1,000 days without the children – Beslan
At the memorial graveyard in Beslan where the victims of the school siege in September 2004 lie buried, throughout the night and day people have been taking part in a memorial action “1,000 days without the children”.
Throughout the night (from Tuesday to Wednesday) candles burned in the school graveyard as families and relatives came to remember their children and loved ones. By nine in the evening candles burned on every grave.
They honoured also the special force officers who died trying to save the children.
“We want to show that the children who burned to death in the sports hall and who were shot by the militants are not forgotten. To remind all about the terrible tragedy and that nothing like this must ever happen again”, an appeal from the Mothers of Beslan reads.
The candles burned all through the night not at the graveyard alone. The organizers had asked all people in the republic to light candles in their windows in memory of the children.
More than three hundred people died in Beslan. More than half of them were children.
Meanwhile
The police officers accused of negligence which allowed the terrorist attack on Beslan have been amnestied
The decision to amnesty the defendants - police officers and the head of the police department of the Pravoberezhny District of North Ossetia was taken at a separate court hearing in the presence of the State Prosecutor, but not the men themselves.
Earlier, around 25 women, victims and mothers of those who died at Beslan expressed outrage that the defendants were not at the hearing. They ripped down the Russian flag and broke windows in protest.
The Chairperson of the Mothers of Beslan Committee: explained: “We are outraged by the position of the court. None of the victims planned to fall on the defendants, but they could have found the courage to come and hear the court ruling together with us. We find the position of the judge who, knowing our demands that the defendants were present, chose to ignore us, deeply offensive”.