Children of the Siege

[seemslikeadream]

EYEWITNESS.
To the outside world the slaughter of innocent children by terrorists was an act of unspeakable barbarity. For the people of this close community it was something even worse …
By Andrew Osborn in Beslan, Russia



Artzamas spoke nervously yesterday stuttering and over-pronouncing his words, words which seemed incongruous in the mouth of a seven-year-old. As the boy played with two smaller lads too young to comprehend the situation, he occasionally shivered and twitched, his dark eyes flashing. “There was a loud explosion and then we started running. I ran with everyone else. We crawled out of the window and jumped, and then they started shooting at us from behind. I was afraid.”
Stuck for 53 hours in Beslan’s School Number One, Artzamas was one of the lucky ones; he survived. His father, however, did not. He was not even at the school when the terrorists moved in, but heard what had happened and sprinted there, only to be taken hostage with all the others and later shot.

Aza Ezaev, a family friend, looks at Artzamas with pity in her bloodshot, tearful eyes as the boy tries to behave like a child. It is clear, however, that he has already seen too much for someone so young.

“He doesn’t know his father is dead. He thinks he is helping recover the bodies from the school,” she whispers. “He has nobody, his mother abandoned him and his grandmother is seriously ill. I don’t know what will become of him.”

more
http://www.sundayherald.com/44593

[mia]

1. Stunned aftermath of siege bloodbath

KATE FOSTER and MURDO MacLEOD

BY LAST night Zalina Tsabolova had given up hope. With no news after a day of searching she went home, sat out on her balcony and resigned herself to the fact she will not see her 10-year-old son Marat alive again.

Below her, hundreds of other parents were still scouring hospitals desperate for news of their children. But Tsabolova knows in her heart her son is dead.

"Marat used to daydream," she said. "He used to dream of becoming president. We had such a clever little boy, he played chess so well. Why was he killed by the terrorists? What on earth kind of a victory is this for them and their cause? "

Crowds of bewildered relatives were yesterday at hospitals and morgues seeking news of their loved ones caught up in the Russian school siege, as the shock of Friday’s bloodbath turned to despair....

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1045952004

[Doosh]

2. god bless those children and there families

[Swede]

3. There is nothing that can justify this.