”A PRAYER FOR BESLAN”
A documentary by Øystein Bogen
(ethnic North Ossetian music)
Mountain, with sunrise over Beslan.
Heavy gunfire in the background.
A man running with a bleeding child
A woman mourning over her dead sons
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
Why did our people die? Nobody wants to tell us the truth.
More gunfire…Casualties
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Everybody that survived are accused of something.
People in mourning
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
God is my witness: None of us who survived wanted any of the children to be hurt.
Funerals
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Paraliament and Head of Investigative Commission.
We convinced the people that there would be no assault. We believed that there would be no assault.
A mosaic of stills of children presented as a jigsaw puzzle.
Title: A prayer for Beslan
V.O: Beslan - a peaceful and hospitable small town at the base of the mighty Caucasus Mountains, Some 100 kilometres west of war-torn Chechnya.
A town were people might want to stay for the rest of their lives.
In this poem, written in the summer of 2004, 12- year old Emma summons up her feelings for her town, shared by many in this small community.
Beslan, my town…
My dear home town.
Here I will live for a long time.
There are so many places dear to me.
Amongst them I will always wander….
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Before September 1st everything was different. We were alive then. We were happy. I was the happiest person in the whole world. I had two daughters who I expected to grow up and flourish.
V.O Emma was one of thousands of Russian school children and teachers who were preparing themselves for the new school year that day.
V.O:During the summer Emma and her best friends, Svetlana and Aza, had been looking forward to starting in the 6th grade.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The first day of school is a celebration for us.
A day of joy!
V.O. The school's principal Lydia Tsaliyeva had risen very early this morning. After 52 years at School no. 1, this was supposed to be her last year before retirement.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1: Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1
I got up early. I got up early and dressed smartly. I wanted to look my best. I didn’t want to forget anything.
Walks out the door….
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
I left home sometime between 8:05 and 8:10. I got to the school at 8:20. I had to check if everything was ready, that the workers had completed their work on time…
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
I had followed them to school. It was 08:30. I left, but I stopped and followed them with my eyes. The neighbour later said that I stood there for so long that it looked like I had sensed something, the way I watched them.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
This is the way she was on September 1st. And then she set off to school, and never came back. This is the last picture of her.
V.O. In another apartment in Beslan, 10-year old Vladik was getting ready for the first day of school too. He wasn’t equally excited about getting there.
Vladik walks about in the apartment. Goes out into the hall and walks down the stairs.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
… I dressed him and sent him off to school. If I hadn’t told him to hurry up, he would have have been late. I kept nagging him. “Hurry up, or you will be late.” And off he went.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The children were extraordinarily beautiful. They are always beautiful, but on this day they were quite stunning, dressed in their white uniforms and carrying flowers. I just loved them so much.
V.O: Just before 10 a.m., all 37 classes and their teachers had gathered in the schoolyard – ready to listen to the Principal’s usual speech at the beginning of the school year.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
I looked at my watch, and it was 9:40 a.m, and suddenly I noticed a group of people in black masks closing in on my children. They are screaming, shooting.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
At first we didn’t understand what was going on. We thought it might be fireworks.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Granny was asking about the shooting. It’s probably nothing, I said. Perhaps the neighbours are busy target shooting...
Then there was more gunfire, and I realised something was wrong. I got on the telephone.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
At first I was angry. I thought – what is going on? Then they started shouting. “You are hostages. Everybody go to the gym.”
V.O: At 09:50 local time the police received a dramatic call, saying that the school had been taken over by terrorists. Only a small number of people managed to escape in the chaos that ensued.
More than 1000 children and women were stowed in the schools' gym by the 32 well-organised hostage takers. Most of the male hostages were executed and dumped in the back yard.
The whole world's attention was abruptly turned towards this small and previously unknown town.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
And we were standing on outside, waiting. We didn’t leave until midday.
Pictures. Troops. People waiting outside the school. Music.
Woman outside:
Everybody is waiting for news, something to give us hope. But we don’t know anything…
More pix of people waiting and wattching
Woman outside:
My head is empty, I’m in a daze… I hope they will release my children. All of the children.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
Around 11 o’clock. Someone from Interfax called and asked: Are you going to Beslan or not?
Why should I go there? I asked.
-The terrorists have been asking for you, they have taken over a school. What do you say?
I said: I’m on my way. It took me three hours and it might have been quicker if the Government had provided me with a plane. I arrived in Beslan about 5 p.m.
V.O: Paediatric Surgeon Leonid Roshal, who also led negotiations in 2002 when Chechen terrorists held an entire Moscow theatre hostage, was facing a hopeless task, as he was expected to reason with the desperate hostage takers and get some of the children released.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
…When I arrived there, I started negotiating with them straight away. We talked on cell phones. I asked them to start releasing children and allow medication and food to be brought in for the children. They warned me that if I tried to do this on my own and got closer than 30 meters, they would kill me.
V.O: Inside the gym, the terrorists – under the leadership of a man who called himself the Colonel - had suspended bombs over the heads of the hostages. One of them had his foot on a pedal that he kept pumping.
The bombs were rigged to go off if the pressure on the pedal was lifted.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator.
Judging by the man's accent he was from the Caucasus. It was difficult to determine his age, and they didn’t use his name….But he said he came from the mountains – a man of the mountains.
I told him that mountain people didn’t act like this. Never ever. They don’t harm women and children.
-What was his answer?
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
He said: That’s what you think! Then he hung up.
When I called him again fifteen minutes later, he acted like our first conversation had never taken place.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
They told us right away: We are not going to drink anything. We are not going to eat anything. Neither are you. Nobody will have any water, because the water has been poisoned. So don’t even think about water!
