AcrobatMan
Rock n' Roll Doggie
He ordered us to pray
and threw a grenade
From Will Stewart in Russia
THE children who survived the horror of Beslan yesterday relived visions of hell that will scar their souls for ever.
Sasha Pogrebov, 13, was the first to flee the mayhem as the siege reached its bloody climax in a firestorm of explosions and bullets.
Yesterday he was in hospital, his tiny body covered in burns. He had been held in the gym—once his favourite place.
"The rebels were so cruel with us, especially on Friday morning," he sobbed. "They didn't allow us to drink. Almost all of us were drinking urine. It's all we could do.
"We were undressed and one rebel noticed a little Orthodox cross round my neck. He came up to me, poked it with the barrel of his gun and said, ‘You, non-Muslim! Pray!'
‘So I began to pray to Jesus loudly...and they started throwing grenades into the crowd."
Schoolpal Zalina Vazagova, 13, was in terror too as the blasts started. "I heard a terrible crack above my head and closed my eyes," she said. "When I opened them I thought everyone around me was dead. I couldn't understand—was I alive or dead?
"There was so much blood all over me. One granny was lying nearby with a hole in her head.
"The body of our PE teacher had fallen on me. All the kids were crying ‘Please don't shoot! Please don't kill us!' But the rebels didn't listen. I was sitting near them and they forced me and some other girls to run.
"Luckily I came by an open window and just jumped out. A man in army uniform caught me and brought me to the ambulance."
Sobbing, she added: "My 10-year-old sister Lena was left inside there. I don't know if she's alive."
Survivor Salimat Suleimanova was put through a mother's ultimate torment by the terror gang.
She was released early with her two-month-old daughter Amina—but was forced to leave her son Shamil in the school.
Racked with guilt, she sobbed yesterday: "I begged the rebels on my knees to let me take him but they refused. Now I don't know where he is. It was only his first day at school. They didn't even allow me to go back and say goodbye to my son."
The distraught mum added: "Of about 1,200 hostages in there, many lay unconscious by the end of the second day without food and water.
"From time to time rebels took those out, poured water over their heads and threw them back into the crowd. The rebels took some men—the strongest, fittest ones—upstairs and soon we heard shooting. We presume they murdered them, although they claimed they were shot by Russian soldiers from their tanks outside."
Brave Diana Gadzhieva, 14, escaped along with 11-year-old sister Alina—then told how their mother also faced a nightmare decision when the rebels wanted to release her and their three-year-old sister Madina.
"We got so scared when Mum was leaving," said Diana. "But still we both begged her to go. Madina was crying almost all the time and the rebels got more and more nervous and irritated. I feared one moment they'd just shoot our mum.
"The rebels never allowed us to drink and eat. Some kids grabbed flowers and plants from a classroom and ate them.
"They also hid some in their knickers to share with others. It's not that bad to be hungry, much worse to be thirsty. I saw kids drinking their own urine.
"It was so hot inside there, that's why we were undressed. The rebels ordered us to lie down on the floor with our faces down. They vowed to shoot anyone who looked up."
Diana noticed the rise in tension on Friday. "We heard an explosion somewhere near, then gunfire," she said. "Panic started and a few boys jumped out of the windows.
"My sister and I didn't want to run out, we were scared of being shot dead. But then the second explosion came. It was just over our heads and something heavy fell down on us and others.
"People were shouting and I looked up and saw so many children around me lying in blood and not moving. Just next to me there was a dead woman all covered in blood. I also saw many arms and legs that had been torn away.
"All the bombs were connected with cords and started blowing up one after another, getting closer and closer to us.
"So I took Alina's hand and we ran to the window and jumped out. We were running as quickly as possible and our backs were terribly hot. We did not get any serious burns, though, so we went straight home.
"But our mum wasn't there. She'd been taken to hospital, Now she's feeling really bad because of all the stress. But, thank God, we're all OK."
Tales of incredible heroism emerged from the carnage, too.
Fifteen-year-old Arkadiy Zankaev said: "The floor was completely blown up near us. I was too weak and couldn't get out. But my friend Azamat Bekov saved me.
