Fighting to stifle anguished cries, survivors of the Beslan tragedy and relatives of more than 300 dead hostages observed a minute of silence yesterday at the ruins of School Number One on the anniversary of the bloody finale to the tragedy.
Gathering under rain clouds, about 1,500 mourners stood in and around the ruins of the school to observe a minute of silence at 1:05pm, the precise moment when Russian rescue forces a year ago launched a chaotic attempt to rescue more than 1,100 hostages.
Only the sound of sobbing interrupted the silence.
"It was raining a year ago. It's a sign that God is crying with us," said Viktor Esiyev, who lost his son in the siege.
Across Russia ceremonies were held to commemorate the tragedy, which was a sharp reminder of the instability caused by the decade-old war in Chechnya, and which prompted President Vladimir Putin to significantly boost his grip on power.
Fierce criticism in Beslan over the conduct of officials and law enforcement during the three-day crisis has also become a major political issue.
The Beslan tragedy began last year on Sept. 1 when gunmen seized more than 1,100 students, parents and teachers while they celebrated the start to the academic year. It ended on Sept. 3 in a battle so fierce that much of the school was destroyed by fire and blast.
On Friday, the local Beslan Mothers Committee was able, after a year of requests, to take these concerns to Putin himself. Committee chairwoman Susanna Dudiyeva said that Putin "promised that we soon will see a real change in the situation, that the truth will be revealed and that the guilty will be named."
In the first concrete evidence that Putin has taken the Beslan mothers' criticism to heart, he ordered the prosecutor general yesterday to send a fact-finding team to Beslan to look into each of their claims.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)