Posted on 09/06/2004 11:41:36 AM PDT by knighthawk
The little girl's face was waxy, her mouth covered with a simple strip of bloodstained, white fabric and her coffin full of red roses and Barbie dolls.
A relative held up a framed picture of what she looked like in life; a smiling 11-year-old in her school uniform, a blue dress and a white polo neck.
As Alina Felixovna Khubetseva was lowered into the ground, her mother and relatives began to wail and a four-piece band played the funeral march under a grey, rain-filled sky.
"My daughter, my poor daughter," her mother sobbed, shaking her head towards the heavens as she wrapped her trembling arms around a female relative for comfort.
Three days earlier, Alina had been one of hundreds of frightened school children held captive inside the school's gym.
It is not known exactly how she died but it is thought that she perished when terrorists detonated mines that brought the hall's ceiling crashing down on up to 500 children below.
In a sprawling field on the outskirts of Beslan, surrounded by grazing cows and fog-wrapped hills, this small southern Russian town that nobody had heard of until last Wednesday buried some of its dead yesterday.
Mechanical diggers gouged out graves that stretched for as far as the eye could see. Officials said the death toll from last Friday's bloodbath had risen to at least 338. With 260 people still missing, the fear is that the final toll will be much higher. Many of the 428 in hospital remained in a serious condition and scores of people still had no idea whether their loved ones were alive or dead.
Black and white photographs of some of the missing were posted outside the town's cultural centre, asking anyone who knew anything to phone the children's desperate parents.
The scale of the funerals deprived the dead of some of the dignity they were due. Separated by only a few metres, the services were conducted simultaneously with four or five bodies being lowered into the ground at any given moment.
Piles of dark brown earth and red bricks littered the field in preparation for hundreds more funerals as mourners bade a final farewell to School Number 1's pupils. The intense heat of the past few days meant that many of the bodies had decomposed and, although they had been treated with chemicals, the smell of rotting flesh was unmistakable, forcing many of the mourners to press handkerchiefs to their noses.
The coffins varied; some were white, some brown, most draped with lace or fabric but almost all of them carried the corpses of children.
Sick of being in the glare of the world's media, many of the mourners lashed out at watching journalists. "Don't film for God's sake. We've been through enough," said one man.
A lust for vengeance mingled with sorrow. "I promise you that I will take my revenge upon those who murdered you," a bearded man in black said aloud, throwing a small cellophane packet of earth into the grave of Timur Tsallagov, 35.
Elaborate floral wreaths were placed on the hastily prepared graves; "To my favourite Alinochka," read one.
Caucasian men wearing the region's oversized traditional flat caps filed past graves tossing handfuls of earth into the darkened holes while others waited until the graves had been filled in before pressing their palms into the soft earth while saying a prayer.
The headstones were simple, hewn from pine; some of the inscriptions were written in ballpoint pen.
Khasbi, a grave digger, said: "More than 300 people will be buried here when we're finished. My own children are safe but I've never seen anything like this." Earlier, traditional wakes were held in people's homes with neighbours going from door to door to pay their last respects, listen to funeral speeches and mourn.
People were then bused to the cemetery, though some walked the last stretch carrying the wooden markers at the head of eerie processions along long, straight, tree-lined avenues.
One girl in a black bandana had to be helped after she lost her balance beside a relative's grave, overcome by grief.
A boy called David wandered among the freshly dug graves carrying a picture of his cousin, Alan, 15, who was shot in the back as he ran from the school.
A few metres away, an enormous double grave covered with dozens of red and white roses had been dug for two sisters; Alina and Ira Tetova, 12 and 13. The sound of grief filled the air.
The paroxysm of violence left few families untouched in this tight-knit, mostly industrial town, whose population of 30,000 belies a village atmosphere in which many leave their doors unlocked. Most people in Beslan had a relative, friend or neighbour killed or wounded.