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Here there was a small platform. He was sitting there.
V.O: Zalina was there on that day, with her twelve-year old son..
V.O. She decided to make contact with one of the terrorists. But this was something she was to regret later.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I was sitting below one of them, and gradually started talking to him. I talked him into letting some of the children go in there to have a drink. He said OK. Later he said no - not allowed. His mood was changing all the time. I felt like yelling at him, but I didn’t dare. I didn’t dare. You have to be quiet, be angry, and die, I told myself.
V.O: The lack of drinking water very soon became an acute problem in the hot gym. After a while some of the children had to resort to drinking their own urine.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
It was terrible when the children went over to the buckets and started drinking their own urine.
They used their white scarves that we had finally got them for their school uniforms. They tore them up, soaked them and put them in their mouths, sucking all the moisture out of the velvet fabric.
GVs inside school gym
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
I kept changing the focus of the conversation, asking how many of them were sick, how sick they were, how we could get medication to them, to release children, release the sick, release them all, what he wanted, what his demands were. Just to keep the conversation going. And these negotiations were necessary.
V.O: On the second day of the hostage siege, the situation in Beslan started to deteriorate badly. The relatives wanted to know what was being done to ensure that the hostages were released. According to government officials, the hostage takers had NOT specified any demands, and the negotiations were at an impasse.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
When the crowd started gathering, it was our job was to prevent people from undertaking any spontaneous actions. Some people wanted us to storm the building right away.
Politician Stanislav Kesayev heads the North Ossetian Commission which is investigating the tragedy in Beslan. During the hostage siege he was ordered to pass on the lie that the terrorists had attacked the school at random.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
The demands came at once:
Withdraw Russian troops from Chechnya, end the war in Chechnya.
But somebody in the federal government didn’t like this, announcing that the children had been taken hostage for no reason at all.
V.O:In another upsetting statement, the government claimed that there were no more than 354 hostages in the gym.
Protesting women.
Why are they saying 350? There has to be more than one thousand people in there, including mothers, fathers, aunts, relatives and grandparents!
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The Colonel asked me to count the number in there. I agreed, and they escorted me back to the gym. I told my young teachers to count them, we started counting and concluded that there were more than one thousand people there. I told him so.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Any idiot in Beslan knew that the number was higher. Everybody knew. I had a hunch…a bad feeling. If there were more than 500 hostages, it would be a huge international outcry.
GVs troops preparing outside school.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
There was nothing I could do. I was just an ordinary soldier, I was supposed to deal with the public, and my orders were clear.
I didn’t know about the numbers that were given until I heard it from the press, but someone at the top must have come up with this number. A lot of other strange ideas emanated there as well.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
…I realised that the number was higher. That is why, apart from negotiating with the terrorists, I started organising medical emergency measures, both in Beslan and Vladikavkaz. As events unfolded, it was important to have one thousand hospital beds made available.)
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
Maybe it was a good thing that they were so few in there. I was afraid they were going to storm the building. This was my biggest concern. Because of this.
V.O: During the afternoon of the second day, the hostage takers agreed to release some of the smallest children – and their mothers.
V.O: Roshal felt the time was right to ask for more.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
I told them that if they would give themselves up, we would give them safe passage. I offered to volunteer to join them if they were to come out in a single file...We talked about his, but they wouldn’t agree to anything.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I told him: “Your demands haven’t been met. Let’s get out of here. Place us at the windows, hide behind us, and no one will be able to distinguish between terrorists and parents. In this way we will all stay alive.” But they would have none of it.
V.O. On the third and last day of the siege, an ominous calm had settled over Beslan. There was nothing to suggest that an assault was under way.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
On the morning of the third – Did you notice anything?
No, I can’t say I felt that anything was brewing.
Up until the last moment I tried to get in.
V.O: At the same time, inside the gym the mood was grim. By now, several of the smallest children were so weak from lack of food and water that they lost consciousness. Others just couldn’t stop sobbing.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
It was terrible to see my children starting to lose consciousness. It was simply incomprehensible. They could no longer stand up, they stumbled over each other. Everyone had a look of exhaustion and hopelessness in their eyes.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Someone has told me that my daughter Emma started sobbing on the third day. One boy found the strength to get a piece of cloth and wipe her tears. A small boy could do this.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I was scared too, but when you see the eyes of a totally terrified child, death no longer scares you. With a two-year-old and a six-year-old sitting beside me, I was wondering how on earth they would be able to survive a third day.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
They called me. The Colonel and two others. I asked them what they wanted.
“There is no need for you. Nobody wants to set you free. Nobody wants to negotiate. I’ll give you two hours. If our demands aren’t met within two hours, I’ll push the button and everybody in here will fly up to Allah. Everybody!”
V.O: Three days without food and hardly any sleep had not only taken its toll on the hostages. The terrorists themselves probably felt that they were loosing their grip.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The people standing guard kept firing off shots and screaming. They couldn’t stand the noise. It was impossible to keep people quiet. The sound was deafening and there were a lot of people there.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
About 40 minutes before the bombs went off, he asked me to leave my son there. “Come with me.” I didn’t even think about being killed, as they had not killed any women. We went down the hall, and got out of there.
I asked him where we were going.
He said: “We found some chickens in the freezer. You will cook for us.“
V.O: Zalina and two of the staff from the school cafeteria were taken to the kitchen. When they got there, they sensed that something terrible was about to happen.
Tape 1. Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
The cafeteria was completely empty.
