversations did not
00:50:01lead anywhere.
00:50:03Ausef knew that the demand for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya was unacceptable
00:50:08at all, but he believed that the Kremlin would be willing to do anything to free
00:50:13the hostages.
00:50:14I have four children.
00:50:19And I was trying to imagine what I would do if they were among the hostages.
00:50:23We had to do everything possible to rescue those children.
00:50:33On the third day, hundreds of children were already suffering more serious dehydration symptoms.
00:50:41Hundreds of citizens demanded immediate action.
00:50:46The end began with an explosion inside the crowded gymnasium at one and six minutes
00:50:51in the afternoon.
00:50:52Suddenly, there was an explosion, as if out of nowhere.
00:51:11I could not describe the feeling.
00:51:13During the first minute, we were all submerged in a nervous shock.
00:51:17A few seconds later, some hostages escaped.
00:51:23Then they began to scream, cry, complain.
00:51:34The feeling was like being in the middle of a fire.
00:51:37The explosion crashed against the wall.
00:51:40I fell on a body.
00:51:42It was as if we were burning.
00:51:44How intense was the heat that surrounded us.
00:51:47I looked at my arms and legs.
00:51:50It seemed impossible to me that after that explosion they would still be in place.
00:51:59Moments later, a fierce shooting broke out.
00:52:06From the balconies, the troops of the Peznas joined the fire.
00:52:11It was a fire like that.
00:52:12Suddenly, they began to shoot at the school.
00:52:22When we saw civilians and soldiers running towards the school, we knew something was wrong.
00:52:33At first I thought it was just another explosion, but when I heard the gunshots,
00:52:40I imagined that something else was happening.
00:52:46I prayed to God to protect the children, because he was the only one who could do it.
00:52:56But the situation became complicated by the action of the numerous armed civilians who
00:53:00also tried to kill the terrorists.
00:53:06There were people in short pants and flip-flops armed with machine guns.
00:53:11It was mainly an uncontrolled crowd of people with their own weapons, moved by anguish.
00:53:17I would not rule out that they would shoot some hostage.
00:53:24Numerous explosions shook the school.
00:53:31My daughter had no trace.
00:53:35She asked me if her mother was dead.
00:53:39I left my late wife lying face up.
00:53:44I saw two other tall, dead women, lying on a corner.
00:53:48And I hid my daughter under them.
00:53:51I put myself on top, as a shield, in case there were more explosions.
00:54:00May God bless those women.
00:54:06After the explosions, a pile of children's corpses, and then absolute silence.
00:54:20Between the smoke and the dead, Elena lost sight of her son Timo.
00:54:24I couldn't find him.
00:54:28All the children looked the same.
00:54:35I got up, all covered with the blood of my own legs.
00:54:41My daughter was soaked in my blood.
00:54:43I picked her up, jumped between the guts, the legs, the bodies of the dead, covering
00:54:48my daughter's eyes with the jacket, to prevent there from being so much horror.
00:55:00A lot of people started running.
00:55:04My mother cried, thinking that all the children would be dead.
00:55:21In underwear, due to the sufficient heat inside, the children who could run came out.
00:55:26They held us for four days without water, without anything.
00:55:35There were 18 bombs right above our heads.
00:55:39One suicide bomber blew herself up, and the other was pushed away by the bomb.
00:55:59I was knocking out the windows when we were running away.
00:56:04After the second explosion, I saw many children climbing up to the windowsills, and I thought
00:56:15I'd escape there too.
00:56:20Between the crossfire, Elena ran through the school courtyard.
00:56:26I saw some garages.
00:56:28There were many women with their children.
00:56:31I saw a woman fall next to a garage.
00:56:35This woman was shot in the back right in front of my nose.
00:56:40Dimitri turned the target towards Elena, who was bleeding from a head wound.
00:56:44The first people I saw were two men from our city.
00:56:49They were armed.
00:56:50They told me to run towards them.
00:56:52They helped me cross to a safe place.
