4.2 Attacks on Georgian Civilians and Their Villages in South Ossetia

Looting and Burning of Villages

Basic chronology

As tensions mounted in the first week of August 2008, some inhabitants of ethnic Georgian villages that had Tbilisi-backed administrations fled to undisputed Georgian territory.[356] Most of the others fled on the first day of the hostilities. Ethnic Georgians who remained did so either because they were infirm, because they wanted to protect their homes, or simply because they could not bring themselves to leave their homes.

Beginning August 10, after Russian ground forces had begun to fully occupy South Ossetia and were moving onward into undisputed Georgian territory, Ossetian forces followed closely behind them and entered the ethnic Georgian villages. Upon entering these villages, Ossetian forces immediately began going into houses, searching for Georgian military personnel, looting property, and burning homes. They also physically attacked many of the remaining residents of these villages, and detained dozens of them. Human Rights Watch received uncorroborated reports of at least two extrajudicial killings of ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia that took place amidst the pillaging. In most cases, Russian forces had moved through the Georgian villages by the time South Ossetian forces arrived. In other cases, Russian forces appeared to give cover to South Ossetian forces while they were committing these offenses.

By August 11, the attacks intensified and became widespread.[357] Looting and torching of most of these villages continued intermittently through September, and in some through October and November.

Extent and deliberate nature of the destruction as investigated by Human Rights Watch

When Human Rights Watch visited Tamarasheni, Zemo Achabeti, Kvemo Achabeti, Kurta, and Kekhvi in August, our researchers saw first-hand these villages being looted and torched. When our researchers returned in September, the villages had been almost fully destroyed; in Kekhvi the debris of some houses along the road appeared to have been bulldozed. Also in September Human Rights Watch visited Eredvi, Vanati, Avnevi, and Nuli, which by that time had been almost completely destroyed by burning. In November Human Rights Watch visited Beloti, Satskheneti, Atsriskhevi, and Disevi, also almost fully destroyed.

Human Rights Watch researchers conducted a total of 57 interviews with people from the villages mentioned above and from Dzartsemi, Kheiti, Prisi, and Kemerti; these 17 villages account for most of the areas in South Ossetia that had been controlled by Tbilisi prior to the war. Our researchers also interviewed members of Ossetian militias and the Russian military. Human Rights Watch's observations on the ground and from these interviews have led us to conclude that the South Ossetian forces sought to ethnically cleanse these villages: that is, the destruction of the homes in these villages was deliberate, systematic, and carried out on the basis of the ethnic and imputed political affiliations of the residents of these villages, with the express purpose of forcing those who remained to leave and ensuring that no former residents would return.

International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment,[358] acts of reprisal against civilians,[359] pillage,[360] and deliberate destruction of civilian property.[361] Violations of these prohibitions are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, or war crimes.

The interviews and ground observations by Human Rights Watch indicate that these villages were looted and burned by Ossetian militias and common criminals. With a few exceptions of looting and beatings of civilians, Russian forces did not participate directly in the destruction of villages and attacks on civilians but, aside from a brief period in mid-August, did not interfere to stop them (see Chapter 3.7, Russia's Responsibility as Occupying Power).

Didi Liakhvi valley

On August 12, Human Rights Watch researchers traveling on the TransCam road from Java to Tskhinvali witnessed terrifying scenes of destruction in Kekhvi, Kurta, Zemo Achabeti, Kvemo Achabeti, and Tamarasheni. Dozens of houses had been freshly burned down and remnants of houses and household items were still smoldering. Many other houses were aflame and appeared to have been just torched. Human Rights Watch also saw and photographed Ossetian militias as they moved along the road next to Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers, entered the houses that remained intact, and loaded furniture, rugs, televisions, and other valuables onto their vehicles. Attempting to justify the looters' actions, an Ossetian man traveling on the same road told Human Rights Watch, "Of course, they are entitled to take things from Georgians now-because they lost their own property in Tskhinvali and other places."[362]

Armed looters take household items from the ethnic Georgian village of Kvemo Achabeti. © 2008 Human Rights Watch

The villages were virtually deserted, with the exception of a few elderly and incapacitated people who stayed behind either because they were unable to flee or because they were trying to save their property and livestock.