All the windows were broken, and there was broken glass everywhere…
… The cleaning lady looked at all the broken glass on the floor, and asked if she could go back and fetch her shoes, since she was barefooted. But he said: Don't go. You won’t come back.
V.O: The truth about what really happened during the next few minutes remains obscure. Outside the school there were still no signs of an imminent assault. But the main theory is linked to a truck seen driving towards the school a few minutes before 1 p.m.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
There are many explanations, and it might have been a coincidence. But I saw with my own eyes a truck with a concealed flatbed leaving the city hall, with two men from the Civil Defence. They were going to pick up the bodies.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
He went out, and the cook took a large knife and started cutting up the hens. They were frozen and very hard. But she had hardly started before he came running back, shouting: “Back to the gym, quick! Run!”
V.O. At this time, the hostage takers might have BELIEVED that a counterattack was under way – when spotting the Civil Defence vehicle.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Our daughter was sitting here…(Newspaper). This is from the cassette that the bandits themselves recorded and sent out.
Pictures from a home video. Emma marked with a white circle.
V.O. While the situation was spiralling out of control in the gym, three little girls – Aza, Svetlana and Emma had huddled together. In spite of all this – they hadn’t forgotten that it was their classmate Madina's birthday.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
... On that day she turned 11.
The other girls went to wish her happy birthday. At that moment the explosions started. First one, then two, three. And the girls died.
(Pictures of panic-stricken people… explosions)
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:.
They screamed to each other: “Faster, faster, run!” The terrorists were shouting: “Everybody to the cafeteria. Run. The ceiling is on fire and it is going to collapse!”
(…..Pictures, gunfire)
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator.
No one knows what set off this explosion, which in turn set in motion a chain of events. The children were dashing out. The women were dashing out. They climbed out of the windows. Then they started shooting at them. And our people responded by shooting at the terrorists. This was not a planned operation.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:.
We ran back into the cafeteria. There was no one there, so we got down on the floor. Soon after the bombing started. They were throwing grenades and stuff.
(Explosions)
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
I fainted when the explosions started. I didn’t hear the second and the third explosion. When I woke up, I saw one of my teachers sitting on a bench right beside me. By her feet there was piece of something bloody.
(Pictures of children escaping)
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
The explosion killed most of them. It went off below the air ducts. He was sitting on the opposite side. He was just lucky, because they had moved him there. During the first two days he was sitting in the middle. On the third day, after they had been to the toilet, there was no more room for him, so he had to move closer to the exit. It was a good thing that he had to go to the toilet. Otherwise he would have been sitting in the middle, and he would have died.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
They dragged me by my feet into the small hall next door, and threw me into an ambulance that went straight to the hospital.
V.O: The terrorists had now moved from the gym – together with some of the hostages, to other parts of the school. The totally unprepared Russian forces were now firing blindly at the building. Zalina and several others were still lying on the floor of the cafeteria. The man that Zalina had spoken to then decided to help her one LAST time.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Afterwards one of them (the terrorists) called: “One of you, jump out the window. Go and tell them that there are still children here.” The cook offered to do it. She ran off and returned with the Special Forces, who came sliding towards us. There were two of them, and they were crawling diagonally towards us. One of them came up to the window and told us to climb out. It was very frightening to climb out into a shower of bullets.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1
Then I saw several other women out here, and I saw my son. He was surprised to see me, saying: “Mummy, you’re alive!” He was so surprised, but I was probably even more surprised than him!
V.O The gunfire continued for another three hours after the initial explosion. Nobody knew how many hostages were still were inside the school. Finally the distraught parents took their own cars and drove through the barricades, in a desperate attempt to find their children. Larisa Afanasova had almost given up hope – when she got a call from the hospital.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
(Talking on phone)
Vladik, my dear! Where are you?
I see (crying)
Thank you. Thanks you so much!
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
He had a wound here…(unbuttons the jacket). Here he has some bruises, and on his back too…He was very lucky. He was born lucky. (Hugs him)
Stanislav Keseyev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:;
If this was a professional operation, why was it conducted in such an inapt manner?
All the different branches with their various generals wanted to be the ones to free the hostages, so they would be honoured and receive medals. But when it all went to hell in a hand basket, everybody went out of their way to deny any responsibility for it.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
…I went straight to the hospital in Beslan, where the injured were already pouring in. I started treating them and got busy with the medical work at hand. Wounds had to be dressed and operations had to be performed.
…I checked all children who were transferred to Vladikavkaz.
-How many children did you save that night?
I didn’t count. I just tried to help all of the children.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
At first they said that everybody had survived…all of the children. And I was relieved to hear this.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
We were searching through all the hospitals. I went to all the intensive care units. I searched everywhere. I wouldn’t allow myself to think that she might be dead. Because she was so spunky and energetic. So full of life. I thought all along that she had survived.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
This is my profession, this is what I’m good at… And when I’m working, I don’t have any feelings. I’m just working.
It’s harder now than before.
-How is that?
I don’t want to talk about it, but it’s tough. I try not to think about it, because the images I get are so horrifying.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Then they found her. I didn’t see her myself, but my brother identified her.
Then saw a photograph…The body and the head were totally carbonised. It was terrible. I still can’t believe that it was her. I don’t want to admit it to myself.
V.O : There was not enough room in the cemetery in Beslan.
So they dug up an entire field and turned it into a cemetery for the 330 victims.
Today – more than 180 children and entire families that were wiped out on that fateful day have been laid to rest here.
September 3rd, 2004.
Transition to a dark apartment block. Lights are on in a room on the first floor.
