Year after Beslan siege, turning anger to action

Jim Maceda Correspondent

BESLAN, Russia — The cemetery plot reserved for the 300 victims, mostly children, of last year's hostage-taking and siege in Beslan fills up a football field.

The makeshift wooden crosses that marked the gravesites during last September's heart-wrenching funerals have been replaced by smart, polished red granite tombstones, plant pots, and water fountains. 

Towering over the cemetery, a statue symbolizing hope and freedom will be unveiled at a ceremony on Saturday.

At 1:05 p.m., a minute of silence will be held, at the very moment when, one year ago, Russian Special Forces stormed the Beslan Middle School's gymnasium, ending a horrific three-day standoff in a blaze of bullets and death.

Trying to rebuild Beslan's 'Ground Zero'
The hostage crisis has been called Russia's own 9/11. Returning to Beslan one year after covering that tragic incident was a little like visiting the World Trade Center in 2002 or 2003.

Beslan's “Ground Zero” — the school gym where dozens of Chechen militants had herded over 1,100 students, teachers and parents, stringing bombs from basketball hoops — remains a gutted, burnt-out memorial to those who died there.

Today, Beslan is rebuilding. Ironically, the terror attack put the sleepy Southern Russian town of about 30,000 on the map and international aid came flowing in.

Two new, hi-tech schools have replaced the old one. Every street seems to have at least one spanking new red brick house, and another under construction.

But none of that has helped Zalina Badoeva to move on. As she gives the tombstone of her murdered brother, Murat, a delicate wipe with one hand, she wipes away tears with the other.

''They are rebuilding, but I don't know,” she said. ''It's hard for us to even look at all that, and the children are afraid to go back to school.''

Resilience of children
Not all of the children are afraid. Some of the investment in counseling and rehabilitation — again from mostly international funds — has paid off.

A year ago, Georgi Farniev became the very face of the Beslan disaster. He was the boy with his hands behind his back and fear in his eyes, captured in a video shot by the rebels themselves. Farniev was seen sitting next to one of the Chechen militants whose foot was toying with a bomb detonator.

Earlier this week, we caught up with Farniev, who is now 11. He managed to escape the initial explosions and firefight, though shrapnel in the knee wounded him. Today, he is looking forward to studying Russian, mathematics and computers in the one of the new schools.

“I'm doing well,” he said. ''My leg is healing and inside, I'm healing too. Every day I seem to forget a little more of what happened. I know how lucky I am.''

But over 180 children were unlucky. And today their families and friends feel their loss as an open wound, just as they did one year ago.

Children like Alina Hubetsova, who would have turned 11 on Wednesday, the day before ''Back to School Day,' if she had lived.

Instead, her family was “celebrating” her birthday at her gravesite, wailing with grief.

''Can you believe we are crying here on her birthday?'' screams her grandmother, Aza. 

Unanswered questions
Like dozens of other children, Hubetsova was mowed down trying to flee the gym, caught in crossfire between the Chechen hostage-takers and the Russian forces, on Sept. 3, 2004.

At her wake, her distraught family spoke of how Alina wrote in her diary of her excitement about returning to school, about her talent for knitting, and her dream of becoming a fashion designer.

Felix Hubetsova, her father, said that the hardest part, for him, was not having anyone to blame for his daughter's death.

''In this country, you'll never know what really happened,'' he said. ''Inquiries come and go, but there's never any truth.''

A year later, Felix Hubetsova had the same unanswered questions: Who was behind the attack? How many terrorists were there, and did any escape? Why didn't local authorities negotiate with the hostage-takers, to free at least more women and children? Who was in charge of the assault on the school and why was it turned into a killing zone?

''It's been a year, and still nobody is telling the truth,'' he said while the chorus of wails bellowed from Alina's grave. ''The press will leak various stories and insights but the official Commission keeps postponing its work for days, even months.''

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