Zemo and Kvemo Achabeti According to witnesses, Russian forces moved into Zemo Achabeti on August 9 and were followed on August 10 by Ossetian militias, who acted under the cover of Russian soldiers with tanks who remained in the village.[363] Ilia Chulukidze, an 84-year-old resident, told Human Rights Watch that on August 11

Russians and Ossetians and other irregulars … took carpets, televisions, clothes, everything … The next day they took wine, vodka, jams, canned food, two cows, and a calf. They were taking everything from everyone. The entire village was looted and emptied.

After they took everything from my house, the Ossetians brought petrol. They put me into a car and [made me] watch them … pour petrol everywhere in the rooms and outside and then set the house on fire. I saw them torch my neighbors' houses. They did not even allow me to get some clothes out and change. I was begging them for it, but in vain.[364]

Chulukidze also said that before this, Russian soldiers beat him (as described in Chapter 3.6).

Armed Ossetians entered the neighboring village, Kvemo Achabeti, on August 11, following Russian tanks, and started looting immediately. Mamuka N., a 74-year-old villager, told Human Rights Watch that several members of the militia came to his house on August 11, and tried to steal some household items. When he protested, they set the house on fire and left. When Human Rights Watch spoke to Mamuka N. he was trying to put out the fire, still burning a day later; his hands were burned, his hair was singed, and he appeared to be in shock. Mamuka N. told Human Rights Watch that the vast majority of local villagers, including his family, had fled Kvemo Achabeti when active fighting broke out on August 8, but he had decided to stay to look after the cattle. He said that roughly five to 10 elderly and sick people remained in the village, all in a similarly desperate condition, and that many of the houses were burned.[365] The ICRC evacuated Mamuka N. to undisputed Georgian territory soon thereafter.

Another resident of Kvemo Achabeti, 80-year-old Rezo Babutsidze, told Human Rights Watch that after the Russian tanks entered the village,

[they] were followed by Ossetians who were looting and then burning houses. They came several times to my house, taking everything they liked. Once they looted everything they liked they poured petrol and set the house on fire. I watched how they burned my house and neighbors' houses. They warned me to leave or they would shoot me.[366]

Babutsidze eventually fled to Tbilisi.

Kekhvi

In Kekhvi about a dozen houses were set ablaze between 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. on August 12.[367]Two elderly women from Kekhvi wept as two days later they told Human Rights Watch about what had happened. One of them explained that South Ossetian militias passed through the village, stopped at her house, and "threw something" that set it on fire.[368] The house was still burning as Human Rights Watch spoke to her.

A torched house ablaze in Kekhvi, August 12, 2008. © 2008 Human Rights Watch

Another Kekhvi resident, 71-year-old Shermadin Nebieridze, told Human Rights Watch that on August 11, five Ossetian men entered and looted his house, taking a cellphone, clothing, and other items. He and other villagers fled to nearby Dzartsemi, where for several hours they sought shelter from intense gunfire and shelling. Later in the evening Nebieridze could see, from a hill in Dzartsemi overlooking Kekhvi, at least a dozen houses on fire in Kekhvi, including his own. Nebieridze began to weep as he described to Human Rights Watch returning to his burning home to try to save his cattle:

When I got to my house I saw that it was already half burned. The roof and second floor were on fire; the bed, the windows, the door were already destroyed. The house was still burning. I didn't go in. I couldn't stop it. There was nothing I could do.[369]

Nebieridze saw Ossetian forces preparing to burn his neighbor's house. The Ossetians spotted Nebieridze, dragged him into the neighbor's yard, and beat him before detaining him, yelling, "Why are you here? … It's not your house anymore. It's ours. Why don't you understand this already?"[370] (The beating and detention of Shermadin Nebieridze is described in Chapter 4.4.)