Melancholic singing.
Vladik’s family gathered around a table. Eating and drinking.)
Alexander Afanasov/Vladik’s father:
We are all Christians. Let us drink and praise the Lord. He has always given us reasons to gather. We are gathered here to celebrate our son’s birthday. He has given him to us, TWICE. For GOD. Cheers-
V.O. Three months have passed. Vladik – who survived the hostage tragedy – is celebrating his 11th birthday with his parent back home in their apartment. A special occasion for the entire family.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
Yes, this is his second birthday. From now on, his birthday will first and foremost be the 3rd of September. He was born again on this day, the 3rd of September. From now on he will have two birthdays. On the 8th and the 3rd.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother: (sitting with and Vladik on the sofa with a photo album.)
This is his class at school.
He is dead, he is dead. She is dead. He is dead. The others are dead.
V.O: Vladik has become a quiet and reserved boy. His mother doesn’t want him to go to school. He is seldom allowed to go out on his own. The puppies in the street are his only playmates.
Vladik Afanasov/Hostage in School No.1:
(Vladik stands up, pointing).
My friend used to live over there. The fourth entrance.
-What happened to him?
Him and his family burned up.
-Burned up?
(Nods.)
-Was he your best friend?
(Nods.)
Larisa Afanasova/Mother
Mentally he is destroyed, of course. He is afraid to go out in the street. And when he hears a noise of some kind, he gets scared and comes running in to us. He never wants to be alone. When I’m at work, he has to be alone sometimes. Then he just sits in his room, and he’s afraid to go anywhere... All his friends are dead. So he has no playmates. There are hardly any kids at his age left in this street.
V.O: In the small town of Beslan there is still a feeling of bottomless grief for all the lost children.
V.O. But their sorrow has brought with it something else. Hatred, anger and suspicion, permeating a community that once was so idyllic.
There are plenty of accusations. Towards all the survivors, but especially towards the teachers.
V.O: In the wake of the hostage siege, Zalina has been accused of conspiring with the terrorists, because she communicated with them in the gym.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Yes, all the survivors are accused of something or other. For example the teachers that survived are being accused of saving themselves instead of the children…
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
But they were there, and the Principal and the teachers were responsible for them!
Being a teacher means sacrifice….
At least they could have held the children's hands and sat with them. They could have comforted others rather than just their own children.
And when the bombs went off, she could have taken another child, and not just her son.
V.O In a tiny courtroom in the provincial capital Vladikavkaz the hostage siege trial is getting under way. Only ONE of the Beslan terrorists was captured alive. But the relatives of the victims want to bring a lot more people to justice. Today it’s Principal Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1: Tsalijeva turn on the witness stand. The audience is allowed to ask questions.
(In court room)
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
I tell you – I have never spoken to strangers. I have never had any secret conversations with them.
…I’m simply telling the truth.
Lady in courtroom:
Did you know the ones I lost there, Lydia Alexandrovna. I will never forgive you. Never!
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1
They are attacking us because we survived, I and the some other teachers. They are saying: You survived – their children survived. Ours died. Why? But as God is my witness! None of us ever wanted any of the children to die.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I want to leave this place because…I hear people talking behind my back. We haven’t become united in grief, as people often say. Even married couples haven’t gotten any closer after what happened. Quite the opposite, it has divided us. When this can happen to a small community, what’s next?
V.O The head of the board of inquiry thinks it’s the lack of honesty and information on the government's part that has pinned the survivors against each other. He doesn’t think they will see a conclusion to this in the foreseeable future.
Stanislav Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
The area should have been cordoned off. Every centimetre should have been combed through. But when the bulldozers started clearing the area of garbage and debris this spring, and they started to find body parts, that was just one more sign of an investigation gone wrong.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
People are desperate to find out the truth. They know what happened, but they didn’t want to tell us the truth.
… Why did they choose this small town of no importance? Why did they come here? They are hiding the truth about why they came here, and why they chose to attack our school…
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
That is why we have to resort to guesswork. In the time ahead people will still have to live in fear, because no one can guarantee that there will never be another Beslan, as long as the generals don’t have the courage to resign, and none of them have even apologised to the people.
The experiment with the Soviet people continues, even in the democratic Russia of today!
V.O. “Principal – it’s all your fault – we will kill you.” This is written on the walls of the burnt out school in Beslan. Lydia Tsalijeva has now resigned. The hate campaign against her proved simply too much to bear.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
My whole life has been School no. 1. For 52 years I’ve worked at this school.
What can I do? I can’t kill myself. While I’m still alive, I must continue to live, quietly and with dignity. No matter what kind of disgraceful things they are saying to me. I will weather it. I will stand tall… Because I know they are suffering more than me.
(Irina Khayeva at her daughter’s grave. Crying. Shouting out her daughter’s name.)
V.O: Every day for the past year Irina has cried on her daughter's grave. She hopes the world will never forget what happened, and that her beloved Emma will live on, remembered for her cheerful nature and the creativity that she possessed.
This poem is one of the last 12-year old Emma was able to write.
(Read by girl)
I am a cloud.
In the morning when silence fills the heaven and the earth. Up here the music is beautiful.
A blackbird is singing.
It’s nice to sit up here and look down at the people.
In that house the lights just went on.
And from that house three barefooted children are running.
A dog is barking.
A cock is crowing.
The sounds fill the silence.
And I fly, fly, fly into heaven.
THE END
A documentary by Øystein Bogen
(ethnic North Ossetian music)
Mountain, with sunrise over Beslan.
Heavy gunfire in the background.
