They were the people at the centre of the horrific attack on a Russian school. Here is their story in their words. Posted on 09/04/2004 10:18:55 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
They were the people at the centre of the horrific attack on a Russian school. Here is their story in their words.
Ilfa Gagiyeva, 33, a local investigator who was trapped inside with her daughter Diana, 7:
"There had been shoot-outs all day between the terrorists and the troops.
"We were all undressed. It was like a sauna in there. No water or food and we were all burning up with fear.
"They had put mines all around the room, running two wires between the gym's basketball hoops and hanging mines off them.
"But when they tried to detonate them, only two of the mines worked. Both blasts missed me, although one was very close.
"One militant, Hassan, who was in the toilet for the explosion, tried to help us get fresh air into the gym. I ran to grab my child and we hid in the small hall near the gym. There we stood for 20 minutes, dealing with the wounded and hiding, until the Spetsnaz found us and led us out."
Woman survivor:
"They said if we moved we would all be blown up."
Schoolboy aged 14:
"They shot at our backs as we were running out of the school. I heard the whine of the bullets. One of the girls who was running close to me was wounded.
"Two of my friends picked her up and carried her. There were about 50 of us, boys and girls, all senior pupils.
"Only the older kids could run away. As for the younger pupils, they just couldn't get out of that hell because the terrorists had blocked all the ways out for them. So they could only stay there and watch us running away."
Alla Gadieyeva, 24, who was taken hostage with her seven-year-old son and her mother:
"We were in complete fear. People were praying all the time and those that didn't know how to pray, we taught them.
"They [the rebels] smashed the phones and threatened: 'If we find any mobile phones, we will shoot 20 people all around you'.
"They're not human beings.
"What they did to us, I can't understand."
Schoolgirl survivor:
"One bomb was attached to the wall with sticky tape and it suddenly fell down and exploded. We saw a hole in the wall and ran through it."
Schoolgirl, 13, talking about women members of the terrorist unit:
"One of the woman terrorists wearing a suicide belt blew herself up in front of us. Another was pulled from the room before she could do the same."
Angry parent:
"Give me a gun, I'll get them."
Physics teacher Rita Gadzhinova was freed by the gang on Thursday along with her three-year-old daughter, Madina, but was not allowed to take out her other two daughters, aged 11 and 14:
"The youngest children were very frightened but they behaved with great discipline, though they often asked to go to the toilet because of their fear.
"They were marched to the toilet and if the toddlers started to cry the fighters would fire blanks in the air and shout for them to keep quiet."
Wounded military radio operator:
"How could I know how many of anything there are in that mess? There are many dead, that's all."
Hostage Zalina Dzandarova, 27, said two women suicide bombers had blown themselves up in a corridor of the school on the first day of the siege, killing some male hostages:
"The men terrorists told us afterwards that their sisters had conquered.
"Some of the wounded were taken out of the gym and finished off right in the corridor."
Diana, hostage survivor:
"We were forced to urinate into bottles and drink our own urine through our shirts that we put over the top of them."
Distraught man dragging children from the school:
"Help us carry them!"
Wounded schoolboy talking to Russian NTV channel about his escape:
"Suddenly there was an explosion. People could not get out and were smashing the windows.
"We were lucky really that we had plastic windows in our sports hall. Otherwise there would have been more cuts and injuries.
"I saw people running away in all directions. Some 200 or 300 people were running in the same direction as we were.
"They [the terrorists] were firing at the escaping people from the top of the roof."
Katya, a 14-year-old student:
"They shot at us. I think some of my friends got hit. I just thought of my mum and ran and ran."
Geor Batsazova, 13, whose sister, Diana, and mother, Ilfa, were inside the school:
"All I want to do is see my mother again. We should get those Chechen with knives."
Damian Grammaticas, BBC correspondent in Beslan:
"There were distressing scenes at the gate of the school compound, where some of the victims of the siege crisis were laid out on the grass.
"Five bodies were covered in white sheets, which families lifted up to see if it was any of their missing relatives.
"The bodies included at least one child and several adult women.
"Paramedics were bringing badly injured children out of the school - many suffering burns and gunshot wounds.
"But there were also scenes of relief and joy - one man in a car, holding a young boy close to him, punched the air as he went past, triumphant that he had his child back with him."
Sarah Rainsford, BBC correspondent in Beslan:
"At about one o'clock local time, we heard two very loud explosions coming from the direction of the school.
"We have seen a dozen or more casualties being brought from the scene, children covered in blood, the walking wounded, people being carried by soldiers and by friends and relatives.
"They are now being treated in a military hospital close to the scene.
"One woman spoke of trip-wires and bombs.
"She said the gunmen had their feet on switches and were threatening to blow the school up. 'They have the eyes of madmen,' she said.
"The relatives are still standing around desperate for news. They are saying this is what the authorities promised us would never happen.
