Beslan tragedy
The news reports on September 1, 2004 stunned the whole world. Early in the morning, a large group of heavily armed terrorists entered the town of Beslan (North Ossetia ) from the neighbouring Ingushetia and surrounded School #1 taking more than 1200 people hostages, including almost all of the students who attended the school and their parents, who had come to the school with flowers to celebrate the Day of Knowledge. They kept the hostages locked up in the school gym with no food and no water for three days. They executed most of the young men right away and set up plenty of bombs all over the school. When two of the bombs accidentally exploded the parents, relatives of the hostages, volunteers and Russian Special Forces rushed in, chaotically storming the school in an unplanned move. As a result of those horrible days: 331 people died, 186 of them children. The vast majority of the other hostages were wounded.
HOPEFUL PLEA
(Remembering Beslan School Tragedy of September, 2004)
We stand to watch, yet once again
As tragedies go by
Same violence and terrorists
Which raise their heads up high
Same suffering and criminals
Same justice and same law
Now terrorism has no boundaries
As we all shockingly saw
So who’re the sinners in these crimes?
The rebels and their troops?
Or could it be, the world as one?
So downwardly we stoop
How can we view these acts of sin?
And stay so deafly silent
Lets stop to think and realize
This isn’t what is meant
What happened to respect and value?
We need a resolution
Let’s grasp the thought. We’re lacking love
We need a good solution
Stop letting children suffer
Stop letting people grieve
These things must now get recognized
And hopefully achieved
As looking down upon his makings
Lets make our Creator pleased
If we come forth, and join with love
The violence will be seized…
By: Dzerassa Kuchieva
(15 years old).
Representative of the Ossetian-Canadian youth
September 4, 2004
The folowing several pictures were taken during the visits of three groups of kids from Beslan to Toronto in 2005
At the meeting of Beslan children with Ossetian community of Toronto. February, 2005
On a top of CN Tower
Niagara Falls.February, 2005.
At Besolovs family and Russian-speaking community of St.Catherine.
Welcoming the Beslan orphans in aeroport.
It is a big pleasure to welcome, but hard to say "Good bye". May, 2005.
August 2005. A new group of Beslan children and their chaperons coming from Montreal meets the Ossetian community at the Circus School of Kantemirovs.
Ossetian folk dance - is probably the best expression of a joy, they experienced communicating with fellow Ossetians
Oleg Kantemirov meets the kids at his Circus School. August, 2005
At the Famous Players in Toronto. Don't we look like the Hollywood actors?
Natalia Glebova, Miss Universe Canada, who then became a Miss Universe 2005 meets Beslan children in Oleg Kantemirov and Tatiana Zubrilina's (at left) Circus School.