Beslan victims turn to Europe

"Five years after the dramatic hostage taking in Beslan, victims' families are still waiting on aid promised by the Russian state," reportsSüddeutsche Zeitung. On 1st September, 2004, dozens of Chechen and Ingush terrorists took 1,128 children and their teachers hostage in a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. Two days later, Russian security forces attacked the buildings with tanks and flame throwers. 330 people including 186 children died in the series of explosions that followed, points out the German daily. According to one of the managers of the association "Voice of Beslan,""the whole town has been depressed" ever since the tragedy, which left survivors handicapped or traumatized. Vladimir Putin met with local people shortly after the hostage taking, "but nothing has changed since then." 200 complaints filed on behalf of victims and their families are now awaiting processing by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, because the residents of Beslan have no confidence in the Russian justice system. Only one of the terrorists has been sentenced. Three local police men who were accused of failing to respond in a timely and appropriate manner to information about the arrival of the terrorists were released without further explanation.