Last week Svetlana Nikolaevna returned from Moscow. She had gone there to take part in memorial activities dedicated to the tragic events at Dubrovka, where her daughter and fiancй perished.

«Traditionally, on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on 'Nord-Ost', we travel to all the cemeteries,» said the Karaganda resident. «Then we go to Dubrovka. At the remembrances we walk past a tablet with the names of those who were killed. I barely saw anyone walk by the monument that the Moscow city government erected. Among ourselves, we call it a monument to impotence. It’s like the joke: one has to go somewhere while the cake is still fresh. In October of 2002, it had been a year that the musical ‘Nord-Ost’ was on the stage. A group of sculptures had been planned to celebrate this anniversary, but then the tragedy occurred. The money had already been budgeted, so they edited the monument a little and dedicated it to the hostages who died. The city government refused to put a plaque on the monument, so it turned out to be a faceless one. For a long time we tried to get a plaque, and though Moscow refused to budge, the region where Dubrovka is located decided to make a concession. A memorial plague was created, but it would hang on the building itself. This is why all our remembrances were held at the Dubrovka building, and not by the monument. We read a letter to Putin at the observances. We demanded that they finally put an end to the lying and conduct a fair investigation, so that the guilty are punished. There are several sites on the Internet that collected signatures. When Tatiana Karpova read our letter to Putin, it was funny to observe the administration's representatives.

»A woman official was handing out carnations. They descended the steps, walked around our large company and headed single file to the monument to lay down their flowers. They had to do this at the government's monument. Nevertheless, all the attention was on us…"

After the remembrances at Dubrovka, on October 27th, Svetlana Gubareva together with others victims from 'Nord-Ost' went to the Russian Attorney General's building in support of a protest by Beslan residents. This was the first protest by the 'Voice of Beslan' committee. The women had recently quit 'Mothers of Beslan', which suffered internal strife because some of the women who lost children had joined a religious sect by the faith healer Grabovoi, who was promising to «resurrect the Beslan children.» The new organization 'Voice of Beslan' has less than 50 members, and besides the mothers now includes men who lost loved ones at School No. 1 in Beslan.

«On the 27th, at 12 noon, I arrived at Bolshaya Dmitrovka,» continued Svetlana Nikolaevna. «The Beslan people were already there with picket signs. I especially liked one that read: „The Russian people, not Putin, should know the truth about the terror acts.“ I offered to hold this long placard with Pavel Finogenov (who lost his brother at the Dubrovka tragedy — author), since we think a lot alike. We were standing next to the Beslan people, near the fence around the Attorney General's office. Dima Milovidov (whose daughter died at Dubrovka — author) was also there.

„We stood there for a half-hour. Then I noticed that the policemen were making a fuss, and I knew something would happen soon. A policeman came up to us, and he started to ask who give us permission, who organized the protest. Ella Kesayeva had filed for a permit from the very same Attorney General's office, but it was explained that we were only allowed to hold the protest somewhere else, by the Investigations Directorate, which is far from the Attorney General's office itself. The Beslan people, however, weren't told about this. There were eight people in the protest, and a lot more journalists. It was amusing when the policeman with his bull-horn walked up to our little group, turned it on and tried to say something. We were deafened, and couldn't make out a single word, just a roaring in our ears. After this the police got more active; they weren't ashamed to arrest us. Pavel stood at the very edge, followed by myself, Ella Kesayeva, and the other Beslan people. They stood holding placards and were responding to the reporters' questions. RenTV asked me why I came. I explained that I believed that Beslan resulted from there never having been a real investigation into 'Nord-Ost', and that they were trying to silence Beslan in the same manner, and that no one is insured against something like Nalchik happening, or even worse. A policeman told us that we had to roll up our signs, and I told him that I couldn't even lower my arm: he was standing so close, while the journalists jostled me from behind. He stepped back two paces, and we rolled up our poster. After this, he demanded Pavel's papers. Pavel produced his passport. The policeman took it and led Pavel to a police car. Then he walked past me to Ella Kesayeva. He took her, another woman, and Dima Milovidov and set them in the vehicle, four in all. I remained standing on the street; I didn't know why. At first I thought that it wasn't fair that I was singled out, but later I decided that I really didn't want go to the police station. I called my lawyer and explained the situation. At about 2 P.M. we found the four being held at the Tverskoy police station.

“At the station they filled out criminal complaints against the arrested persons, but afterwards they apologized to the protesters and released them.»

Now 'Voice of Beslan' and 'Nord-Ost' are joining with other organizations of victims of Russian terrorist attacks. The relatives of the dead from the apartment blasts and assaults on 'Nord-Ost' and Beslan wish to fight for their rights, and obtain from the Kremlin the truth about these tragedies.

Natalya Fomina

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