Tamarasheni

Tamarasheni is the ethnic Georgian village closest to Tskhinvali. This is how 69-year-old Tamar Khutsinashvili, described the looting and burning of her family's home:

Ossetians came to my house on August 10, three or four of them. They first looted everything they could, including my car. They put hay in the house and set it on fire and burned the house. We had to watch it but could not do anything. They did not allow us to take anything from the house, not even our identity documents.[371]

Rusudan Chrelidze, 76, also described burning and looting in Tamarashani:

Several people from my neighborhood tried to flee together to Achabeti, but I could not run fast enough. I heard shooting from that direction so I returned to Tamarasheni in the evening. I saw that my house was burning. By the time I got there it was almost completely burned. I also saw that my three children's houses were burning.

I went to my neighbor, who is missing a leg and so could not flee. Her house was also burned, but she had a basement where she was hiding. We hid in the basement together. We saw that our neighbor's pigs had been slaughtered and taken away. We saw that many things had been taken from houses.[372]

Evidence of the burning of villages in Didi Liakhvi is also provided by images taken by a commercial satellite on August 19 and analyzed by experts of the Geneva-based UNOSAT program.[373] UNOSAT experts identified visible structures on the images that were likely to have been either destroyed or severely damaged. The expert analysis indicated clear patterns of destruction that were consistent with the data gathered by Human Rights Watch.

UNOSAT provided a map that marked satellite-detected active fire locations in the ethnic Georgian villages around Tskhinvali, including those described above.[374] The map shows active fires in the ethnic Georgian villages on August 10, 12, 13, 17, 19 and 22.[375]

UNOSAT also released a set of six high-resolution satellite images of Didi Liakhvi stretching 9 kilometers north from Tskhinvali, showing that the majority of villages along this stretch were destroyed. The images strongly indicate that the majority of the destruction in five of the villages-Tamarasheni, Kekhvi, Kvemo Achabeti, Zemo Achabeti, and Kurta-was caused by intentional burning and not shelling or bombardment.[376]

The damage shown in the ethnic Georgian villages is massive and concentrated. By August 22, in Tamarasheni, UNOSAT's experts counted a total of 177 buildings destroyed or severely damaged,[377] accounting for almost all of the buildings in the village. In Kvemo Achabeti they counted 87 destroyed and 28 severely damaged buildings (115 total); in Zemo Achabeti, 56 destroyed and 21 severely damaged buildings (77 total); in Kurta, 123 destroyed and 21 severely damaged buildings (144 total); in Kekhvi, 109 destroyed and 44 severely damaged buildings (153 total); in Kemerti, 58 destroyed and 20 severely damaged buildings (78 total); and in Dzartsemi, 29 destroyed and 10 severely damaged buildings (39 total)[378].

Patara Liakhvi valley

Eredvi and Vanati

When Human Rights Watch went to Eredvi on September 6, the village was deserted except for looters. Human Rights Watch witnessed two active fires and saw that every house in the village had fire damage. A Human Rights Watch researcher saw six looters going through the houses and loading property onto two vehicles. Two of the looters were armed and wearing fatigues.

In the neighboring village of Vanati on the same day Human Rights Watch found that practically all the houses were burned (some were still burning), with the exception of those that allegedly belonged to the few Ossetian villagers (houses that were intact had signs on that identified their Ossetian ownership). There appeared to be no ethnic Georgians left in the village.

Disevi

The torching of Disevi-an ethnic Georgian village of about 300 families that borders on three ethnic Ossetian villages-appeared to start around August 11, after Ossetian and Russian forces entered the village the previous day, and continued through October.[379] Its residents were gradually driven out by the torching and looting.

A 56-year-old woman who fled Disevi, Tamar Okhropiridze, told Human Rights Watch that half of the houses in the village were burnt in one day soon after Russian and Ossetian forces entered the village around August 10. She described in detail the torching of her own home,

I was hiding in the backyard of my house. Six men entered my yard. One was in civilian clothes; another was in military camouflage pants but a colorful shirt. They put together a heap of furniture and other household items, linens, and clothes. They poured something on it, probably kerosene, and set it on fire.I saw them go to my neighbor's house and set it on fire in the same way. I thought I could save it. I tried to pour water on the bed that was on fire…[380]

On September 13 Human Rights Watch spoke by telephone with Ia Khetaguri, 50, who was still living in a hillside neighborhood of Disevi despite the security challenges. Khetaguri said that only about 30 villagers remained and that most of the village had been burned.[381] She said that eight or nine houses were burned in Disevi on September 12,[382] and two on September 13.[383] Two days later Khetaguri had to flee the village as houses in her neighborhood were also torched.[384] Another Disevi resident, who was living in a facility for the displaced but maintained telephone contact with relatives remaining in Disevi, also reported that three houses were burning on September 15;[385] it is not known whether these accounts overlap.

