Hostages used as human shield in Beslan

The case of Nurpashi Kulayev, the only surviving terrorist who had taken part in the attack on school No 1 in Beslan, continued to be heard in North Ossetia's Supreme Court today. The previous hearing occurred on 13 September.

Fifteen victims came to the court hearing today, including nine minors with their parents as their legal representatives. However, three children refused to give evidence feeling bad, Caucasian Knot's correspondent reports.

"The third day that we spent in the dining hall was the most terrible for me," says Nadia Badoyev, 18. "When explosions occurred, one gunman made me crawl to the dining hall, crawl over dead bodies across the entire gymnasium. I was one of the first to enter the dining hall, and there was no one there. Kulayev was not there either, although he says that he was sitting in the dining hall. Then Khodov (one of the terrorists — ed.) made us stand up in the windows, but I declined because I saw people fall down, in blood because of bullets that flew in from the street, as soon as they stood up in the windows. They were making someone alive stand up to replace someone dead and so it went on endlessly. Then some explosives began to be thrown in from the street, I was just being torn away from the ground. When I tried to stand up, one of my legs failed and I looked down and saw that it was crushed."

Vitalii Makiyev, 11, insists t hat he saw a shot from the outside cause the first explosion. "The explosion was outside, as if something fiery flew in. They next drove us to the dining hall where they were killing us. Some small red ball then flew in from the street, it hit the wall and something hot flew into my ear from it. The grate then fell down and our 'alpha' special force began to shout from there, 'That's friends, don't be afraid!' Then one woman stood up and tried to jump out the window. But a gunman took up a machine gun and shot her dead."

Shalva Khanikoyev told the court that shooting had continued near the hospital in Vladikavkaz where he had been delivered on 3 September: "I crawled to the dining hall after the second explosion. My back was burning, I crawled up, got some water in a flask and poured everything on to a burning girl. After that, I was delivered to a hospital in Vladikavkaz. At one moment, shooting began there, too, and doctors began to jump out the windows. They told me to jump and so I did. They said later that some of the gunmen had broken through."

Bella and Vova Gubiyev, b. 1991 and 1994, had been lucky to get out the burning school. Describing all attack details in court, the children said that school headmaster Lydia Tsaliyev ahd treated them badly. "She even was entering the school calmly when everyone was scared, running and breaking the windows," says Bella. "There is a toilet near the gymnasium and we wanted to drink water there, but there stood our headmaster. She told us, 'Don't even think about water.' And she turned us out of there."

A break until 27 September was announced in the process, Caucasian Knot's correspondent reports.

Tamerlan Aguzarov, chief justice in the Beslan terrorist act trial and head of the Supreme Court of North Ossetia, said earlier that the court was to interrogate around 1,500 victims and around 80 eyewitnesses, according to Interfax. A little more than 200 people have been interrogated presently. Therefore, the trial of Kulayev may continue many months, said the chief justice.

The terrorist act in Beslan resulted in 331 people dying in early September 2004, including 318 hostages, a local resident who took part in saving the hostages, two officers of the Civil Defence and Emergencies Ministry, and 10 commandos. One more victim of the terrorist act, 32-year-old Marina Zhukayev died in a Vladikavkaz hospital in early August 2005, having been connected to a medical ventilation apparatus all that time.

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