Three years after the tragedy there is finally a monument on the site where wreckage of the Tu-154 fell to earth

By Olga Vakhonicheva, Radio Svoboda

Just before the third anniversary of the terror acts, in which two passenger planes simultaneously exploded in the skies over Russia, a monument has been set up on the site of the destruction of one aircraft. For three years neither the authorities, nor Sibir airlines (who owned the Tu-154 that was flying the Moscow-Sochi route), made any attempts to do this. The humble memorial was set up using the resources of a private fund for assisting terrorism victims.

The memorial was placed near the village of Gluboky Kamensk in the Shakhtinsky region of the Rostov district, on the site where wreckage of the Tu-154 was found. It consists of two large stones, between which is a plaque with the names of the airline’s 46 dead passengers and crew.

. “Three months ago relatives of the dead contacted me,” says Marina Litvinovich, director of the Fund for Assistance to Victims of Terror Acts. “We discussed the model together. It seems to me that it’s very important that there be a memorial to the people who died in this terror act.”

“The monument on the site of the destruction of the Tu-154 was set up yesterday,” the widow of airline pilot Yuri Andryushchenko told a correspondent from Radio Svoboda. Every year on this day she comes to the site of the tragedy. According to her, these trips are not organized or paid for by anyone; people come at their own initiative – some wish to, and some do not. Relatives of the dead are mainly elderly. “Most of those whom I know lost their children,” says the pilot’s widow. “They are already at a difficult age and aren’t able to travel. So only a few people gather here.”

According to the widow, this morning representatives of the local administration were to lay flowers at the memorial. “But at 9 in the morning we didn’t go there,” she continues. “I don’t like to participate in official ceremonies. (I like to do things) quietly, without pomp. It’s been a long time already, and this is such a remote village, people struggle here to survive, they don’t have any use for memorials.”

In lawsuits brought by relatives of those killed in the terror acts, the airlines and insurance companies were able to prove that they hold no liability. Those who organized the terror acts have never been found, and an investigation by the prosecutor general has been suspended. Yuri Andryushchenko’s widow evaluates this to mean that the case is closed: “I read in the criminal-procedural codex that they will do something if there are new findings, but I understand that if there are no new findings in 3 years, then it’s unlikely that anything new will show up now.”

The pilot’s widow states that she was surprised to find out that the investigator in this case was also investigating several other crimes. “I’m, of course, a disinterested party,” she says. “But it seems to me that this is a serious crime, an organized act of terror, two airliners… I was simply very surprised. Either we don’t have enough manpower or we’ve got a lot of crime going on.” The widow continues: “Certainly, we are very offended by all of this. Certainly, we’d like for the guilty to be found, but no one has been found. No one is guilty. Maybe the organizers of these terror acts are so clever that our valiant agencies aren’t able to uncover their perfidious plans.”

Marina Litvinovich, the director of the Fund for Assistance to Victims of Terror Acts, recalls that right after the explosions of the two aircraft there were other large acts of terror: “An explosion in the Rizhskaya metro station followed this, later there was the terror act in Beslan. Certainly, the Beslan tragedy overshadowed the earlier terror acts. Investigations (into the blown up airliners) didn’t get to the heart of the matter. They punished the people who sold the tickets, but who were these shahidki (suicide martyrs)? They were never investigated, unfortunately.”

According to Marina Litvinovich, the head of the fund cooperates with victims and relatives of those who died in various terror acts – the seizure of hostages in Beslan and ‘Nord-Ost’, and the apartment building blasts in Volgodonsk. “We are trying to assist them firstly with regards to the investigations. Then there are certain tasks, such as setting up a memorial. It seems to me that this is a very important task.”

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