Beslan Mothers Protest Ahead Of Anniversary

A funeral for a Beslan victim (file photo) 24 August 2005 (RFE/RL) - A group of women who lost children in the Beslan deadly school siege protested today in North Ossetia, accusing authorities of failing to investigate the tragedy properly ahead of next week's first anniversary.

Some 15 angry women spent the night in a courtroom in the regional capital Vladikavkaz, where Nurpachi Kuliev -- the man thought to be the only militant to survive the siege -- is on trial.

Some 330 people -- most of them children -- died after Chechen-related militants seized the school on 1 September 2004, and Russian police stormed the school a couple days later.

(Reuters/AP)

See also:

"The Kremlin After Beslan"

"In Russia, Tragedy Furthers Kremlin Vision Of Centralized State"

"Rumors, Theories Still Swirl Around Beslan Tragedy"