After school carnage, Europe mourns with Russia
Agence France Presse — English
September 6, 2004 Monday 8:10 PM GMT
ROME Sept 6 — >>From silent marches to flags at half-mast and candles
flickering in the window, across Europe people of all ages honoured
Monday the victims of the bloody Russian school siege.
Up to 150,000 people joined a torchlit procession through the Italian
capital in a silent tribute to the hundreds of men, women and children
killed in Beslan in North Ossetia.
A group of children led the way under a banner reading “Rome with
the children of Beslan. They will not murder our future”, filing in
absolute silence from the Capitol to the Colosseum, two of the city’s
ancient landmarks.
“From Rome comes a message of great hope after the horror and
atrocities,” mayor Walter Veltroni, one of a group of politicians
who called for the march, said as it got under way.
On Capitol square, candles were laid in the shape of two giant hearts,
with between them the inscription “Good Bye Angels”.
The flags of Russia and the 44 other members of the Council of
Europe were lowered in the French city of Strasbourg where Russia’s
ambassador, Alexander Orlov, was among those who joined a minute’s
silence.
He used the occasion to reject criticism of Moscow for the savage
climax to the three-day hostage-taking siege which left at least 335
dead, according to an official toll.
“The slanderous allegations are offensive to the memory of the victims,
to the memory of those who saved the lives of children at the cost
of their own,” he said.
Speaking at the same ceremony, European Commissioner for Human Rights
Alvaro Gil-Robles said that “when terror tries to destroy our values,
we must be firm, not on the basis of revenge but of justice.”
Elsewhere across Europe, the messages of solidarity were less political
and more spontaneous.
In Brussels, the European Commission observed a minute’s silence in
memory of the dead. So did the Hungarian parliament, where Speaker
Katalin Szili said the events at the school in Beslan, southern Russia,
had “shaken our faith in humanity”.
In Berlin, Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer led some 220 German
ambassadors and officials starting a four-day diplomatic conference
in Berlin in a similar tribute.
The victims in Beslan included more than 150 children, who had been
herded into the school gymnasium with their parents and teachers
by armed gunmen who demanded independence for the nearby republic
of Chechnya.
In Chechnya itself, up to 400 employees of the pro-Russian
administration gathered in the capital Grozny in a tribute to the
victims.
The deputy head of the Chechen administration, Taus Jabrailov, said
his staff had agreed to donate a day’s salary to the families bereaved
by the tragedy.
Children throughout Poland, many dressed in black, stood in silence
for one minute before school classes began, following instructions
from the education ministry.
Polish radio stations fell silent for a minute. Prime Minister Marek
Belka told a radio interviewer: “On this day of tragedy in North
Ossetia, we are all Russians, we are all Ossetians.”
He added that “terrorism is a scourge, gangrene eating away our world,
and we must all fight it”.
Many Poles at the weekend lit candles outside the Russian embassy in
Warsaw and at Russian consulates. Passers-by also placed flowers and
candles outside the Russian embassy in Berlin.
The first ladies of Armenia and Poland together laid wreathes of
flowers and lit candles outside the embassy, as Armenian President
Robert Kocharian held talks with his Polish counterpart Aleksander
Kwasniewksi.
Candles were also placed in the windows of thousands of homes across
Italy, in response to a text-message chain passed by mobile telephone,
while the city of Naples flew flags at half-mast.
In France, children and teenagers chatting online on the MSN network,
also responding to a message, put a red rose next to their name.
On Saturday, the Saint Petersburg Philarmonic Orchestra dedicated
a concert it gave in the Swiss city of Lucerne to victims of the
tragedy. The organisers said the musicians were donating their
evening’s wages to the families.
Elsewhere Israeli military radio reported that the nation’s flower
growers had donated 500 wreaths to be flown to Beslan, now burying
its dead.