A man running with a bleeding child
A woman mourning over her dead sons
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
Why did our people die? Nobody wants to tell us the truth.
More gunfire…Casualties
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Everybody that survived are accused of something.
People in mourning
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
God is my witness: None of us who survived wanted any of the children to be hurt.
Funerals
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Paraliament and Head of Investigative Commission.
We convinced the people that there would be no assault. We believed that there would be no assault.
A mosaic of stills of children presented as a jigsaw puzzle.
Title: A prayer for Beslan
V.O: Beslan - a peaceful and hospitable small town at the base of the mighty Caucasus Mountains, Some 100 kilometres west of war-torn Chechnya.
A town were people might want to stay for the rest of their lives.
In this poem, written in the summer of 2004, 12- year old Emma summons up her feelings for her town, shared by many in this small community.
Beslan, my town…
My dear home town.
Here I will live for a long time.
There are so many places dear to me.
Amongst them I will always wander….
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Before September 1st everything was different. We were alive then. We were happy. I was the happiest person in the whole world. I had two daughters who I expected to grow up and flourish.
V.O Emma was one of thousands of Russian school children and teachers who were preparing themselves for the new school year that day.
V.O:During the summer Emma and her best friends, Svetlana and Aza, had been looking forward to starting in the 6th grade.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The first day of school is a celebration for us.
A day of joy!
V.O. The school's principal Lydia Tsaliyeva had risen very early this morning. After 52 years at School no. 1, this was supposed to be her last year before retirement.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1: Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1
I got up early. I got up early and dressed smartly. I wanted to look my best. I didn’t want to forget anything.
Walks out the door….
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
I left home sometime between 8:05 and 8:10. I got to the school at 8:20. I had to check if everything was ready, that the workers had completed their work on time…
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
I had followed them to school. It was 08:30. I left, but I stopped and followed them with my eyes. The neighbour later said that I stood there for so long that it looked like I had sensed something, the way I watched them.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
This is the way she was on September 1st. And then she set off to school, and never came back. This is the last picture of her.
V.O. In another apartment in Beslan, 10-year old Vladik was getting ready for the first day of school too. He wasn’t equally excited about getting there.
Vladik walks about in the apartment. Goes out into the hall and walks down the stairs.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
… I dressed him and sent him off to school. If I hadn’t told him to hurry up, he would have have been late. I kept nagging him. “Hurry up, or you will be late.” And off he went.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The children were extraordinarily beautiful. They are always beautiful, but on this day they were quite stunning, dressed in their white uniforms and carrying flowers. I just loved them so much.
V.O: Just before 10 a.m., all 37 classes and their teachers had gathered in the schoolyard – ready to listen to the Principal’s usual speech at the beginning of the school year.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
I looked at my watch, and it was 9:40 a.m, and suddenly I noticed a group of people in black masks closing in on my children. They are screaming, shooting.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
At first we didn’t understand what was going on. We thought it might be fireworks.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Granny was asking about the shooting. It’s probably nothing, I said. Perhaps the neighbours are busy target shooting...
Then there was more gunfire, and I realised something was wrong. I got on the telephone.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
At first I was angry. I thought – what is going on? Then they started shouting. “You are hostages. Everybody go to the gym.”
V.O: At 09:50 local time the police received a dramatic call, saying that the school had been taken over by terrorists. Only a small number of people managed to escape in the chaos that ensued.
More than 1000 children and women were stowed in the schools' gym by the 32 well-organised hostage takers. Most of the male hostages were executed and dumped in the back yard.
The whole world's attention was abruptly turned towards this small and previously unknown town.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
And we were standing on outside, waiting. We didn’t leave until midday.
Pictures. Troops. People waiting outside the school. Music.
Woman outside:
Everybody is waiting for news, something to give us hope. But we don’t know anything…
More pix of people waiting and wattching
Woman outside:
My head is empty, I’m in a daze… I hope they will release my children. All of the children.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
Around 11 o’clock. Someone from Interfax called and asked: Are you going to Beslan or not?
Why should I go there? I asked.
-The terrorists have been asking for you, they have taken over a school. What do you say?
I said: I’m on my way. It took me three hours and it might have been quicker if the Government had provided me with a plane. I arrived in Beslan about 5 p.m.
V.O: Paediatric Surgeon Leonid Roshal, who also led negotiations in 2002 when Chechen terrorists held an entire Moscow theatre hostage, was facing a hopeless task, as he was expected to reason with the desperate hostage takers and get some of the children released.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
…When I arrived there, I started negotiating with them straight away. We talked on cell phones. I asked them to start releasing children and allow medication and food to be brought in for the children. They warned me that if I tried to do this on my own and got closer than 30 meters, they would kill me.
V.O: Inside the gym, the terrorists – under the leadership of a man who called himself the Colonel - had suspended bombs over the heads of the hostages. One of them had his foot on a pedal that he kept pumping.
The bombs were rigged to go off if the pressure on the pedal was lifted.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator.
Judging by the man's accent he was from the Caucasus. It was difficult to determine his age, and they didn’t use his name….But he said he came from the mountains – a man of the mountains.
I told him that mountain people didn’t act like this. Never ever. They don’t harm women and children.
-What was his answer?
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
He said: That’s what you think! Then he hung up.
When I called him again fifteen minutes later, he acted like our first conversation had never taken place.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
They told us right away: We are not going to drink anything. We are not going to eat anything. Neither are you. Nobody will have any water, because the water has been poisoned. So don’t even think about water!
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Here there was a small platform. He was sitting there.
V.O: Zalina was there on that day, with her twelve-year old son..
