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Rescued Mother Tells of Three Days in Hell
AP / Myway news ^ | Sep 3 2004 | MIKE ECKEL

Posted on 09/03/2004 8:43:43 PM PDT by Walkin Man

Rescued Mother Tells of Three Days in Hell

Sep 3, 5:15 PM (ET)

By MIKE ECKEL

BESLAN, Russia (AP) - Holding up the corpse of a man just shot dead in front of hundreds of hostages at a Russian school, the rebel - his pockets stuffed with ammunition and grenades - warned: "If a child utters even a sound, we'll kill another one."

When children fainted from lack of sleep, food and water, their masked and camouflaged captors simply sneered. In the intolerable heat of the gym, adults implored children to drink their own urine.

Hours after escaping alive, a woman who had been taken hostage with her 7-year-old son and her mother spoke of three days of unspeakable horror - of children so wired with fear they couldn't sleep, of captors coolly threatening to kill hostages one by one, of a gymnasium so cramped there was hardly room to move.

"We were in complete fear," said Alla Gadieyeva, 24, who spoke to an Associated Press reporter Friday as she lay collapsed in exhaustion on a stretcher outside a hospital. "People were praying all the time and those that didn't know how to pray - we taught them."

The woman told her tale after Russian commandos stormed School No. 1 in this southern town, bringing the nation's worst hostage crisis to a shattering end of gunfire and explosions.

Alla and her mother, Irina, were in the school courtyard Wednesday seeing off her son, Zaur, on his first day of school when they heard sounds like "balloons popping."

She thought the noise was part of school festivities. But then five masked gunmen burst into the courtyard, shooting in the air and ordering people to get inside the building. Children, parents and teachers - Alla estimated there were about 1,000 in all - were corralled into a corner on the ground floor and then herded into the gymnasium.

Alla said children whimpered in fear, and all around there was screaming and crying. The hostages were forced to crouch, their hands folded over their heads.

For the rebels, the first order of business was confiscating cell phones. They smashed the phones, then delivered a warning: "If we find any mobile phones, we will shoot 20 people all around you."

On the first day, people got a tiny bit of water to drink, but no food. After that, Alla said, nothing.

When she asked the rebels for water for her mother, they laughed at her.

"My mother was terrified, and I thought she was having a heart attack. When I saw my son, my mother ... go unconscious, so tired, so thirsty, I wanted it all to come to an end," she said.

"When children began to faint, they laughed," Alla said. "They were totally indifferent."

During the ordeal, Zaur became so traumatized that he would flinch whenever someone touched him, or even brushed by him, she said. As with most of the other children, his only spells of sleep were the times he fell unconscious from thirst and exhaustion.

When asked how her son would remember the ordeal, Alla replied: "How can a person ever forget it? Would you ever forget it?"

As Alla spoke under a grove of spruce trees, she had not yet been reunited with her mother or son, although authorities confirmed to her that they were alive.

She recounted how the hostage-takers eventually took off their masks. They had beards, long hair, and spoke with Chechen accents, she said.

When children started to faint from thirst, the adults urged them to urinate. It was so they could drink their own urine, Alla said.

The gymnasium was quickly transformed into an arsenal of explosives - bombs dangling from the ceiling, set on the floor, strung up on walls. She said they seemed to be homemade, primitive packages containing bolts and nails.

"They're not human beings," Alla said. "What they did to us, I can't understand."

On Friday, early in the afternoon, explosions erupted without warning, both inside and outside the gym, she said. In the chaos, she couldn't figure out how they were set off. Gunfire followed.

As the battle intensified, the rebels betrayed agitation for the first time.

"We'll shoot until our guns stop," a rebel announced to the crowd. "And when our guns stop, we'll blow up the building."

The hostage-takers began pushing people out of the gym and into the basement. That created an opening for the hostages: They began breaking windows and fleeing. Some pushed children outside.

Alla said she helped her son and mother through a window. She didn't manage to get out.

For some reason, a 6-year-old boy - whom she didn't know - was drawn to Alla. She held him in her arms. He clung to her, she said, "as if he would never let go."

A group of hostages, including Alla and the boy, finally made a rush for a set of doors in the gymnasium. As they fled, she saw bodies of captives strewn on the floor as rebels fought with Russian security troops swarming around school compound.

Some Russian soldiers appeared as they reached the doors. "At first I didn't believe it," Alla said. "I thought they were Chechens."

Her doubts soon vanished.

It's OK, the soldiers told her. "You're home now."

As Alla told her tale, townspeople kept coming up, asking her about the fate of their loved-ones.

A man, around 20, asked Alla if she knew what had happened to one of the captives, a woman.

She's dead, Alla replied.

The man bit his lip. He nodded.

And then he turned away.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: cair; cairsilentonchechnya; islam; muslim; nocaircondemnation; ossetia; russia; schoolchildren; silenceissupport; silenceofcair; terror; whereiscair
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To: Walkin Man

The Islamofascist just set themselves up for a big blow, the Russians could do anything they wanted to do to them and nobody would care. What they put these kids through was sickening.


41 posted on 09/03/2004 10:09:06 PM PDT by John Lenin (How can you shoot women and children? Easy... you don't lead 'em so much(FMJ))
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To: Kornev

Yup. Disgusting. And God forbid we profile.

I profile every moment of every day.


42 posted on 09/03/2004 10:09:23 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: John Lenin

The time to get down and really dirty is upon us.

I'm not living in fear, but I'm definitely living in preparedness and urging every single neighbor with a brain to do so as well...


43 posted on 09/03/2004 10:10:50 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: B-Cause

Barefoot over broken glass and rock salt.


44 posted on 09/03/2004 10:14:11 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty
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To: Walkin Man
I think nuclear weapons exist to cleanse the earth of inhuman vile child-murdering scum death cults like the moon-god killers! It worked for Japan...

