RUSSIA: MOURNING CEREMONY HELD IN SEVEROMORSK FOR FIRST FOUR BODIES RECOVERED FOR WRECKAGE OF NUCLEAR SUBAMARINE THE KURSK

Record ID: 647292

  • Title: RUSSIA: MOURNING CEREMONY HELD IN SEVEROMORSK FOR FIRST FOUR BODIES RECOVERED FOR WRECKAGE OF NUCLEAR SUBAMARINE THE KURSK
  • Date: 29th October 2000
  • Summary: SEVEROMORSK, RUSSIA (OCTOBER 29, 2000) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV: HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WALKING TO MEMORIAL SERVICE 0.10 2. PAN MOURNERS/ MV: NAVAL REGIMENT AT ATTENTION (2 SHOTS) 0.23 3. MV: RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER IGOR SERGEYEV (GREEN UNIFORM) AND VICE-PREMIER ILYA KLEBANOV (LONG BLACK COAT) ARRIVE AT CEREMONY 0.34 4. SV: MAN HOLDING PORTRAIT OF KURSK CAPTAIN GENNADY LYACHIN / PAN: RELATIVES OF KURSK CREW 0.48 5. SV: VICE-PREMIER ILYA KLEBANOV SPEAKING 0.53 6. SV: RELATIVE WITH FLOWERS/ WIDE OF CEREMONY (2 SHOTS) 1.02 7. MV: RELATIVES CRYING 1.06 8. SCU: WIDOW OF KURSK CAPTAIN GENNADY LYACHIN (IN BROWN COAT ON FAR RIGHT OF SCREEN) 1.11 9. LV/SCU'S: ARMOURED TRANSPORT CARRIERS WITH COFFINS / SOLDIER / WOMAN CRYING (3 SHOTS) 1.25 10. SCU: WIDOW OF KURSK OFFICER DMITRY KOLESNIKOV, WHO WROTE LETTER SHORTLY AFTER ACCIDENT SAYING THAT 23 SAILORS HAD SURVIVED AND WERE TRAPPED IN THE SUBMARINE 1.31 11. WS: NAVAL REGIMENT 1.34 12. MV/SLV: ARMOURED CARRIER WITH COFFIN DRIVING BY SALUTING SAILORS (2 SHOTS) 1.45 13. TRACK: SHIPS BLOWING SIGNAL IN SALUTE 1.49 14. VARIOUS: CARRIERS WITH COFFINS / SHIP FLYING FLAT AT HALF-MAST (3 SHOTS) 2.03 15. VARIOUS: CARRIERS WITH COFFINS DRIVING BY REGIMENTS WHO LOWER THEIR FLAG / PEOPLE HOLDING HANDS, CRYING AS COFFINS ARE DRIVEN BY THEM (2 SHOTS) 2.20 16. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) TATYANA VELICHKO, SEVEROMORSK RESIDENT: "It's been a tearful time. I've watched the news on television and cried and cried, just as if it had been someone in my family." 2.29 17. LV: PEOPLE WALKING IN FRONT OF NAVAL STATUE 2.33 18. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) CAPTAIN SECOND RANK, ANATOLY SURKOV: "Of course we are mourning along with the country, what else can I say? I express my condolences to the relatives of the dead sailors, they were our brothers in arms." 2.51 19. WIDE OF SEVEROMORSK 2.57 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 13th November 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: SEVEROMORSK NAVAL BASE, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA48M1OUW6QLJ732PX3KPJ0HHXG
  • Story Text: Russia has held mourning ceremonies for the first four
    bodies recovered from the wreckage of the military submarine
    Kursk which sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea, along with
    its118 crew members, in August.



    They came to mourn in small and large groups. Family
    members, friends, officers, sailors, generals, government
    officials.

    In all, more than 1,000 people filled the "Square of
    Courage" in Severomorsk, the central naval port for Russia's
    Northern Fleet and home base for the crew of the Kursk
    submarine.

    The mourners paid tribute to four bodies, officially
    unidentified, who are the first victims to have been recovered
    from the Kursk wreckage. But they were also paying tribute to
    the entire crew and to all who have suffered from their loss.

    The ceremony was led by Russian vice-premier Ilya Klebanov
    who is heading a government investigation into the causes of
    the Kursk tragedy.

    Klebanov promised the relatives that the government would
    learn why their loved ones died and would bring as many bodies
    as possible back to them.

    As he spoke, Russian information agencies reported that the
    Norwegian-Russian diving teams working around Kursk had found
    more bodies in the submarine.

    Russian navy officials had stated that they were gathering,
    not to say goodbye to the dead crew, but to welcome the
    sailors' bodies back to land in accordance with naval custom.

    Yet, relatives cried openly as a voice read off the names
    of the crew and bands played songs composed in memory of the
    Kursk sailors.

    Ships in port signalled in salute of their fallen comrades
    with flags lowered at half-mast. Regiments saluted.

    People locked hands and shed tears as the bodies of the
    four recovered sailors drove by them on flower-covered
    armoured transport carriers.

    And people from the naval port town continued to mourn.

    Tatyana Velichko said that she felt as if she had lost someone
    in her family. Naval officer Anatoly Surkov said he mourned
    for his fallen brothers in arms.

    The Kursk, one of Russia's most advanced military attack
    submarines sunk in mid-August during training exercises in the
    Barents Sea. Explosions were registered from the waters
    around the sea at the time that it sunk to the bottom, but the
    Russian government and navy have yet to make an official
    conclusion on what happened to the Kursk.

    The bodies of more than 100 sailors remain unrecovered.
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