When Human Rights Watch visited Disevi on November 24, the village appeared destroyed and completely deserted.

 

One villager who had fled Disevi would venture back periodically as far as a neighboring village, on the Gori district side of the administrative border, to see his house, which had been burned by Ossetian militias in mid-August. The man told Human Rights Watch in November,

I do not dare to go further than this [Georgian] checkpoint roadblock but I can clearly see my house from here. It's this one, barely 500 meters from us, on that small hill. It was such a wonderful house and nothing but charred walls are left of it. But somehow, something draws me here. I cannot stop coming to this place and looking at what used to be my and my children's home. We are all refugees now, we lost everything. And Disevi is like a desert. The very last family left the village yesterday. I spoke to them. They're saying that only 10 houses in the village escaped burning so far. Everything else is gone. The militias are roaming around non-stop, even though there must be nothing left to steal by now.[386]

Beloti, Satskheneti, and Atsriskhevi

Ossetian militias started looting and torching Beloti on August 12, two days after Russian forces arrived.[387] A 79-year-old resident displaced by the violence provided us with a detailed description of the abuses she saw perpetrated in Beloti before her evacuation to Gori by the ICRC in September:

Looting was going on all the time up until we left. One group would come and leave, then another would come and then leave. They took whatever they liked. Sometimes they would come into the yard and start shooting in the air. Some were very aggressive and yelling. One time, one Ossetian came in and had a huge knife and threatened to kill me. Another was more considerate … But in any case they just took whatever they wanted.

Sometimes people in civilian clothes from neighboring Ossetian villages would also come and loot. They took our seven cows, and one pig. We had 19 beehives-they were all taken and all the equipment for the beekeeping. They also took … a television. Some houses were burned, but I begged them in Ossetian not to burn ours. Our daughter's house [also in Beloti] was burned.[388]

When Human Rights Watch visited Beloti in November, the village appeared almost completely destroyed by burning. One of the three remaining residents of Satskheneti, another ethnic Georgian village close to Beloti, confirmed our assessment of Beloti as fully deserted.[389]

In November Human Rights Watch also saw that most of the houses in Satskheneti had been burned, with only a few still intact. Most residents had fled either right before or at the start of the armed conflict. Vladimir K., 73, remained in his home because he "spent a whole life building [it]."According to him, the looters, most of them armed and dressed in fatigues, started robbing and burning homes around August 10. Militias looted Vladimir K.'s home several times and set fire to it twice, but he had been able to put the fires out. When we spoke to him he expressed fear that it was only a matter of time before his house would be burned down; at this writing we do not know whether his fears have been realized.[390]

Atsriskhevi, a small, remote mountain village beyond Beloti, was fully deserted and almost completely destroyed, with only two houses still intact when Human Rights Watch was there in November.

Froni valley

Avnevi and Nuli

The village of Avnevi has two parts, one populated prior to the conflict mainly by ethnic Georgians and administered by Tbilisi, and the other populated mainly by ethnic Ossetians and administered by Tskhinvali. Widescale looting and torching in the Tbilisi-administered part began around August 12, and continued at a lesser scale at least until early September, causing most villagers to flee; by November looters were hauling bricks and piping from the remains of the houses.[391]

When Human Rights Watch visited Avnevi on September 4, its Tbilisi-administered part was almost fully destroyed by fire and looting. A Human Rights Watch researcher also saw and photographed two active fires in this part of the village. 

Several days prior, militias burned the house of 86-year-old Elena Zoziashvili, who was then forced to live in a shed in her yard, with nothing to eat except what was in her vegetable patch. Zoziashvili is half blind and nearly deaf, and appeared to be in shock when Human Rights Watch spoke to her.[392] Several days later, the ICRC evacuated Zoziashvili to Tbilisi, where she had relatives.

