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Truth about Beslan blocked

19.08.2014   
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, Russia’s biggest provider Rostelekom is blocking the website Pravda Beslana which contains vital material including the report by explosives expert Yury Savelyev who concluded that the explosion used to justify the storming of a school and terrible loss of life did not, as claimed by the authorities, come from within the school

  Photos from the Remember Beslan site (see links below)

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Beslan tragedy,  Russia’s biggest provider Rostelekom is blocking the website Pravda Beslana.  The site contains material from the unofficial investigation into the seizure by terrorists of the school in Beslan in North Ossetia on Sep 1 2004 and the subsequent storming of the school by federal forces using tanks and heavy artillery on Sep 3.

Marina Litvinovych, initiator of a special campaign entitled “Remember Beslan” reports that on Sunday Internet users in a number of Russian regions found the site blocked.  The message appearing suggests that the restriction may be because the site has been blocked by a court order, or be on the list of prohibited sites.  There has, however, been no official notification from the provider.

The Russian authorities have systematically prevented a full investigation and over the years have harassed organizations seeking to know the truth, such as Voices of Beslan.

The material which somebody high up has ‘encouraged’ the provider to block includes the dissenting opinion from Yury Savelyev, explosives expert and member of the parliamentary commission.  Savelyev believes that the explosion which is supposed to have triggered off the storming of the school with terrible loss of life did not in fact come from within the school.

This is crucial and if true indicates that the violent end to the siege was planned despite the fact that there were around 1100 children, their parents or grandparents and teachers in the school hall.

Terrorists attacked the school during ‘First Bell’, a major event for families throughout Russia, and often attended by parents and grandparents.  Russian President Vladimir Putin and his administration systematically lied about the situation, claiming, for example, that there were 364 hostages and that the terrorists were refusing to negotiate.  

Aside from the source of the explosion, other questions that remain unanswered include:

How many terrorists were there and who helped them smuggle so many weapons into a school?

Why were there conflicting stories as to whether the terrorists were ready to negotiate, and over their demands?

Why were tanks and flamethrowers used? 

331 people died as a result of the storming of the school, over half of them children. 

The site Remember Beslan can be found here pomnibeslan.ru  and on Facebook https://facebook.com/pomnibeslan  

 

Halya Coynash

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