00:57:00After being caught inside the school, Sergué and his daughter were told to go to the cafeteria.
00:57:06I did what I could in that chaos.
00:57:09There were so many injured people.
00:57:11I couldn't help them.
00:57:12May God forgive me.
00:57:14The terrorists surrounded themselves with hostages, using them as human shields.
00:57:20Then something from a machine gun hit me in the back.
00:57:24I felt an intense pain.
00:57:26I screamed.
00:57:27I lost control of my daughter.
00:57:29The terrorists were shooting at the women and children who were falling.
00:57:33They were shouting,
00:57:34Don't shoot!
00:57:41The troops of the PEDNAS began the raid on the school.
00:57:46My job was to cover them.
00:57:53The battle at Beslan's number one school lasted for an hour.
00:58:00And another.
00:58:03And another.
00:58:07We had been there for too long.
00:58:16I remember myself praying at that moment.
00:58:23I remember that I could only pray.
00:58:26I remember all that noise and the noise around everywhere.
00:58:34It was really scary.
00:58:36It seemed like a war or something like that.
00:58:43And it seemed like there were thousands of terrorists wherever it's anywhere I looked.
00:58:57In the chaos, Dimitri was able to take these photographs.
00:59:01You can see here, everybody is moving, as if they were all dead.
00:59:06And there was a silhouette of a girl.
00:59:10The little girl got up and went back to the gym.
00:59:17She should run away.
00:59:19But instead she ran away.
00:59:24Then there was a third explosion.
00:59:27My lens down because I couldn't keep taking pictures of anything.
00:59:32I said, well, this is too much.
00:59:35This is too much.
00:59:36I was sure that something had happened to her.
00:59:39I was sure that she had died in the explosion.
00:59:42In a few minutes the roof came down.
00:59:52There were not enough ambulances to move all the injured.
00:59:56Hands in the air!
01:00:02Private cars and even the arms of the loved ones were used to take the children in a hurry.
01:00:27The shooting lasted about ten hours.
01:00:43After the battle was over, there were two terrorists who were trying to escape.
01:00:49The Spetsnaz decided not to risk the lives of more of their men,
01:00:53so they called the tanks and from there the tanks took them out.
01:01:09One by one the injured and the dead were transferred.
01:01:19The Spetsnaz lost 18 soldiers.
01:01:32Eighteen Spetsnaz soldiers lost their lives in the battle.
01:01:40A little further from the school, the families gathered, some to celebrate it.
01:01:49Others, the most, to console their despair.
01:02:08For Daria, Fadiba and thousands of other people, a desperate search began.
01:02:48Room to room, corridor to corridor, floor to floor, from top to bottom.
01:03:04A brutal massacre.
01:03:12There was only chaos, pain, desolation.
01:03:19A complete desolation.
01:03:28People were shouting, asking each other,
01:03:30Have you seen my daughter? Have you seen my brother?
01:03:32Do you know what happened to my son?
01:03:49When the battle was over, the survivors and the dead were distributed
01:03:53through all the hospitals in Beslan and the neighboring cities,
01:03:57some even arriving in Moscow, to receive intensive medical care there.
01:04:08People would usually go to the sanatoriums first.
01:04:11There was one in Moscow, there was another one in Moscow.
01:04:16There was one or two sanatoriums.
01:04:18So they would start there, and if they didn't,
01:04:21they would run to the hospitals or look elsewhere,
01:04:24because some of the wounded prisoners were transferred to Moscow,
01:04:28Rostov and other places.
01:04:31And there was a bit of chaos.
01:04:36Not everybody knew which hospital to search.
01:04:40Someone told me that they had seen Ali somewhere in the hospital,
01:04:44and we were looking for her everywhere.
01:04:47We asked the doctors where she could be,
01:04:50but it seemed that nobody had the slightest idea.
01:04:54Then, Daria's mobile phone rang.
01:05:02And when I heard her voice, oh my God,
01:05:06it was as if she was calling me from heaven or something like that.