Elena Zoziashvili, 86, speaking with Human Rights Watch after her house in Avnevi was torched. © 2008 Human Rights Watch

When we visited, several of the homes in the Tbilisi-administered part of Avnevi had been looted but not burned, though militias threatened to torch them. The home of Vakhtang Durglishvili, an elderly Georgian whose family had fled, was intact because, he thought, an Ossetian acquaintance from the Ossetian part of the village took Durglishvili under his protection, including by bringing him food on a regular basis.[393]

Nuli is the next village to Avnevi. A Human Rights Watch researcher who walked through Nuli on September 4, 2008, saw that most of its houses had been burned and found the village deserted.

Alleged Extrajudicial Killings in the Course of Village Burnings

An Ossetian taxi driver, Leonid L., told Human Rights Watch that his friend Omar Chovelidze, a resident of Kvemo Achabeti, and his wife were shot dead by unknown persons at some point between August 13 and 16.[394] Leonid said that once the hostilities ended he decided to check on Chovelidze, and found him and his wife at home in Kemo Achabeti on August 13, amid scenes of ongoing destruction in the village:[395]

When I saw Omar on the 13th in the middle of that burning village I could hardly believe it! I said, "Are you crazy? You must get out of here! Let me take you to Georgia." But he refused flatly. He said he had a Russian passport and that'd protect him from the militias. When I returned three days later I found his body and that of his wife in the yard. [The house had been burned down.] I felt so awful I jumped in the car and drove away. But I did come back the next day to bury their bodies. I made a grave for them right in the yard and put a wooden cross on it.[396]

Tamar Okhropiridze, whose description of the burning of Disevi is given above, said that she witnessed Ossetian militias burn the house of 70-year-old Elguja Okhropiridze and shoot him dead. She also claimed to have seen an old woman burned to death in Disevi:

On the second day [of looting and burning]… Nato Okhropiridze, age 70, was burned in her house. I saw that Nato's house was on fire and I went to her house. When I arrived I saw that something had fallen on her and burned her. She had a bucket in her hand, as if she was trying to put out the fire in her house.[397]

Some Ossetian Villagers Not Immune from Looters

In some communities where Ossetians lived side-by-side with Georgians, or in mixed marriages, the Ossetians were also targeted for looting, harassment, and accusations of collaboration.

On August 11 Ossetian militias began looting and burning homes in Zonkar, a tiny Tskhinvali-administered hamlet in the Patara Liakhvi valley surrounded by ethnic Georgian villages.[398] Human Rights Watch spoke to the only two remaining villagers, ethnic Ossetians Aza Valieva and her distant cousin Tamaz Valiev. Ossetian forces targeted them repeatedly because they believed either that the Valievs were ethnic Georgians or were collaborating with the Georgian authorities. At one point the attackers included men dressed in uniforms with insignia worn by Ossetian peacekeepers.

The attackers stole 8,000 roubles, a television, a VCR, three chainsaws, cattle, and other valuables from Tamaz Valiev.[399] They looted Aza Valieva's house, including taking 28,000 roubles.[400] Both Valievs said they repeatedly explained to the looters and militias that they were Ossetian and even showed their passports. The perpetrators, however, ignored their pleas or said that because they lived in this village in the middle of a Georgian enclave, they must either be Georgian or have had something to do with the Georgians.

Aza Valieva said that men dressed in Ossetian peacekeeper uniforms tried to set fire to her house. Although she reported the incident to the police, no officials from the South Ossetia prosecutor's office came to her house to investigate. She told Human Rights Watch,

On August 23 several servicemen came in a Kamaz-truck and not only took some things from my house but actually tried to burn it. They were Ossetian peacekeepers. This I know for sure because they had those two letters, MS [the Russian acronym for Mirotvorscheskie Sily, or Peackeeping Forces] on their uniforms. They were shooting at the windows, saying obscene things. One of them aimed his sub-machine gun at me and yelled, "You just know how to speak Ossetian but in reality you're Georgian! Get the hell out of here!" Finally, they threw some blankets and clothes on the floor and set them on fire. I managed to [put out the fire] and then ran for the police. I showed them everything, explained the situation, and even told them the license plate number of the truck. They said I should not touch anything in the room because there would be an investigation but it's been three months and no one has done anything.[401]