"The grief is for all of our people," said Anzor Kudziyev, a volunteer grave digger. "When a person goes to the cemetery for a burial, it's sad, but nothing like this when you dig graves for your children," he added.
Many of the relatives confronted their demons by visiting the school where their loved ones perished, which was opened to the public for the first time. People knew that what had happened inside the red-brick building was awful but what they found exceeded their worst fears.
A child's table in the school playground was particularly grim. Set up, apparently, as a warning of what would happen to anyone who tried something similar, it contained a bloodstained, charred jacket worn by one of the hostage-takers, a terrorist's jawbone complete with one tooth a scrap of beard and a selection of mortar shells, spent cartridges, gunmen's fingerless gloves and boxes of chocolates which the children had brought to celebrate the start of the new school year.
The stench of decayed flesh was unbearable as locals gawped. Pointing to a tangled, bloodsoaked mess of white lace curtains, a soldier said: "That is what a female suicide bomber blew herself up in." Another exhibit was simply labelled "fighter number three".
Inside the gymnasium, where many of the children had been kept, the scene was bleak. Black mulch clung to the hall's wooden floorboards while children's shoes lined the bombed-out window sills.
The basketball hoops over which the terrorists had strung mines remained intact but not much else. The roof was almost completely destroyed, the gym bars blackened by explosives and the walls peppered with hundreds of bullet holes. A makeshift shrine had been erected in the centre of the hall.
Traditional Russian Orthodox icons sat beside bottles of water and packets of biscuits; a poignant reminder that the hostage-takers refused to accept food or drink for their captives.
One boy broke down in the hall, fell to his knees and started sobbing uncontrollably as he clutched a radiator while small candles flickered in the afternoon gloom.
The walls of almost every classroom were covered with bullet holes and bloodstains were smeared on many walls showing where people had been executed or the terrorists themselves had been finished off.
All of the victims' bodies had been removed but some of the human remains of the terrorists had been left behind, deliberately.
A teenage boy played with the scalp of one in a wrecked classroom, picking it up with a cut of wood as his friends laughed in horror; the hairline was evident for all to see.
On the light blue, bullet-riddled wall behind him, the Russian alphabet glared down beside multiplication tables. Half of the door to the school's chemistry laboratory was covered in blood and the thick, ugly wallpaper in the staff room was punctured with too many bullet holes to count.
Children's paraphernalia was everywhere; exercise books, textbooks, paint sets and name tags thrown on the ground in a hurry and now surrounded by dripping water pipes, rubble and the smell of death.
A shattered globe sat on the window sill in one classroom; in another room, the corner looked like someone had been executed there. The wall behind was pocked with at least 30 different gunshots of different calibres. It was smeared with blood and a bloody curtain lay on the ground.
The school's library was a mess. Books and cupboards were piled against the windows to afford the terrorists more cover and a carefully crafted hole in the ground appeared to be the place where the hostage-takers had hidden their weapons weeks before they had struck. In one classroom the stench of urine was overwhelming.
Two girls wandered through the corridors, breaking down as they peered into each classroom. The scene before them defied all understanding. Several of the onlookers had felt the need to get drunk before they could stomach it.
Others tried to look forward. Slava, a friend of Alina Khubetseva, said: "The story of what happened here must be told objectively or else it will happen again. Perhaps another outrage is being planned as we speak. Beslan is just a drop in the ocean. We need to stop this. There will be revenge."