01:05:10I don't know, I don't know.
01:05:13I can't express with words the feeling of that moment.
01:05:19Alia had serious gunshot wounds to her legs and back.
01:05:23She was evacuated to Moscow, where she was subjected to three operations.
01:05:29And my doctor said,
01:05:31she said that all she thought about was seeing me,
01:05:34and she prayed to see me again one day.
01:05:43Talina went to the central hospital to look for Alana,
01:05:46but she couldn't find her.
01:05:52When I started to cry, one of my family members came and said to me,
01:05:57but don't cry, why are you crying, she's alive.
01:06:06I opened the curtain and saw her lying in bed.
01:06:10She smiled at me.
01:06:16Alana had burns to her legs and back.
01:06:19She escaped thanks to a man she didn't know.
01:06:27When it was all over, she told me...
01:06:29When it was all over, she told us that a man,
01:06:32one of the terrorists, had saved her.
01:06:36He had told her to leave, that the shooting was getting worse.
01:06:43I said, I ran there.
01:06:45He calmed her down and comforted her.
01:06:48He told her that nothing would happen, that everything would end soon.
01:06:53Alana and her mother are sure that it was this man,
01:06:56Nurpas Sikulayev,
01:06:58the only terrorist who is known to have survived.
01:07:04She said that she was going to die anyway,
01:07:06and that God would not forgive him for what he had done.
01:07:14For the Zaparova family, who handed over the camera to the terrorists,
01:07:17the first day of school was going to be a happy day.
01:07:20A proud father was recording his daughter,
01:07:23but then everything went wrong.
01:07:27My husband, Aslam, died on the first day.
01:07:32In fact, Aksana, his widow,
01:07:34believes that her dead body could have been recorded with her own camera.
01:07:42The two children of Aksana survived,
01:07:44although Linda suffered very serious burns.
01:07:47What no one except her husband knew,
01:07:49was that during the kidnapping, Aksana was pregnant.
01:07:53Her son Alec was born four months later.
01:08:05Elena Timor's son, who we see in the photos of Beliakov,
01:08:08managed to escape through the same broken window through which his mother came out.
01:08:13When my friend told us to run to the other side,
01:08:16I was scared to death,
01:08:18but Timor was so overwhelmed that it was as if he could not hear anything.
01:08:24He ran out first.
01:08:26I shouted at him to crouch, to crouch,
01:08:29but he didn't listen to me.
01:08:33Maybe he was emotional.
01:08:36I grabbed him to try to force him to crouch,
01:08:39and so we crossed the street running.
01:08:43Timor ran to a safe place,
01:08:45covered in blood from other school victims.
01:08:48His physical wounds have healed,
01:08:50but emotionally he is still recovering.
01:08:57He has grown up.
01:09:00But life is also more difficult for him.
01:09:03He is very nervous.
01:09:06He only plays with toy guns.
01:09:09He was playing war for a month.
01:09:17After the photos were published in the press,
01:09:20I began to receive emails from readers
01:09:23asking us to find out what had happened to that girl in particular.
01:09:29I went through morgues, hospitals,
01:09:33I studied the lists of dead and missing people.
01:09:37I made something like a hundred copies of the photo in which it is seen as a profile.
01:09:42We broadcast the photo on national television and on the local network,
01:09:46and we sent it to the newspapers as well.
01:09:49Finally, the tenacious search paid off
01:09:52and led Beliakov to a hospital room
01:09:55where they presented the seven-year-old Aida Sidakova.
01:10:02I showed her the photo and asked her if it was her.
01:10:06She said, well, of course it's me.
01:10:09I said, are you sure?
01:10:11And I said, why did you come back?
01:10:14Because I was looking for my mother.
01:10:19Aida's mother also survived.
01:10:22I had a state of tears.
01:10:25I began to cry of pure happiness.
01:10:28I felt very happy.
01:10:30She had such a small heart.
01:10:33And I kissed it.
01:10:35I was very happy.