Nuke one city with confirmation that anymore terrosist action and another city will be nuked.

Sad that the real attitude must be "Kill them all. Let God sort them out."

45 posted on 09/03/2004 10:14:39 PM PDT by eccentric (aka baldwidow)
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To: Coroner

"One never knows, do one?"


46 posted on 09/03/2004 10:14:59 PM PDT by sheik yerbouty
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To: dinok

"Muslims are violent with all non Muslims that neighbor them"

Muslims are violent with other Muslim sects. About 10 years ago when I still subscribed the the local rag, I noticed time and time again about the attacks on villages in Algeria where they were slaughtering entire communities.

They were muslims they just weren't Wahabists.


47 posted on 09/03/2004 10:15:52 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Kerry/Edwards. Between the two of them, I'd be safer with a slimy spitball.)
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To: isthisnickcool

USTake the Mosques and Madrassas out and a major problem is fixed.

I heard from a friend (LEO) the other day that there is still significant fundraising and recruiting activity in American mosques coast to coast and border to border to this day.

And the poor young of these sick demon possessed moon god blood sacrifice terrorist death cult worshippers are being taught up in WAHABBIST STYLE MUHAMMADAN MADRASSAS WITH THE MURDER 'CURRICULUM' RIGHT HERE AMONGST US!

And stay tuned - Calypso Louis and the Black Muhammadan Nation here in America have been AWFULLY QUIET for some time...


48 posted on 09/03/2004 10:16:27 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: TASMANIANRED

That's right. It's spiritual demon possession and lunacy.

That's Muhammadanism. And that's his followers. And that means a lot of people need killin before this round of World Wide Death Cult Terror is over for another century or two...

D.C., NYC, Bali, Madrid, and on and on...it's time to stamp this wicked Death Cult out viciously.


49 posted on 09/03/2004 10:19:17 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: ApesForEvolution

I heard a very intresting Jewish scholar speak. He has been studing Islamic culture and terrorism for years.

He says basically that 1) the Jihad keeps going until the entire is Moslem or 2) jesus comes again.

He has talked to many a moslem and they say that they worship a god of war, not a god of peace. They would convert to Christianity if the God of peace prevailed.

He says all of it could be solved by destroying mecca.

Is this true: I don't know. It's just something to think about.


50 posted on 09/03/2004 10:21:01 PM PDT by TASMANIANRED (Kerry/Edwards. Between the two of them, I'd be safer with a slimy spitball.)
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To: vrwcagent0498

I don't. I hope I would live because I would hunt the scum that killed my child to the end of the earth. Without mercy!


51 posted on 09/03/2004 10:25:34 PM PDT by scab4faa (United we stand. Divided we Kerry.)
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To: Jack Black
It has nothing to do with Iraq or Saudi Arabia.

Then why were there Arabs there at this school --- 10 of the 20 killed so-called militants turned out to be Arabs.

52 posted on 09/03/2004 10:41:41 PM PDT by FITZ
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To: TASMANIANRED

Christ (annointed One and His annointing) vs anti-Christ

Christ wins. I hope the Death Cult followers get the revelation of salvation before millions and millions of more people on this planet are transferred onto their permanent eternal destinations.

Because innocents will be defended even if 1,500,000,000 Muhammadans have to go straight to hell in the process.

And of course, this is the end time for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.

TODAY IS THE DAY OF SALVATION. Take the grace while it's still available. I think grace for Muhammadans is bankrupt from a physical perspective and civilization has judged it detrimental.

Of course, the road ahead for Christians will see steadily, faster, compounding rates of persecution, after all, there is only one path to the Father in Heaven. So, that can't stand to the lovers of darkness and sin...


53 posted on 09/03/2004 10:42:23 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: FITZ

What do you have on your hands, a Muhammadan apologist?


54 posted on 09/03/2004 10:42:54 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: eccentric

I concur.


55 posted on 09/03/2004 10:44:54 PM PDT by ApesForEvolution (DemocRATS are communists and want to destroy America only to replace it with the USSA)
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To: 185JHP

"non-muslims are not of any consequence - their lives have no value to a muslim."

They have been getting closer and closer to that "line" and one of these days they will do something so atrocius, that the world will never forgive them for...EVer.

Goodbye Mecca.


56 posted on 09/03/2004 10:57:42 PM PDT by dinok
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To: TASMANIANRED

"Muslims are violent with other Muslim sects. About 10 years ago...I noticed time and time again about the attacks on villages in Algeria where they were slaughtering entire communities."

So they eat their own...its worse than we thought.


57 posted on 09/03/2004 11:00:15 PM PDT by dinok
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To: Ros42; KittyKares

In MY world, all Muslims would be deported.


58 posted on 09/03/2004 11:12:28 PM PDT by my_pointy_head_is_sharp
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To: Walkin Man
"They're not human beings," Alla said.

No, they're not human beings. And not being human beings, their families and their friends aren't human either. They are the lowest form of animal. Sooner or later, the civilized world will realize that fact. Then and only then will the problem end. How long will it take? I'm sick of waiting.

59 posted on 09/03/2004 11:30:58 PM PDT by LibWhacker (It is the black heart of Islam, not its black face, to which millions object)
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To: FITZ
I'll wait to hear some further verification of whether their were Arabs there or not.

My point, in any case, was that the Chechans have their own unique set of issues with Russia and are not pulling off attrocities like this because 1.) We invaded Iraq or 2.) Russians have defiled Saudi Arabia by having troops there.

It's strange that all over the world Moslems are mad about different things and their anger is turned into bloody killing of innocents.

60 posted on 09/04/2004 8:58:07 AM PDT by Jack Black
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