Beslan school siege ten years later
- 10 years ago
It's been ten years since a deadly three-day school siege in the North Ossetian town of Beslan.
On September 1, 2004, more than a thousand parents and children arrived for the first day of school, only to be taken hostage by heavily armed Chechen rebels.
On the third day of the siege, hundreds were killed in a series of sudden explosions and fire fights -- it's still not clear what sparked the carnage.
Witnesses in Beslan have said they saw Russian forces fire at the school -- something Russian officials have denied.
An official investigation found that negligence and incompetence by Russian police and some officials had contributed to the bloodbath.
But victims' relatives are still angry that those at the top were never held to account.
And some fear such a tragedy could happen again.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SUSANA DUDIYEVA, HEAD OF BESLAN MOTHERS' COMMITTEE, SAYING:
"Nothing has changed. Corruption is flourishing as before, bureaucratic s
On September 1, 2004, more than a thousand parents and children arrived for the first day of school, only to be taken hostage by heavily armed Chechen rebels.
On the third day of the siege, hundreds were killed in a series of sudden explosions and fire fights -- it's still not clear what sparked the carnage.
Witnesses in Beslan have said they saw Russian forces fire at the school -- something Russian officials have denied.
An official investigation found that negligence and incompetence by Russian police and some officials had contributed to the bloodbath.
But victims' relatives are still angry that those at the top were never held to account.
And some fear such a tragedy could happen again.
(SOUNDBITE) (Russian) SUSANA DUDIYEVA, HEAD OF BESLAN MOTHERS' COMMITTEE, SAYING:
"Nothing has changed. Corruption is flourishing as before, bureaucratic s