V.O. She decided to make contact with one of the terrorists. But this was something she was to regret later.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I was sitting below one of them, and gradually started talking to him. I talked him into letting some of the children go in there to have a drink. He said OK. Later he said no - not allowed. His mood was changing all the time. I felt like yelling at him, but I didn’t dare. I didn’t dare. You have to be quiet, be angry, and die, I told myself.
V.O: The lack of drinking water very soon became an acute problem in the hot gym. After a while some of the children had to resort to drinking their own urine.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
It was terrible when the children went over to the buckets and started drinking their own urine.
They used their white scarves that we had finally got them for their school uniforms. They tore them up, soaked them and put them in their mouths, sucking all the moisture out of the velvet fabric.
GVs inside school gym
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
I kept changing the focus of the conversation, asking how many of them were sick, how sick they were, how we could get medication to them, to release children, release the sick, release them all, what he wanted, what his demands were. Just to keep the conversation going. And these negotiations were necessary.
V.O: On the second day of the hostage siege, the situation in Beslan started to deteriorate badly. The relatives wanted to know what was being done to ensure that the hostages were released. According to government officials, the hostage takers had NOT specified any demands, and the negotiations were at an impasse.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
When the crowd started gathering, it was our job was to prevent people from undertaking any spontaneous actions. Some people wanted us to storm the building right away.
Politician Stanislav Kesayev heads the North Ossetian Commission which is investigating the tragedy in Beslan. During the hostage siege he was ordered to pass on the lie that the terrorists had attacked the school at random.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
The demands came at once:
Withdraw Russian troops from Chechnya, end the war in Chechnya.
But somebody in the federal government didn’t like this, announcing that the children had been taken hostage for no reason at all.
V.O:In another upsetting statement, the government claimed that there were no more than 354 hostages in the gym.
Protesting women.
Why are they saying 350? There has to be more than one thousand people in there, including mothers, fathers, aunts, relatives and grandparents!
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The Colonel asked me to count the number in there. I agreed, and they escorted me back to the gym. I told my young teachers to count them, we started counting and concluded that there were more than one thousand people there. I told him so.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Any idiot in Beslan knew that the number was higher. Everybody knew. I had a hunch…a bad feeling. If there were more than 500 hostages, it would be a huge international outcry.
GVs troops preparing outside school.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
There was nothing I could do. I was just an ordinary soldier, I was supposed to deal with the public, and my orders were clear.
I didn’t know about the numbers that were given until I heard it from the press, but someone at the top must have come up with this number. A lot of other strange ideas emanated there as well.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
…I realised that the number was higher. That is why, apart from negotiating with the terrorists, I started organising medical emergency measures, both in Beslan and Vladikavkaz. As events unfolded, it was important to have one thousand hospital beds made available.)
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
Maybe it was a good thing that they were so few in there. I was afraid they were going to storm the building. This was my biggest concern. Because of this.
V.O: During the afternoon of the second day, the hostage takers agreed to release some of the smallest children – and their mothers.
V.O: Roshal felt the time was right to ask for more.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
I told them that if they would give themselves up, we would give them safe passage. I offered to volunteer to join them if they were to come out in a single file...We talked about his, but they wouldn’t agree to anything.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I told him: “Your demands haven’t been met. Let’s get out of here. Place us at the windows, hide behind us, and no one will be able to distinguish between terrorists and parents. In this way we will all stay alive.” But they would have none of it.
V.O. On the third and last day of the siege, an ominous calm had settled over Beslan. There was nothing to suggest that an assault was under way.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
On the morning of the third – Did you notice anything?
No, I can’t say I felt that anything was brewing.
Up until the last moment I tried to get in.
V.O: At the same time, inside the gym the mood was grim. By now, several of the smallest children were so weak from lack of food and water that they lost consciousness. Others just couldn’t stop sobbing.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
It was terrible to see my children starting to lose consciousness. It was simply incomprehensible. They could no longer stand up, they stumbled over each other. Everyone had a look of exhaustion and hopelessness in their eyes.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Someone has told me that my daughter Emma started sobbing on the third day. One boy found the strength to get a piece of cloth and wipe her tears. A small boy could do this.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I was scared too, but when you see the eyes of a totally terrified child, death no longer scares you. With a two-year-old and a six-year-old sitting beside me, I was wondering how on earth they would be able to survive a third day.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
They called me. The Colonel and two others. I asked them what they wanted.
“There is no need for you. Nobody wants to set you free. Nobody wants to negotiate. I’ll give you two hours. If our demands aren’t met within two hours, I’ll push the button and everybody in here will fly up to Allah. Everybody!”
V.O: Three days without food and hardly any sleep had not only taken its toll on the hostages. The terrorists themselves probably felt that they were loosing their grip.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
The people standing guard kept firing off shots and screaming. They couldn’t stand the noise. It was impossible to keep people quiet. The sound was deafening and there were a lot of people there.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
About 40 minutes before the bombs went off, he asked me to leave my son there. “Come with me.” I didn’t even think about being killed, as they had not killed any women. We went down the hall, and got out of there.
I asked him where we were going.
He said: “We found some chickens in the freezer. You will cook for us.“
V.O: Zalina and two of the staff from the school cafeteria were taken to the kitchen. When they got there, they sensed that something terrible was about to happen.
Tape 1. Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
The cafeteria was completely empty.
All the windows were broken, and there was broken glass everywhere…
… The cleaning lady looked at all the broken glass on the floor, and asked if she could go back and fetch her shoes, since she was barefooted. But he said: Don't go. You won’t come back.
