The Children of Beslan...

Day Two,

On September 2, 2004, negotiations between Russian authotities and the hostage-takers proved unsuccessful, and terrorists refused to allow food, water, and medicines to be taken in for the hostages or for the bodies of the dead to be removed from in front of the school.

On day two, the lack of food and water took its toll on the young children, many of whom were forced to stand for long periods in the hot, tightly-packed gym. Many of them fainted, and parents feared they would die. Occasionally, the terrorists took out some of the unconscious children, and poured water on their heads before returning them to the gym. Reportedly, some resorted to drinking their own urine and extracting water from plants. Later in the day, women and men also started to faint from fatigue and thirst.
Many children took off their clothing because of the sweltering heat within the gymnasium, which led to rumors of sexual impropriety, though the hostages later explained it was merely due to the stifling heat and being denied any water. According to some, the alleged sexual impropriety did take place. Surviving hostage Kazbek Dzarasov claimed that the terrorists would pick from amongst the prettiest adolescent girls and take them to another room with an excuse of having them fetch water--rape them, and return them a few hours later

In the afternoon, the gunmen agreed to release 26 nursing women and their infants following their negotiations with Russian officials to whom they also handed a nursing infant whose mother refused to leave the school because of her other children. The terrorists forced about a dozen of the released mothers to take only one child and leave behind other children, a number of whom were ultimately killed.

At around 3:30, two rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) were fired approximately ten minutes apart by the hostage-takers at security forces outside the school, setting a police car ablaze. The Russian forces did not return fire.

As the day and night wore on, the combination of stress and, and possibly drug withdrawal, made the terrorists increasingly erratic and unpredictable. The crying of the children irritated them, and on several occasions children and their mothers were threatened that if they did not stop crying they would be shot. Russian authorities claimed that the hostage-takers had listened to the German hard rock group Rammstein on personal stereos during the siege to keep themselves edgy and fired up. more...