In the mixed village of Vanati three local elderly villagers, all of them Ossetian, complained to Human Rights Watch about the burning and looting and expressed fear for their own security and the safety of their home. According to them, the looters had already stolen everything valuable they could find in the Georgian households and had begun to harass the remaining Ossetian residents. They expressed their frustration with the authorities for failing to provide security.[402]

Most residents of Beloti (see above), which had about 50 families, were ethnic Georgians but some were Ossetian, mainly women married to Georgians.[403] Militias and common criminals looted and burned Georgian and mixed households alike.

In the Froni valley village of Avneni Human Rights Watch found mixed-marriage households similarly at the mercy of looters. The house of one elderly couple, Zalina Bestaeva and Durmishkhan Sikturashvili, remained intact but had been looted. Bestaeva and Sikturashvili were afraid that their house would be torched in the near future. "They [armed looters] almost set fire to the house!" said Bestaeva to Human Rights Watch. "We were kissing their hands, anything, as long as they left us in peace. But they keep coming back and take first one thing, then another. Our neighbor lost all her money to them, down to the last penny."[404]

Maria Ch., an elderly Ossetian woman from Satskheneti, describes to Human Rights Watch frequent attacks by looters. ©Human Rights Watch 2008

Bestaeva's neighbor is Anna Kokoeva, an Ossetian married to an ethnic Georgian. Kokoeva's husband fled at the start of the fighting but she stayed behind to watch over their house. She was able to convince the looters not to burn the house but they robbed her of money and valuables several days prior to Human Rights Watch's visit on September 8. Kokoeva told Human Rights Watch,

I had been saving for a year to pay for crowns on my teeth and saved up 1,500 roubles [approximately US$60], but then the looters, the militias, came and they took it all! I was pleading with them but they yelled at me and even threatened to burn down my house. They were saying that my husband was a Georgian and we deserved this.[405]

Human Rights Watch interviewed two other Ossetian women, Tamara Tibilova and Elizaveta Dzioeva, both of them married to Ossetians but living in the Tbilisi-administered part of Avnevi,[406] and sharing the same fate as the villagers in the Zonkar exclave. Tibilova told Human Rights Watch,

The looters come every day. They took everything valuable that was in my house. Nothing is left. I keep telling them I'm Ossetian and so is my husband, but what do they care? They've appropriated everything of any value that belonged to Georgians and now they're after our property. And if you try to argue with them, they threaten to burn your house. They know they can do what they want in this village and no one will ever punish them![407]

Elizaveta Dzhioeva described to Human Rights Watch that the looters were "completely ruthless" and her own and her husband's Ossetian ethnicity did not protect them from looting:

I'm scared to go to the city [to buy food] because the looters are likely to burn my home if I leave even for a few hours. They've already burnt my daughter's house [also in this part of the village]. They come every day and they really don't care if you are an Ossetian. I was once away from the house for a short while and they literally stole everything that we had there! When the burning started some Ossetian fighters were telling me not to worry. They were saying that we wouldn't be touched or suffer in any way because we were Ossetian. How wrong they were! The looters don't give a damn who you are, as long as you live here![408]

Situation in Akhalgori District

Akhalgori district, in the east of South Ossetia, has practically no communication lines with the rest of the territory.[409] There were no hostilities there during the August conflict, but following the conflict Russian forces occupied the district, prompting the dismissal of the Tbilisi-backed administration. This facilitated the appointment, by Tskhinvali, of an Ossetian administration for the district on September 3, 2008.[410] At this writing, the Russian military presence in Akhalgori is substantial, with two bases in the district.[411] However, according to the head of Akhalgori's district administration and local residents, Russian servicemen mainly keep to their bases. The Ossetian police, including OMON and KGB personnel, are deployed to the region from Tskhinvali on a rotating basis.[412]

In contrast to the villages in the Didi Liakhvi, Patara Liakhvi, and Froni valleys, villages in Akhalgori district have not been burned by Ossetian militias. However, its ethnic Georgian residents are threatened and harassed by militias, and frightened by the possible closure of the district's administrative border with the rest of Georgia. The harassment and anxiety have caused great numbers of people to leave for undisputed Georgian territory.[413]

Nuzgar N., age 48, an ethnic Georgian resident of Akhalgori town, summarized these anxieties and their consequences:

Thousands of people used to live here before August and now this place is like a desert. And how else can it be? There are all those armed people who frighten the locals by their mere presence.

