Features

Graduates

Oksana Yushko

Published on 29/08/14

© Oksana Yushko

Beslan, North Osse­tia
The chil­dren who were held host­age in a Beslan school 10 years ago are already gradu­at­ing from high school. Many are leav­ing to study in Moscow or St. Peters­burg. All of them remem­ber that Septem­ber.
’Some people come here to ask about the ter­ror­ist attack-many come for that, like journ­al­ists. They make reports about the fact that here we are, such her­oes, liv­ing after the attack. And some­how we are able to find hap­pi­ness in life. They always talk about the same thing. But any­one would be able to live. Life just goes on and we can­not change what already happened to us. Just the oppos­ite: Now it is more pleas­ant to look at how we laugh, have fun and enjoy life.’

Host­ages were taken at School No. 1 in Beslan, North Osse­tia, on the morn­ing of Sept. 1, 2004, dur­ing a cere­mony held to inaug­ur­ate the new aca­demic year. For two and a half days, the ter­ror­ists held more than 1,100 people-including chil­dren, their par­ents and school staff-in a build­ing filled with explos­ives. At least 334 host­ages were killed as a res­ult of the crisis, includ­ing 186 chil­dren, with a sig­ni­fic­ant num­ber of people injured and repor­ted missing.

Share on Twitter

Highslide for Wordpress Plugin
salt images - photo agency