| Submit your comments on this article |
| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Budyonnovsk commemorates terror attack victims |
| 2008-06-15 |
| Religious services were held in cathedrals and churches in Budyonnovsk from the early morning on Saturday in commemoration of victims of the attack committed by Shamil Basayev's armed group of terrorists against the city. Hundreds of residents, relatives of victims and participants of those tragic events attended mourning meetings near the city police building and in the memorial garden near the city hospital. Years have passed since the terrible tragedy, but the pain for the innocent people killed by bandits does not ease off, Mayor Alexander Yurchenko said. A minuteÂ’s silence was observed at 12:20 Moscow time, when the bandit attack began. Delegations from other cities arrived in Budyonnovsk for the commemoration events. The terrorist attack against Budyonnovsk was one of the most tragic in the history. On June 14, 1995, bandits led by Basayev got into the city under the guise of an army unit. They went in big Kamaz trucks about 600 kilometres from Chechnya to Budyonnovsk. During the six days of their outrage in the city, they killed 129 civilians, policemen and servicemen. Other 18 innocent people later died of wounds. The centre of the tragic events was the city's central hospital. Basayev's gunmen drove more than 1,800 people from city streets into the main hospital building that has space for only 250 patients. The bandits held the people as hostages there, and among the hostages were hospital patients and personnel, women giving birth and newborn babies. After leaving the city and returning back to Chechnya, many of the terrorists participated then in combat actions against federal forces and were killed. Nineteen bandits were found by law-enforcement services and are serving long imprisonment terms to which they were sentenced by the Stavropol territorial court. |
| Posted by:ryuge |