"He pushed me through an open window and then helped me escape.
"After the first explosion everyone had run to the windows. The elder kids helped the younger ones. Our parents followed us. But the rebels were shooting at us from the roof."
Arkadiy said his captors had spoken Russian and sometimes another language he couldn't identify when they talked among themselves.
"When I asked one of them for a drink, he hit me with a gun butt and shouted, ‘It's forbidden!'
"Many kids suffered from severe headaches. It was extremely hot inside the gym.
"Adults tore their clothes off and soaked them in their own urine to use as compresses on children's heads. It was such a horrid smell. My head was stinking so badly.
"We also saw the terrorists tear off hostages' civilian clothes so they could disguise themselves and escape into the town."
School cook Sima Albegova will never forget the nightmare conditions inside the siege.
"There were about 1,000 people in there just packed like sardines," she said.
"There was no way for all of us to sleep at the same time. There was no space.
"By Friday morning conditions were so bad that people could hardly breathe. Most of the kids were almost unconscious," said Sima.
"Those who could move started to pee into shoes and then drink the urine. It was all we could do. They'd take several sips then stop and cry because their chapped lips were burning.
"I begged the terrorists for water but they just said, ‘Go away! They will survive.' But so many have not."
After the great escape, little Marina Khudanova, aged seven, was lying in a field outside the hospital awaiting treatment.
Her thin legs were covered with fir-tree needles but she was too weak to brush them off. Her hair was matted with blood and her lips covered with soot.
"I am brave," she said. "But I will not go to school again. I will never go to that school. I will stay at home with Mummy." Twelve-year-old Dzerase Dzetskelova told her mother Indira that several 15-year-olds were raped by their captors and she had to listen to the victims' awful cries and screams.
Telling of her escape, Dzerase said: "We had to jump over dead bodies."
Then the traumatised youngster screamed: "Oh God no, don't make me remember it. Can I ever forget it? Is it possible one day I'll forget it?"
But she recovered her composure and continued: "The terrorists started to shoot at us from the roof. I saw kids and women fall to the ground. Then I looked up and saw that vermin's face.
"I saw his smile as he killed my friends."
and threw a grenade
From Will Stewart in Russia
THE children who survived the horror of Beslan yesterday relived visions of hell that will scar their souls for ever.
Sasha Pogrebov, 13, was the first to flee the mayhem as the siege reached its bloody climax in a firestorm of explosions and bullets.
Yesterday he was in hospital, his tiny body covered in burns. He had been held in the gym—once his favourite place.
"The rebels were so cruel with us, especially on Friday morning," he sobbed. "They didn't allow us to drink. Almost all of us were drinking urine. It's all we could do.
"We were undressed and one rebel noticed a little Orthodox cross round my neck. He came up to me, poked it with the barrel of his gun and said, ‘You, non-Muslim! Pray!'
‘So I began to pray to Jesus loudly...and they started throwing grenades into the crowd."
Schoolpal Zalina Vazagova, 13, was in terror too as the blasts started. "I heard a terrible crack above my head and closed my eyes," she said. "When I opened them I thought everyone around me was dead. I couldn't understand—was I alive or dead?
"There was so much blood all over me. One granny was lying nearby with a hole in her head.
"The body of our PE teacher had fallen on me. All the kids were crying ‘Please don't shoot! Please don't kill us!' But the rebels didn't listen. I was sitting near them and they forced me and some other girls to run.
"Luckily I came by an open window and just jumped out. A man in army uniform caught me and brought me to the ambulance."
Sobbing, she added: "My 10-year-old sister Lena was left inside there. I don't know if she's alive."
Survivor Salimat Suleimanova was put through a mother's ultimate torment by the terror gang.
She was released early with her two-month-old daughter Amina—but was forced to leave her son Shamil in the school.
Racked with guilt, she sobbed yesterday: "I begged the rebels on my knees to let me take him but they refused. Now I don't know where he is. It was only his first day at school. They didn't even allow me to go back and say goodbye to my son."
The distraught mum added: "Of about 1,200 hostages in there, many lay unconscious by the end of the second day without food and water.