Residents who could leave have mostly left. Families with young girls were afraid their daughters would be harassed by Ossetians. And the parents were no less concerned for the boys. They can easily be harassed. As a result, it's mostly elderly people that stayed, or those who have no place to go. I stayed because of my elderly mother first and foremost. But if they close the border everyone [Georgian] who's still here will pick up and leave. And so will I.[414]

Ossetian militia violence and intimidation

At least two people were beaten by Ossetian militias in separate incidents in Akhalgori district in November 2008, causing the death of one and severe injury to the other.

Akhalgori town hospital staff told Human Rights Watch that around November 5 they treated Kanchaveti resident Givi Tetunashvili, age 76. Tetunashvili was brought to the hospital bleeding, with multiple bruises, a fractured arm and severe injury to his genitals. Tetunashvili told the doctors that he had been watching over his grazing sheep when several armed men in camouflage uniforms tried to steal one of them. When he protested, they started beating him.[415] Tetunashvili was in critical condition and was transferred for further treatment to Tbilisi, where he died approximately two weeks later.

When Human Rights Watch researchers visited Kanchaveti on November 21, they happened upon a crowd of local residents going to Tetunashvili's wake. Tetunashvili's wife, Rusiko, who was among the crowd, told Human Rights Watch that she was with her husband on the day he was assaulted and witnessed the incident. The assailants also threatened her, but did not beat her. She recognized one assailant as a member of the Ossetian militia and a resident of a neighboring Ossetian village.[416]

As Human Rights Watch was talking to Tetunashvili's relatives and neighbors, aggressive and apparently intoxicated armed militia members arrived in a military truck and chased the crowd away, preventing them from talking to Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch and Human Rights Centre Memorial reported Tetunashvili's case to the authorities in Tskhinvali. In December 2008 a leading Russian human rights activist, Svetlana Gannushkina of Memorial and the Civic Assistance Committee, told Human Rights Watch that on December 19, during her visit to Tskhinvali, she was informed by the deputy prosecutor of South Ossetia that "three perpetrators are held in custody" facing trial for "infliction of severe bodily harm" to Tetunashvili.[417] At this writing, the trial has not taken place.

Akhalgori town hospital staff also told Human Rights Watch that on November 16 they treated an 83-year-old resident of Korinta, Nestor Tinikashvili, who was severely bruised and had a fractured arm. The doctor said Tinikashvili told him that four Ossetians in camouflage uniforms had beaten him up because he had a photograph of Mikheil Saakashvili on his wall and admitted to them that he considered Saakashvili to be his president.[418]

Three members of the Ossetian police interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Akhalgori town confirmed the details of this incident and said that one of the perpetrators had been apprehended and transferred to the police in Tskhinvali. Human Rights Watch has not been able to confirm whether the suspect remains in custody and whether the de facto South Ossetian authorities conducted a criminal investigation.[419]

Anxiety about border closure

At this writing Akhalgori's administrative border with the rest of Georgia border is open, though residents must pass through Russian-Ossetian checkpoints, where their identification documents are thoroughly checked and vehicles searched.

The new head of the Akhalgori district administration, Anatoly Margiev, told Human Rights Watch that the border was not likely to close, though not all of his staff shared this view.[420] Margiev also told Human Rights Watch that as of January 2009 the administration would start processing South Ossetian passports for all residents of Akhalgori, "in order to be able to move freely in North and South Ossetia. Following that, they will be also given Russian citizenship." Margiev tried to reassure Human Rights Watch that the residents would be permitted to keep their Georgian passports. However, Russian citizenship law does not provide for dual citizenship, and it remains unclear how those promises could be fulfilled in practice, and whether Russian authorities in South Ossetia will respect Georgian passports as valid for travel or other purposes.

