Russia remembers Beslan tragedy

In North Ossetia, on September 1-3 will be held ceremonies to mark the fourth anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, when the capture of terrorists School number 1, killing more than 330 people, including 180 children. Commemorative events will take place on the territory of the destroyed school 1st and at the memorial cemetery "City of Angels", where the victims are buried, and where these days people come from all over North Ossetia, Interfax reported.

According to the established tradition of sad they are to light in the school gym, where the hostages were held 3 days, candles, lay wreaths and flowers, bringing toys and water bottles in the memory of how the hostages were suffering from thirst.

From 9 o'clock in the morning on the territory of the first Beslan school sounds funereal music, the correspondent of IA REGNUM. There are hundreds of people, among them - representatives of the clergy, authorities, relatives of the victims and the former hostages.

To the gym, where the hostages were held, a queue of people carrying flowers. At 9:15 MSK - a time when there was an attack - the school bell sounded and began to count down metronome. After a minute of silence for the speaker read out a poem dedicated to the tragic events of four years ago. After that I continued to lay flowers.

In the gym, where the hostages were kept, the walls hung with photos of the victims, including photographs of soldiers who gave their lives to save the children. In the middle of the room is set a three-meter wooden cross around which laid carnations.

It is expected that the ruins of the school and at the memorial cemetery today and the next three days will attract many thousands stream of people to honor the dead. There will visit the republic's leadership, entire teams of ministries, departments, institutions and agencies, elders, veterans, religious, social, youth, sports organizations, creative and scientific intelligentsia.

On the first day of the school year in all the churches of North Ossetia held funeral liturgy in memory of the innocent victims in Beslan.

September 2 at 19.00 in the regional Palace of Culture in Beslan on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of North Ossetia held a requiem concert that will give the State Philharmonic Orchestra of the Republic.

September 3 at 13.05, exactly four years after being in the gym, where the hostages were held, there was the first explosion and began the tragic denouement of hostage-taking, in the courtyard of the Beslan school bells. Across the country will be a moment of silence, and in the yard of the school № 1, as in previous years, the sky will be released over 300 white balloons - the number of fatalities.

After that, the ceremonies will move to the memorial cemetery, where they will lay flowers and wreaths at the "Tree of Sorrow" and the monument to fallen soldiers in the rescue of hostages "Alpha" and "Vympel". Here, in the "City of Angels", a metronome will feature the names of all those killed in the first school.

The school year in a school in Beslan, and the whole right-bank district of the republic of North Ossetia in connection with the mourning will begin September 5th. "In the secondary schools of Beslan and Right Bank district of the educational process is the 4th year in a row on the sad tradition begins later than in all other schools. This year's Beslan school classes also begin on September 5 when the city will finish all the mourning events dedicated to the fourth anniversary of the tragedy ", - said the agency" Interfax "in the Ministry of Education of North Ossetia.

According to the source, all other schools of the republic educational process will begin as planned on 1 September. On the first day of the new school year will be held festive line and "Lesson of the world", in which students will remember about their peers killed in the hostage-taking in the first school in Beslan.

Actions dedicated to the 4th anniversary of the Beslan tragedy, will be held today and in other Russian cities. In the center of Yekaterinburg held a mourning rally. As told to "New Region" in the city Antiwar Committee, meeting in memory of the victims of war and terror, as well as against the new escalation of military violence in the Caucasus will be held on 3 September, 16 to 19 hours at a monument to the city founders. After the meeting - in 18 hours - on Plotinka held a picket "Live chain of memory».

In Barnaul, representatives of the regional union of veterans of Afghanistan and Chechnya and Altai branch of West-Siberian Railway held for students of Barnaul "The lesson of courage." The children were reminded not only details of the events in Beslan, but also spoke about the victims of the recent conflict in South Ossetia. The memory of victims minute of silence.

In the Moscow International House of Music will be held September 3 rally-concert "Children of Moscow against terrorism and violence", dedicated to the memory of children killed by terrorists in Beslan, Interfax said a spokesman for the Moscow Department of Education Alexander Gavrilov. In the program, in particular, will be attended by the children's doctor Leonid Roshal and Artist Iosif Kobzon. From the House of Music students usually go on the Moscow scene of the terrorist attacks - on Guryanov Street, Dubrovka, Pushkin Square, Kashirskoye, metro station "Avtozavodskaya" - and lay flowers there.

Recall that after the attack the only remaining dead gunman, who took part in the seizure of the school in Beslan - Nurpasha Kula - was in May 2006, was sentenced by the Supreme Court of North Ossetia, to life imprisonment. The presiding judge Tamerlan Aguzarov then stated: "The Court finds that the crimes committed Kulaev deserve an exceptional measure of the death penalty. However, taking into account the ruling of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation on February 2, 1999, according to which the death penalty can not be appointed, the court sentences Kulaeva to life imprisonment with serving their sentence in a colony of special regime ". December 26, 2006 Russia's Supreme Court upheld the verdict.

Facts:

Average educational school number 1 in Beslan was seized by a group of terrorists on Sept. 1, 2004. More than 1,200 people were taken hostage. For three days they were held in bomb school gymnasium. It was over in 3 days - 3 of September. The attack killed 330 people, including more than 180 children. Over the past 3 years the list of victims of terrorist attacks has reached 334 people (at the expense of the participants of the tragic events that have died in hospital from his wounds. - Comm. KM.RU.). The only gunman who participated in the seizure of the school, and live in May 2006, was sentenced to life imprisonment.