Members of "Voice of Beslan" complain to Fedoryak of inspector's threats

On September 28, a meeting was held in the city of Essentuki of the members of the All-Russian NGO named "Voice of Beslan" Ella Kesaeva, Emiliya Betrozova and Svetlana Margieva with Nikolai Fedoryak, deputy plenipotentiary of Russian President in the South Federal District (SFD), with whom they discussed the issues of the investigation of the terror act, the law on the status of terror act victims and pension to victim.

The first point on the meeting's agenda was the investigations of the Beslan terror act, namely, replacements of inspector Alexander Solzhenitsin for Alexei Khalin.

"On September 26, we had a meeting with Khalin. We had an impression that this inspector all the same would not hold an objective investigation, just like Solzhenitsin, as he has the same mindset: nobody is guilty, except for terrorists. Then we asked: 'And why you extend the investigation?' - 'Not all the terrorists have been identified.' No enquiry is conducted in any other direction," Ella Kesaeva has stated.

"He also told us that if we should write numerous petitions, repeat ourselves, the issue could be raised on deliberate protracting the investigation. As he added, this is a criminal offence. We treated it as intimidation and told Fedoryak about it," said the "Voice of Beslan" leader.

The victims asked to replace the inspector, but got a refusal. According to Ms Kesaeva, the meeting also touched the issue that the officials, who should have prevented the terror act and were members of the operative headquarters, are practically all in their posts or even were promoted. The victims received a promise that "the point will be studied." They also learnt that Andreev, head of the FSB for North Ossetia, was dismissed from the security agency.

The participants of the meeting also raised the issue of the law on terror victims. On their request Mr Fedoryak asked Alexei Machnev to co-opt Ella Kesaeva as an expert to the working group of the North-Ossetian parliamentary commission.

The parliament of North Ossetia is already dealing with the law on the status of victims of terror acts. Besides, the issues of pensions, treatment of victims and privileges for their railway travels.

On the following day, on September 29, Alexei Machnev organized a meeting with the managers of the Pension Fund of North Ossetia and asked to help the victims. "We raised the problem of loss of breadwinners by adults. Children receive their pensions for loss of their parents in terror acts, but adults who lost their capable children - don't," said Ella Kesaeva.

However, according to Kesaeva, the bosses of the Pension Fund advised to go to court on this occasion.