The administration has not succeeded in reassuring Akhalgori residents, including their own employees, for whom the prospect of an imminent closure of Akhalgori's administrative border is a source of tremendous anxiety. Natela N., an ethnic Georgian staff-member of the Akhalgori district administration, shared with Human Rights Watch her despair at not being able to see her first grandchild, who was due in December: "My three daughters all live in Tbilisi. How in the world am I going to see them? I already know [the baby] is going to be a girl. But will I ever see her?"[421] Several civil servants (who were still receiving salaries from Tbilisi) and other ethnic Georgian residents interviewed by Human Rights Watch all expressed profound concern that if the border were to close all remaining Georgians would have no choice but to leave.

Position of de facto South Ossetian Officials toward Looting and House Burning

The de facto South Ossetian authorities were unrepentant about the destruction of ethnic Georgian villages and took no effective steps to prevent their destruction, protect civilians, and hold perpetrators accountable. On August 13, Anatoly Barankevich, then-head of the Security Council for South Ossetia, told a correspondent of the Russian official daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta that looting was indeed an issue, but largely dismissed it, "Unfortunately, war is war."[422]

Eduard Kokoity, de facto president of South Ossetia, was straightforward about the purpose of the destruction in the villages. On August 15, in response to a question by Kommersant Daily, an independent Russian newspaper, about the situation in the "Georgian enclaves" in South Osseti a, Kokoity replied, "We practically have flattened everything there." When Kommersant inquired whether the villages in those areas were fully destroyed, Kokoity confirmed this, asking, "So, you mean we should have allowed them [Georgians] to keep shooting at us and make fools of us?" [423]

According to Barankevich, the de facto South Ossetian authorities created a special committee to combat looting in the republic and armed patrols to prevent looting in the evening and at night.[424] These patrols did not operate effectively,if at all. Moreover, as observed by Human Rights Watch, widespread looting and torching visibly took place during daylight hours. The few remaining residents of ethnic Georgian villages whom Human Rights Watch interviewed in situ also complained that the looters were pervasive and acted freely during daylight hours. Additionally, in August and September Human Rights Watch researchers saw numerous houses freshly set on fire in Tbilisi-backed villages, which testifies to the fact that the torching of houses was also occurring during the day.

In September 2008 the head of the South Ossetia Committee for Press and Information, Irina Gagloeva, told the Human Rights Centre Memorial in response to a question about the situation in ethnic Georgian villages, "The looters aren't really punished. If they're caught by police at all this is processed as an administrative infraction. So, they need to pay a 2,500 rouble fine [approximately US$100], and off they go. And for someone who stole five cows paying this fine is not a big deal." Gagloeva expressed hope that local police would resume regular work in the near future and learn to do work diligently. She attempted to justify the abuses in the ethnic Georgian villages by stressing that they cooperated with Tbilisi and with the Georgian military and therefore-in contrast to those villages where ethnic Georgians lived that were under Ossetian administration and remained intact-they "received exactly what they've been preparing for 18 years [of the Georgia-Ossetia conflict]."[425]

The Displaced Georgian Population's Right to Return

As many as 20,000 ethnic Georgians cannot return to their homes in South Ossetia.

In mid-August 2008 Kokoity said that Ossetian authorities did not intend to let the Georgians return to the destroyed villages.[426] By the end of August 2008, he changed his position and assured the UN High Commissioner for Refugees that the displaced Georgians willing to return to South Ossetia would face no discrimination and have their security fully guaranteed.[427] In his September 2008 report, the human rights commissioner of the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammerberg, "notes that the de facto Ossetian authorities expressed to him their commitment to the right of return, including for ethnic Georgians who fled during the hostilities."[428]

A key step to implementing this commitment would be to create security conditions that would make ethnic Georgians feel safe upon return. But as noted above, no effective measures were taken to stop the looting. Moreover, neither Ossetian nor Russian authorities have taken concrete measures to hold accountable those who intentionally destroyed the Georgian villages in the republic. Finally, Human Rights Watch is not aware of any steps taken by the Ossetian authorities to enable the displaced to return.