Beslan hostage victims exhibit photographs

AN exhibition of moving photographs taken by children held hostage during Russia’s Beslan school massacre opened yesterday.

The images show a collection of scenes - from the cemetery where victims are buried to a psychological rehabilitation centre where survivors were treated - and commemorate the first anniversary of the atrocity.

On September 1, 2004, armed militants seized Beslan’s School Number One with more than 1,100 hostages inside.

More than 330 people, most of them children, were killed in the three-day siege that ended in a hail of explosions and gunfire.

Nur-Pashi Kulayev - the only member of the group to be captured - is the only man to face trial for the massacre.

The pictures were produced after 13 school children, aged 13 to 18, took part in a workshop organised by Unicef and held by photographer Giacomo Pirozzi and journalist John Varoli.

Five of the youngsters involved in the project were held during the siege.

Soslan Dzugaev, 13, who won the workshop prize for best photo, said: “Visiting the family who had lost a child at the school was the toughest part.

“It was also tough to go to the school and to the cemetery, to see the graves of my neighbours who died; but seeing the faces of the smiling children was one of the better moments.”

Around 100 of the photographs will be on display at the Beslan Cultural Centre, North Ossetia, Russia until September 9.