THE DEAD AND INJURED
338 confirmed dead (half children; the rest teachers, parents and relatives)
At least 540 people wounded
428 being treated in local hospitals; some more serious cases were sent to hospitals in Moscow
260 people still missing
A list of some of the dead, posted yesterday:
Anjela Kusova, 14; Kristina Farnieva, 14; Stella Khuzmieva, 17; Inga Gugkaeva, 24; Alana Katsanova, 15; Oksana Kokova, 15; Madina Sozanova, 11; Agunda Buzkova, 10; Valeria Budaeva, 3; Boris Guriev, 14; Vera Gurieva, 12; Sergey Zaporojets, 12; Aleksei Tsomartov, 8; Timur Kozyrev, 9; Inga Tsinoeva, 14; Irina Berezova, 9; Alina Galaeva, 15; Boris Bedoev, 52; Igor Zamesov, 12; Svetlana Kantemirovna, 28; Artur Kisiev, 32; Ruslan Gappoev, 34; Albert Adyrkhov, 3; Kazbek Buchezov, 9; Yulia Rudik, 14; Gagik Grigorian, 30; Olga Esanova, 27; Alena Tatrova, 27; Zalina Urmanova, 6; Georgy Khudalov, 10; Sabina Dzakhova, 12; Elvira Bolotaeva, 13; Sergey Alkaev, 15; Alan Betrozov, 16; Dzerassa Bazrova, 14; Svetlana Ailyarova, 6; Emma Khaeva, 12.
Ping
CNN just had a report from the scene of the burial site. GUT WRENCHING to watch. The horror that has befallen these people is just astounding.
In an earlier thread, JediForce wrote in part:
Why the news blackout in America ? I just don't understand it. Somebody in the administration needs to get out front on these Islamic attacks on Russia. Where is Homeland Security and why have they not at the very least mentioned that perhaps it might be a wise idea for people around schools to keep an eye open? It is amazing.
...
...
The hurricane did not kill 156+ children in a school. Islamic terrorists did in a quiet town in Russia.
And the silence is deafening.
My response:
To: JediForce
I sure am glad you wrote that, and well written it is, by the way.
My wife and I are absolutely apoplectic about the msm, Bush, et al., treating this as a non-event. It takes a lot to get me riled up, but I am now. The lack of national outrage over this makes me wonder what the future holds. I haven't heard a peep out of anyone with any stature. This should have been the headlines in every single paper, every single day, since the story broke. Included should have been the pictures from the scene, so the doubters could see, once again, the real face of islam.
I am so mad I could chew nails. We suck.
The democrat party's mainstream media must be destroyed.
BUMP TO THAT
In my opinion the democrats are enablers of al Queda, just as evil ultimately.
Thanks and see post #7.
We need to stop this. There will be revenge."
We are hearing this response from people in Russia, while in our country we hear "lets try to understand why they did this".
It's plain to see who the real commies are.
MSNBC just did also - probably the same report from ITN. indeed, it was terrible.
Bump
If it happens here, will the MSM ignore it? Will they show their disappointment that it wasn't done by some fringe Christian group? Will they wash it away because they fear that it would hurt Kerry?
"My wife and I are absolutely apoplectic about the msm, Bush, et al., treating this as a non-event."
I don't understand it either.
I think Bush should make a public statement connecting this attack to Islamic terrorism and calling for a moment of silence in all U.S. schools tomorrow.
Actually it did happen here, sorta. The democrats killed scores of Christian children in Waco, burning them alive after fifty some odd days of terrifying siege.
I can't STAND this... this is like ANNE FRANK, for the love of God. I've been screwed up all weekend and I just realized this is why. Couldn't get up to go to church yesterday. Slept as much as I could but kept waking up kicking the sheets. I'm not trying to make this about me but how could they do this to CHILDREN and we can't even do anything about it.
bump
I doubt if you'll get another answer.Kicking the sheets and turmoil was something I did before (9/11) and after when I had a chance.We must ask ourselves "what chance is of those whose benefactors in the shape of those who may know beforehand do nothing?"From the gift is responsibility.Now however many afflictions to an emapth are thankfully sidegarded and destroyed by patriot forces we don't figure on and rightfully so.So I say to you become involved in assistance to the victims of this terror and you and i vow to do what we can to root or identify it to the new Forces.
Hence, my tagline...
Dream on. It would contradict the "religion of peace" rhetoric.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.