V.O: The truth about what really happened during the next few minutes remains obscure. Outside the school there were still no signs of an imminent assault. But the main theory is linked to a truck seen driving towards the school a few minutes before 1 p.m.
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
There are many explanations, and it might have been a coincidence. But I saw with my own eyes a truck with a concealed flatbed leaving the city hall, with two men from the Civil Defence. They were going to pick up the bodies.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
He went out, and the cook took a large knife and started cutting up the hens. They were frozen and very hard. But she had hardly started before he came running back, shouting: “Back to the gym, quick! Run!”
V.O. At this time, the hostage takers might have BELIEVED that a counterattack was under way – when spotting the Civil Defence vehicle.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Our daughter was sitting here…(Newspaper). This is from the cassette that the bandits themselves recorded and sent out.
Pictures from a home video. Emma marked with a white circle.
V.O. While the situation was spiralling out of control in the gym, three little girls – Aza, Svetlana and Emma had huddled together. In spite of all this – they hadn’t forgotten that it was their classmate Madina's birthday.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
... On that day she turned 11.
The other girls went to wish her happy birthday. At that moment the explosions started. First one, then two, three. And the girls died.
(Pictures of panic-stricken people… explosions)
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:.
They screamed to each other: “Faster, faster, run!” The terrorists were shouting: “Everybody to the cafeteria. Run. The ceiling is on fire and it is going to collapse!”
(…..Pictures, gunfire)
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator.
No one knows what set off this explosion, which in turn set in motion a chain of events. The children were dashing out. The women were dashing out. They climbed out of the windows. Then they started shooting at them. And our people responded by shooting at the terrorists. This was not a planned operation.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:.
We ran back into the cafeteria. There was no one there, so we got down on the floor. Soon after the bombing started. They were throwing grenades and stuff.
(Explosions)
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
I fainted when the explosions started. I didn’t hear the second and the third explosion. When I woke up, I saw one of my teachers sitting on a bench right beside me. By her feet there was piece of something bloody.
(Pictures of children escaping)
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
The explosion killed most of them. It went off below the air ducts. He was sitting on the opposite side. He was just lucky, because they had moved him there. During the first two days he was sitting in the middle. On the third day, after they had been to the toilet, there was no more room for him, so he had to move closer to the exit. It was a good thing that he had to go to the toilet. Otherwise he would have been sitting in the middle, and he would have died.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No. 1:
They dragged me by my feet into the small hall next door, and threw me into an ambulance that went straight to the hospital.
V.O: The terrorists had now moved from the gym – together with some of the hostages, to other parts of the school. The totally unprepared Russian forces were now firing blindly at the building. Zalina and several others were still lying on the floor of the cafeteria. The man that Zalina had spoken to then decided to help her one LAST time.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Afterwards one of them (the terrorists) called: “One of you, jump out the window. Go and tell them that there are still children here.” The cook offered to do it. She ran off and returned with the Special Forces, who came sliding towards us. There were two of them, and they were crawling diagonally towards us. One of them came up to the window and told us to climb out. It was very frightening to climb out into a shower of bullets.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1
Then I saw several other women out here, and I saw my son. He was surprised to see me, saying: “Mummy, you’re alive!” He was so surprised, but I was probably even more surprised than him!
V.O The gunfire continued for another three hours after the initial explosion. Nobody knew how many hostages were still were inside the school. Finally the distraught parents took their own cars and drove through the barricades, in a desperate attempt to find their children. Larisa Afanasova had almost given up hope – when she got a call from the hospital.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
(Talking on phone)
Vladik, my dear! Where are you?
I see (crying)
Thank you. Thanks you so much!
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
He had a wound here…(unbuttons the jacket). Here he has some bruises, and on his back too…He was very lucky. He was born lucky. (Hugs him)
Stanislav Keseyev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:;
If this was a professional operation, why was it conducted in such an inapt manner?
All the different branches with their various generals wanted to be the ones to free the hostages, so they would be honoured and receive medals. But when it all went to hell in a hand basket, everybody went out of their way to deny any responsibility for it.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
…I went straight to the hospital in Beslan, where the injured were already pouring in. I started treating them and got busy with the medical work at hand. Wounds had to be dressed and operations had to be performed.
…I checked all children who were transferred to Vladikavkaz.
-How many children did you save that night?
I didn’t count. I just tried to help all of the children.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
At first they said that everybody had survived…all of the children. And I was relieved to hear this.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
We were searching through all the hospitals. I went to all the intensive care units. I searched everywhere. I wouldn’t allow myself to think that she might be dead. Because she was so spunky and energetic. So full of life. I thought all along that she had survived.
Dr. Leonid Roshal/Pediatrician and Negotiator:
This is my profession, this is what I’m good at… And when I’m working, I don’t have any feelings. I’m just working.
It’s harder now than before.
-How is that?
I don’t want to talk about it, but it’s tough. I try not to think about it, because the images I get are so horrifying.
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
Then they found her. I didn’t see her myself, but my brother identified her.
Then saw a photograph…The body and the head were totally carbonised. It was terrible. I still can’t believe that it was her. I don’t want to admit it to myself.
V.O : There was not enough room in the cemetery in Beslan.
So they dug up an entire field and turned it into a cemetery for the 330 victims.
Today – more than 180 children and entire families that were wiped out on that fateful day have been laid to rest here.
September 3rd, 2004.
Transition to a dark apartment block. Lights are on in a room on the first floor.
Melancholic singing.
Vladik’s family gathered around a table. Eating and drinking.)