"From time to time rebels took those out, poured water over their heads and threw them back into the crowd. The rebels took some men—the strongest, fittest ones—upstairs and soon we heard shooting. We presume they murdered them, although they claimed they were shot by Russian soldiers from their tanks outside."
Brave Diana Gadzhieva, 14, escaped along with 11-year-old sister Alina—then told how their mother also faced a nightmare decision when the rebels wanted to release her and their three-year-old sister Madina.
"We got so scared when Mum was leaving," said Diana. "But still we both begged her to go. Madina was crying almost all the time and the rebels got more and more nervous and irritated. I feared one moment they'd just shoot our mum.
"The rebels never allowed us to drink and eat. Some kids grabbed flowers and plants from a classroom and ate them.
"They also hid some in their knickers to share with others. It's not that bad to be hungry, much worse to be thirsty. I saw kids drinking their own urine.
"It was so hot inside there, that's why we were undressed. The rebels ordered us to lie down on the floor with our faces down. They vowed to shoot anyone who looked up."
Diana noticed the rise in tension on Friday. "We heard an explosion somewhere near, then gunfire," she said. "Panic started and a few boys jumped out of the windows.
"My sister and I didn't want to run out, we were scared of being shot dead. But then the second explosion came. It was just over our heads and something heavy fell down on us and others.
"People were shouting and I looked up and saw so many children around me lying in blood and not moving. Just next to me there was a dead woman all covered in blood. I also saw many arms and legs that had been torn away.
"All the bombs were connected with cords and started blowing up one after another, getting closer and closer to us.
"So I took Alina's hand and we ran to the window and jumped out. We were running as quickly as possible and our backs were terribly hot. We did not get any serious burns, though, so we went straight home.
"But our mum wasn't there. She'd been taken to hospital, Now she's feeling really bad because of all the stress. But, thank God, we're all OK."
Tales of incredible heroism emerged from the carnage, too.
Fifteen-year-old Arkadiy Zankaev said: "The floor was completely blown up near us. I was too weak and couldn't get out. But my friend Azamat Bekov saved me.
"He pushed me through an open window and then helped me escape.
"After the first explosion everyone had run to the windows. The elder kids helped the younger ones. Our parents followed us. But the rebels were shooting at us from the roof."
Arkadiy said his captors had spoken Russian and sometimes another language he couldn't identify when they talked among themselves.
"When I asked one of them for a drink, he hit me with a gun butt and shouted, ‘It's forbidden!'
"Many kids suffered from severe headaches. It was extremely hot inside the gym.
"Adults tore their clothes off and soaked them in their own urine to use as compresses on children's heads. It was such a horrid smell. My head was stinking so badly.
"We also saw the terrorists tear off hostages' civilian clothes so they could disguise themselves and escape into the town."
School cook Sima Albegova will never forget the nightmare conditions inside the siege.
"There were about 1,000 people in there just packed like sardines," she said.
"There was no way for all of us to sleep at the same time. There was no space.
"By Friday morning conditions were so bad that people could hardly breathe. Most of the kids were almost unconscious," said Sima.
"Those who could move started to pee into shoes and then drink the urine. It was all we could do. They'd take several sips then stop and cry because their chapped lips were burning.
"I begged the terrorists for water but they just said, ‘Go away! They will survive.' But so many have not."
After the great escape, little Marina Khudanova, aged seven, was lying in a field outside the hospital awaiting treatment.
Her thin legs were covered with fir-tree needles but she was too weak to brush them off. Her hair was matted with blood and her lips covered with soot.
"I am brave," she said. "But I will not go to school again. I will never go to that school. I will stay at home with Mummy." Twelve-year-old Dzerase Dzetskelova told her mother Indira that several 15-year-olds were raped by their captors and she had to listen to the victims' awful cries and screams.
Telling of her escape, Dzerase said: "We had to jump over dead bodies."
Then the traumatised youngster screamed: "Oh God no, don't make me remember it. Can I ever forget it? Is it possible one day I'll forget it?"
But she recovered her composure and continued: "The terrorists started to shoot at us from the roof. I saw kids and women fall to the ground. Then I looked up and saw that vermin's face.
"I saw his smile as he killed my friends."
