Remembering Beslan 15 Years Later

Expand School #1 in Beslan, North Ossetia. 2004. © Dmitry Belyakov When I think of Beslan, I think of Volodya — the first person I interviewed there 15 years ago.  On Sept. 1, 2004, a group of three dozen Chechen-led armed militants took more than 1,100 local residents hostage at Beslan School #1, located in Russia’s North Caucasus. Demanding withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya, they put the hostages — most of them women and children — through hell for 52 hours, abusing them, denying them food and water, and killing several before Russian troops stormed the school. The death toll was…

© Human Rights Watch - mercredi 4 septembre 2019