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That same day

In Moscow on September 1st there will be a meeting dedicated to the anniversary of the terror act in Beslan

In Moscow on September 1st there will be a meeting dedicated to the latest anniversary of the terror act in Beslan. As was reported by our special correspondent and editor of "Beslan Truth" website (www.pravdabeslana.ru), Marina Litvinovich, the event was organized by the 'Nord-Ost' and 'Demolished Destinies' public organizations, as well as the 'Fund for assistance to victims of terror'. The purpose of action is to demand an objective and complete investigation into the act of terror in Beslan, as well as an end to mockeries inflicted on the victims by the procuratorship. The gathering will hold a memorial service for all who were killed in Beslan and in other acts of terror.

The organizers invite all citizens and political parties who share their views to participate in the meeting. The Moscow city government will receive a declaration from the organizers. The time and place of the meeting for the time being have yet to be decided, since, due to a Moscow city holiday on September 1st and 2nd, practically all squares have already been occupied.

"For three years the investigation has gone on, but it is still not even close to discovering all the circumstances of this act of terror. The investigation is practically not even being conducted, and the investigators mock us with empty pseudo-answers. They continuously violate the rights of the victims. The only terrorist to be convicted was N. Kulayev, but the court will not even begin to question the most important witnesses, and, due to pressure from the procuratorship, the hearings have been suspended. The investigators refuse to investigate the actions of the officials in charge of the operational headquarters who prevented negotiations. It has never been investigated precisely which one of the FSB generals in the operational headquarters gave the order to use flame throwers and grenade launchers on a gymnasium full of hostages. It has never been investigated who gave the order for tanks to fire on the school, in which living adults and children were located. No one who was at fault for burning 116 hostages alive has ever been punished. No one whose carelessness made this act of terror possible has ever been punished. The courts stand on the side of the procuratorship, but the procuratorship does not protect those who suffered, but the high command," declared Marina Litvinovich.

As a result of the capture of School #1 in Beslan on September 1-3, 2004, 1128 persons found themselves terrorist hostages. During a special operation 331 were killed, included 317 hostages, 186 of these children. Two emergency ministries personnel were also killed, as well as 10 FSB officers. A Beslan resident who was participating in the rescue of hostages also died. 728 hostages and 55 FSB, interior ministry, and military members were wounded.

From Kasparov.ru
http://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=46CAC69D9C387

August 20th, 2007

The honorable Mr. ________,

Please excuse me for writing to your at this late time, so close to the beginning of the high-level conference on victims of terrorism, being held in Vienna by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. I do not know how well you are acquainted with the terror attacks in Russia in September of 1999, when bombings in several cities throughout our nation destroyed several apartment buildings, leading to the second Chechen war and all that entailed. This black part of our nation’s history is often referred to as the “Moscow apartment blasts”, though it included Buinaksk, Volgodonsk, and, if not for the vigilance of a local policeman, almost included Ryazan.

Officially, a little more than 300 people were killed and 500 injured, but the true number may never be known. Eight years on there are still bodies, and body parts, maintained in morgues, and the government repeatedly states that there is no funding available for DNA analysis. Many families still hold out hope for their “missing” loved ones.

I wish to describe to you what happened in the all but forgotten city of Volgodonsk, and our struggle for recognition and justice over the last eight years. Many of the details may be superfluous, but I am hoping that, if I cannot come in person to answer questions, then this document will give an in-depth summary of our situation.

Volgodonsk is a small city in the Rostov district of southern Russia with a population of about 180 thousand. On September 16th, 1999, the explosion of more than two tons of TNT, possibly a truck bomb, brought terrible suffering into the lives of almost fifteen thousand people, including more than a thousand children.

Like many others, I received several traumatic injuries, including barotrauma from the powerful blast wave, as well as psychological aftershocks. These left me handicapped and unable to work in my specialty as an engineer. My son was also injured, as were many other children.

For eight years we have been trying to get our government to pass a law defending those who suffered in acts of terror. Since 1999 we have appealed continuously to the president, the government, and the parliament, of the Russian Federation. We have also turned to the human rights representative for Russia, asking for assistance in adopting a law that clearly regulates social rehabilitation for victims of terror acts, including medical, civil rights, professional, and psychological assistance, as well as determining the authority for financing such aid.

Our government shirks problems of victims of terror acts. A federal law in effect at the time, titled “The struggle against terrorism”, and government resolution #90, dated February 6th, 2001, were both passed into law but never funded. In 2002 we took the Russian government to court, asking compensation for our health problems. Every court in Russia, including the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, denied our claims. Our attorneys, unfortunately, misled us, and so the deadline for filing complaints with the European Court for Human Rights slipped past.

In 2004 the Moscow city court passed sentence on the terrorists who carried out the terror acts in Volgodonsk and Moscow. The court required these two penniless convicts to pay compensation for material damages and mental suffering to terror act victims for the rest of their lives, thus excusing the government from its duty to the victims.