Alexander Afanasov/Vladik’s father:
We are all Christians. Let us drink and praise the Lord. He has always given us reasons to gather. We are gathered here to celebrate our son’s birthday. He has given him to us, TWICE. For GOD. Cheers-
V.O. Three months have passed. Vladik – who survived the hostage tragedy – is celebrating his 11th birthday with his parent back home in their apartment. A special occasion for the entire family.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
Yes, this is his second birthday. From now on, his birthday will first and foremost be the 3rd of September. He was born again on this day, the 3rd of September. From now on he will have two birthdays. On the 8th and the 3rd.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother: (sitting with and Vladik on the sofa with a photo album.)
This is his class at school.
He is dead, he is dead. She is dead. He is dead. The others are dead.
V.O: Vladik has become a quiet and reserved boy. His mother doesn’t want him to go to school. He is seldom allowed to go out on his own. The puppies in the street are his only playmates.
Vladik Afanasov/Hostage in School No.1:
(Vladik stands up, pointing).
My friend used to live over there. The fourth entrance.
-What happened to him?
Him and his family burned up.
-Burned up?
(Nods.)
-Was he your best friend?
(Nods.)
Larisa Afanasova/Mother
Mentally he is destroyed, of course. He is afraid to go out in the street. And when he hears a noise of some kind, he gets scared and comes running in to us. He never wants to be alone. When I’m at work, he has to be alone sometimes. Then he just sits in his room, and he’s afraid to go anywhere... All his friends are dead. So he has no playmates. There are hardly any kids at his age left in this street.
V.O: In the small town of Beslan there is still a feeling of bottomless grief for all the lost children.
V.O. But their sorrow has brought with it something else. Hatred, anger and suspicion, permeating a community that once was so idyllic.
There are plenty of accusations. Towards all the survivors, but especially towards the teachers.
V.O: In the wake of the hostage siege, Zalina has been accused of conspiring with the terrorists, because she communicated with them in the gym.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
Yes, all the survivors are accused of something or other. For example the teachers that survived are being accused of saving themselves instead of the children…
Irina Khayeva/Mother:
But they were there, and the Principal and the teachers were responsible for them!
Being a teacher means sacrifice….
At least they could have held the children's hands and sat with them. They could have comforted others rather than just their own children.
And when the bombs went off, she could have taken another child, and not just her son.
V.O In a tiny courtroom in the provincial capital Vladikavkaz the hostage siege trial is getting under way. Only ONE of the Beslan terrorists was captured alive. But the relatives of the victims want to bring a lot more people to justice. Today it’s Principal Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1: Tsalijeva turn on the witness stand. The audience is allowed to ask questions.
(In court room)
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
I tell you – I have never spoken to strangers. I have never had any secret conversations with them.
…I’m simply telling the truth.
Lady in courtroom:
Did you know the ones I lost there, Lydia Alexandrovna. I will never forgive you. Never!
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1
They are attacking us because we survived, I and the some other teachers. They are saying: You survived – their children survived. Ours died. Why? But as God is my witness! None of us ever wanted any of the children to die.
Zalina Albegova/Hostage in School No.1:
I want to leave this place because…I hear people talking behind my back. We haven’t become united in grief, as people often say. Even married couples haven’t gotten any closer after what happened. Quite the opposite, it has divided us. When this can happen to a small community, what’s next?
V.O The head of the board of inquiry thinks it’s the lack of honesty and information on the government's part that has pinned the survivors against each other. He doesn’t think they will see a conclusion to this in the foreseeable future.
Stanislav Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
The area should have been cordoned off. Every centimetre should have been combed through. But when the bulldozers started clearing the area of garbage and debris this spring, and they started to find body parts, that was just one more sign of an investigation gone wrong.
Larisa Afanasova/Mother:
People are desperate to find out the truth. They know what happened, but they didn’t want to tell us the truth.
… Why did they choose this small town of no importance? Why did they come here? They are hiding the truth about why they came here, and why they chose to attack our school…
Stanislav Kesayev/Vice-Speaker of Ossetian Parliament and Head of Investigative Commission:
That is why we have to resort to guesswork. In the time ahead people will still have to live in fear, because no one can guarantee that there will never be another Beslan, as long as the generals don’t have the courage to resign, and none of them have even apologised to the people.
The experiment with the Soviet people continues, even in the democratic Russia of today!
V.O. “Principal – it’s all your fault – we will kill you.” This is written on the walls of the burnt out school in Beslan. Lydia Tsalijeva has now resigned. The hate campaign against her proved simply too much to bear.
Lydia Tsaliyeva/Director of School No.1:
My whole life has been School no. 1. For 52 years I’ve worked at this school.
What can I do? I can’t kill myself. While I’m still alive, I must continue to live, quietly and with dignity. No matter what kind of disgraceful things they are saying to me. I will weather it. I will stand tall… Because I know they are suffering more than me.
(Irina Khayeva at her daughter’s grave. Crying. Shouting out her daughter’s name.)
V.O: Every day for the past year Irina has cried on her daughter's grave. She hopes the world will never forget what happened, and that her beloved Emma will live on, remembered for her cheerful nature and the creativity that she possessed.
This poem is one of the last 12-year old Emma was able to write.
(Read by girl)
I am a cloud.
In the morning when silence fills the heaven and the earth. Up here the music is beautiful.
A blackbird is singing.
It’s nice to sit up here and look down at the people.
In that house the lights just went on.
And from that house three barefooted children are running.
A dog is barking.
A cock is crowing.
The sounds fill the silence.
And I fly, fly, fly into heaven.
THE END