Russia marks third anniversary of Beslan massacre
BESLAN, Russia (AFP) — Russia on Saturday marked the third anniversary of the Beslan school hostage crisis that left 332 people dead -- more than half of them children -- with a ceremony tinged with sadness and anger.
Bells rang out at the ruins of the school in this small town in the republic of North Ossetia in memory of the moment on September 1, 2004, when hostage-takers demanding Russian withdrawal from Chechnya seized over 1,000 people.
Victims' relatives and many Russians believe the authorities covered up what happened two days later, when federal troops stormed the school and a firefight with the hostage-takers left hundreds dead.
Putin, speaking in Russia's Caspian Sea city of Astrakhan on a day that is celebrated elsewhere in Russia as the start of the school year, said: "We cannot forget about the children that will never go to school -- I mean the tragic events in Beslan."
"We should remember that today," he told children at a local school in comments broadcast on state television.
In central Moscow's Balotnaya Square, about 250 people gathered within view of the Kremlin for another memorial demonstration by the Beslan Mother's Committee.
"I would like to tell Putin that he shouldn't be afraid to come before these people and say: 'I'm guilty and I ask for your forgiveness,'" said committee member Emilia Bzarova, whose 10-year-old son was killed during the crisis.
The committee also issued an emotional letter demanding that apologize to the 186 children killed in the massacre.
Moscow protesters included opposition leader and chess legend Garry Kasparov, who said it was his "moral obligation to be there because we share the sorrow" of victims' families.
"I am positive that we will one day know the truth," he said.
In Beslan, funereal music played while over 3,000 mourners entered the school under heavy guard, weeping, carrying candles and laying flowers in the burnt-out shell of the gymnasium where the hostages were held.
Portraits of the victims lined the scarred walls inside the gymnasium, as did signs reflecting the enduring emotional and political turmoil.
"There is no forgiveness for the authorities for allowing Beslan," one said. "The federal security service and interior ministry are responsible for terror," read another.
Three years after the massacre, there is anger that virtually the only person to have been punished is the sole surviving hostage-taker.
Three local policemen were found guilty of negligence, but they were granted amnesty earlier this year.
Russian newspapers and independent investigators have publicised a series of blunders on the part of federal and local authorities -- ranging from failing to act on intelligence to botching the rescue attempt -- but to little effect.
A lawyer for the victims, Timuraz Chedzhemov, also said he was dropping a case against local officials after receiving a death threat by telephone earlier this month.
"I did everything I could to establish the truth. Whoever thinks I'm a coward, let him take my place. The mothers of Beslan need help, not sympathy," he told AFP.
Officials say the Beslan death toll was so high because the hostage-takers set off a bomb inside the school, forcing troops to intervene.
But many survivors and independent investigators say soldiers deliberately started the battle with an incendiary rocket-propelled grenade -- a highly destructive weapon that brought down part of the school's roof and started a fierce fire.
Witnesses also say they saw tanks fire shells into the school, a claim that officials deny.