Regarding this clearly unfeasible decision, we filed a complaint, and yet again, every court denied our claims. We turned to the Prosecutor General, who was acting in court as the prosecutor, asking that the court’s decision be protested and that the government officials complicit in the terror act be brought to justice. We also appealed to the plenipotentiary for human rights in Russia, but to no avail. All court orders for compensation are returned to us, owing to the impossibility of recovering damages from the parties found culpable.

In the framework of the criminal case, but within a civil court setting, we again sued the Russian government. According to “the struggle against terrorism” law, if terror acts are carried out in several territories, then the federal government is required to pay compensation for damages. These lawsuits were also denied for the same reason: the terrorists were supposed to pay for everything. These cases have been sent to the European Court for Human Rights.

In 2002 I filed a lawsuit because government medical documents used to assign social assistance did not state that my handicap was due to a terror act. My level of handicap was lowered because it was stated that I had shown improvement, even though I had been hospitalized three times that year. Every court in Russia right up to the Constitutional Court denied my demands. The reason: there is no law, and thus no concept of a person handicapped as the result of a terror act, and so all persons handicapped as a result of terror acts receive the same pension as victims of “general illnesses”: 1100 to 1500 rubles per month (about US$44 to US$60).

In 2006, after receiving no reply from the chairman of the parliament regarding our many appeals for the adoption of a law defending the rights of terror act victims, we again turned to the courts, naming as defendants the Russian parliament, the Rostov district legislative assembly, and the city council. Every court in Russia denied us, citing Article 104 of the Russian Constitution, which stated that the defendants had the right to abandon the legislative initiative. During court hearings we even summoned the Russian president and the chairman of the Russian government, because, according to the Russian Constitution, they are supposed to defend the interests of Russian citizens. The court’s verdict was the same: it is a right of a legislator to withdraw a legislative initiative; they are not required to pursue them. We were forced to send this case to the European Court of Human Rights as well, since we could not accomplish anything in our country.

In 2006 we created the “Volga-Don” regional public organization for cooperation and protection of the rights of victims of the terror act in Volgodonsk, and with this organization’s help we now continue trying to make our nation’s leaders remember that there is a category of resident in our country - the victim of a terror act - and they need assistance.

Our organization now numbers 360. This includes 60 children who need special care, because, like the adults, they received concussions, barotrauma, and psychological injuries. The people have lost faith in any positive change in their condition. Our organization, as, unfortunately, many other public organizations in our nation, has to butt heads against a deaf wall of indifference and incomprehension.

The following may seem trivial, but, as I stated earlier, I merely wish to give the complete picture so that you can judge for yourself. Many people look upon our requests and judge us as grasping and greedy, but please understand that our nation often assigns certain small benefits in lieu of compensation. A war veteran may not have enough money to buy bread, but he can ride the trolleybus for free. A Chernobyl widow may have no heat in her tiny apartment, but she does not have to stand in line for train tickets. And so we also asked for certain tiny conveniences, since any other compensation is but a pipe dream - there are no September 11th millionaires here, only poor people made poorer by indifference and neglect.

On October 26th, 2006, we registered our organization officially in order to be able to make certain requests for our members. The applicable documents were sent to us on November 1st, and we immediately appealed to agencies in our country, many large firms and funds, as well the embassies of many nations, so that we could send our injured children to the lighting of the New Year’s tree in the Kremlin. New Year’s in Russia is Christmas, St. Valentine’s Day, and Halloween, all rolled into one, and for provincial children especially, this would have been a once in a lifetime holiday.

By the time we had our documents, however, it was already too late, and all tickets to the event were distributed. The children kept hope alive up until December 29th, praying for a miracle, that the president would help them participate in this New Year’s fairy tale, but the best we could manage was 10 tickets to the Governor’s New Year’s tree in Rostov-on-the-Don. This was still something, because, in the seven years since the terror act, no one had ever remembered that there were children in the district who had suffered from a terror act.

In January-February of 2007 we sent letters to the heads of every agency in the nation, asking for help in sending our children and young people to a sanatorium on the Black Sea so that they could enjoy a healthful summer rest. The children and young people had received traumas during the terror act, and lived but 16 kilometers from the Volgodonsk nuclear power station. The request is still under consideration at this point in time.

As I stated, I have written many small details to help you understand the history of our struggle. As chairman of our organization, I am turning to you with a request for assistance in attending your conference. It is very important to us because the conference will touch on many questions extremely important to us. I hope that participants in conference find our experiences, our struggles over the course of the last eight years, useful in making decisions. Since our organization cannot provide any type of financial support, I humbly beg your assistance in financial and visa support.

Respectfully,

Irina Halai
Chairman, “Volga-Don” regional public organization for cooperation and protection of the rights of victims of the terror act in Volgodonsk