"There was a promise that nobody would storm the school. Now whoever started this, whoever fired the first shot, the end result is the same."
Russian special services officer:
"The bandits shot at the kids as they ran from the school gym. They picked them off one by one."
Russia's first official statement on the crisis from Valery Andreyev, head of the Federal Security Service for North Ossetia:
"I would like to note that we were not planning to use any force.
"We were planning to continue negotiations in order to secure the release of the hostages."
Aslan, 26:
"My brother and his two children are in there. His little girl, Lera, is three. His son, Shamil, is nine. They really didn't have to do this. To storm the building. With all those children inside. They shouldn't have done it.
"But they are the Government and we are just ordinary people."
Schoolboy in underpants to soldier who carried him to safety:
"Thank you very much, sir."
Mother reunited with her daughter:
"She's alive. She's alive."
I'm not clear on exactly what happened. Did the Russian forces storm the school or did a terrorist blow something up? Or both?
A very special place is reserved in Hell for these scumbags which CNN still calls 'fighters'.
I agree, I can't even express my anger.
I think a bomb went off that was taped to a wall creating a hole in the wall. People started running, the terrorists started shooting wildly and then the special forces responded.
The bottom line is there is Hell to pay now. I can't wait to see the paychecks get cashed in.
This is going to be far worse for the Chechyans. The Russians got even big time with the Germans for their atrocities in WWII. And attacking Russian school children is really asking for big reprisals. It's the Arabs terrorists that came in with the Chechyans that had to be behind the planning, though. Who knows how this will all pan out?
A true work of mercy.
I don't know where its going, but its going to be bad. The ball is in the Russians court, they are big, mean and motivated. My guess; 15:1 kill ratio. Minimum. This may make Iran's nuclear reactor go away sooner rather than later. The pace, she is a picking up. Wherever the WOT is going, we're going to get there faster due to this world changing event that has been not-so-well covered by the MSM.
A na schet chechni.... a podderzhivayu tvoe mnenie. U lyudey v krovi i v gennakh voyna, za stol'ko vekov voevat'. I na samom dele, slozhno prinimat' kakoe libo reshenie dlya pravitel'stva i lyudey kotorye s takim stalknulis'. Mne kazhetsya, chto vse dumayut i nadeyustsya na razum, a zdes'... prosto instinkt... kak u zhivotnykh. Im vse ravno kogo oni vzyali v zalozhniki... Ya ponimayu zhenshchin, kotorye idut na takoe (u nikh ubili brata ili muzha) i vse taki ehto ne povod delat' takie postupki... Odnim slovom, Kavkaz, gortsy..."Well, about Chechnya... I support your opinion. People have war in their blood and in their genes, so many centuries of fighting. And at the same time, it's hard for the goverment or people who have run into this to decide what to do. It seems to me that everyone thinks and hopes for reason, while here... simply instinct... like animals. They could care less who they've taken hostage... I understand women who go into this (someone killed a brother or husband) but all the same it's no excuse for such... In a word - the Caucasus, highlanders..."
Okolo nas, gde ya rosla, bylo selenie sotoyashchee iz odnikh chechentsev. Dlya menya bylo diko videt'... zhenshchiny molchat, khodyat postoyanno v platkakh, za muzhchinami. A kak vyzyvayushchie veli sebya mal'chiki... Oni koroli, vokrug nikh ves' mir krutit'sya... "Chistilishche"... ya ne smotrela. Vernee ya nachala smotret' i vyklyuchila... Ne smogla. Ya boeviki i uzhastiki prakticheski ne smotryu. Redko smotryu takie sobytiya, esli sploshnoe nasilie pokazyvayut... ya ukhozhu. U menya serdtse zamiraet i nachinayut sploshnikom slezy idti.
"Where I grew up, nearby there was a village made up entirely of Chechnyans. For me it looked so wild... women were silent, went about always with scarves, behind the men. But oh how challenging the boys conducted themseves... they were kings, the whole world revolved around them... I didn't see 'Pugatory' (my note: film about the first Chechyan war). More truthfully, I started to watch and turned it off... I couldn't. I practically don't watch war and horror films. Rarely I watch news such as this, if they show outright violence... I leave. My heart dies and tears come."
This is the most informative of the articles I read.
When you're amongst the Chosen, you can do no wrong. If shooting children in the back ultimately eradicates the Infidel, then you are securing your place in the afterlife by doing the bidding of the Divine.
Funny that they don't seem to think that the Almighty is powerful enough to handle these things w/o human help.
What sort of people would find such a theological approach attractive? The pious, or...?
And I would go with you...
The Oregonian (Portland,OR) is calling them "Militants"
I guess thats PC for Killers, Beasts, Terrorists.
If Abdul will pray, to a glowing crater.
Let's keep our powder dry, it'll come here.
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