01:10:43At the end of the battle at school number one in Beslan,
01:10:46Sergei Urmanov still fought for life,
01:10:49for his and for his daughter's.
01:10:53While I was carrying her in my arms, I fell several times.
01:10:57My daughter asked me why I fell.
01:11:00I was talking all day.
01:11:03But she didn't care.
01:11:06Whenever I was with her,
01:11:09she trusted me a million percent.
01:11:12She knew that as long as I was with her,
01:11:15nothing would happen to her.
01:11:20But the explosion separated Sergei from his daughter.
01:11:24The girl was shot and died.
01:11:30He also lost his sister,
01:11:33three nieces and his wife.
01:11:55Along with the rest of the school,
01:11:58the families of the victims and the rest of the citizens
01:12:01remember so much suffering,
01:12:04placing bottles of water with the hope of satisfying
01:12:07the thirst of the victims with them.
01:12:24In memory of Sergei Urmanov
01:12:55The total death toll was cruel.
01:12:58Of almost 1,200 hostages,
01:13:01331 died,
01:13:04176 of them children.
01:13:09More than 500 people were injured.
01:13:13Today there are 26 orphaned children.
01:13:16The survivors will never forget or forgive the terrorists.
01:13:25They are bad beasts with no sense or heart inside.
01:13:30They are not human.
01:13:33They are not human beings.
01:13:36They are not human beings.
01:13:39They are not human beings.
01:13:42They are not human beings.
01:13:45They are not human beings.
01:13:55The main lesson learned from Beslan
01:13:58is that the problem of Chechnya requires a solution.
01:14:02Until the conflict is resolved,
01:14:05no one guarantees that there will be no more terrorist acts.
01:14:09It is necessary to solve it with the utmost urgency
01:14:12and to solve it by political means,
01:14:15because this problem cannot be solved by force.
01:14:26Russian President Vladimir Putin
01:14:29flew to the area the next day after the liberation.
01:14:38He visited a hospital but not the school.
01:14:42He visited a hospital but not the school.
01:14:51It is said that the visit was so fast
01:14:54that the engines of his plane did not even turn off.
01:15:04We are the ones who elect president,
01:15:07deputies, our rulers,
01:15:10representatives at all levels of power.
01:15:13We pay them to represent us.
01:15:16If people die, it means that we have all failed.
01:15:28Today in Beslan, anger is not only against terrorists,
01:15:31but also against the government.
01:15:34Was the government incapable or worse?
01:15:37Was it possible to save his children?
01:15:47That experience has changed everything.
01:15:52Especially in Beslan.
01:15:56This city has been associated with pain,
01:15:59with death.
01:16:02And it is very difficult to live after everything that happened.
01:16:07In addition, the situation is going to get worse.
01:16:27The people of Beslan have witnessed the trial
01:16:30of the surviving terrorist and have witnessed
01:16:33the official investigations.
01:16:36But they believe that the president is not with them,
01:16:39that he does not bother to answer their questions.
01:16:47After being separated for months,
01:16:50Dariya traveled to Moscow to see her little sister.
01:16:53She says she is fine,
01:16:56but my mother says she has headaches
01:16:59and that she is very weak.
01:17:19Now she is older and has become
01:17:22a completely different person.
01:17:30Alia barely talks about her friends.
01:17:33Instead, she prefers to write to them.
01:17:42I can't believe you're never going to be here again.
01:17:45It seems impossible to me that the light of your lives has gone out.
01:17:52You were so important to me and now
01:17:55you have gone and I cannot bring you back.
01:18:08How can it be true that you have been forever?
01:18:11It is impossible.
01:18:15You were so small, you had so much left to give happiness
01:18:18and joy to those around you,
01:18:22I'm sure you would have done it.
01:18:27But now we cannot bring you back to life
01:18:30and I am unable to sleep.
01:18:34I see you in front of me, smiling at me
01:18:41and I feel an unbearable headache
01:18:44and a wounded soul.
01:18:48My heart hurts so much.
01:18:52I have a wounded soul.