4.4. Execution, Illegal Detentions, Ill-Treatment, and Degrading Conditions of Detention by Ossetian Forces, at times with Russian Forces

As Russian forces began to occupy South Ossetia on August 8 and 9, South Ossetian forces traveled with them or followed them into ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia and then into Gori and Kareli districts. Most of the able bodied and younger residents had fled just before the start of hostilities or in the initial days of fighting. Most of the residents who remained in the villages had chosen to stay behind to look after their homes and property or were unable to flee. Ossetian forces, at times together with Russian forces, detained some of the residents they found remaining in these villages, particularly in the ethnic Georgian villages of South Ossetia; in most cases, detentions took place in the context of the campaign of looting and destruction described above. Detainees told Human Rights Watch that they were not given reasons for their detention and did not have access to lawyers or any opportunity to challenge their detention.

As Russian and Ossetian forces entered Georgian villages in South Ossetia and the Gori district, they detained at least 159 people,[467] primarily ethnic Georgians as well as at least one Ossetian and one ethnic Russian married to an ethnic Georgian. Forty-five of the detained were women. At least 76 were age 60 or older, and at least 17 were age 80 or older.[468] There was one child, a boy, about eight years old.[469] Human Rights Watch interviewed 29 of the detained, all post-release. Many detainees described ill-treatment during detention, during transfer to custody, and in custody. Most detainees were held in the basement of the South Ossetian Ministry of Interior building in Tskhinvali for approximately two weeks in conditions that amounted to degrading treatment. Some of these detainees were forced to work clearing the Tskhinvali streets of decomposing bodies of Georgian soldiers, and debris. At least one man was executed while in Ossetian custody during his transfer to the Ministry of Interior. All of these actions are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and amount to war crimes. To the extent that Russia exercised effective control in the territory where these detentions took place, the Russian government is liable for these acts, which also amount to violations of its human rights obligations under the ICCPR and the ECHR.

In some instances, Russian forces directly participated in the detention of ethnic Georgians, and detainees held in the Ministry of Interior reported being interrogated by people who introduced themselves as members of Russian forces. Russian and Ossetian forces also held at least six Georgians at what appeared to be a military field base and beat them before handing them over to Ossetian police.

Legal Status of and Protections for Individuals Detained by Ossetian and Russian Forces

All of those detained by Ossetian and Russian forces and interviewed by Human Rights Watch stated that they were civilians not participating in the hostilities and had not taken up arms against Ossetian and Russian forces. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which defines the protections afforded to civilians during wartime, civilians are considered to be protected persons. The Convention requires that persons "taking no active part in the hostilities, … shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria."[470] Grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, including willful killing, torture and inhuman treatment, and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, are war crimes.[471]

The protections guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights are also applicable with respect to Ossetian and Russian detention of Georgians. Since Russia at the time had effective control over the areas where the detentions described in this section took place, it is Russia as the state party to both instruments that bears responsibility for protecting individuals' rights under the convention. The ICCPR and ECHR provide an absolute prohibition on torture and other degrading or inhuman treatment.[472] The provisions of the ICCPR and ECHR banning arbitrary detention are also applicable, and Russia did not derogate from those convention obligations, although limited derogations in times of war are permitted.[473]

During hostilities and occupation, the Fourth Geneva Convention permits the internment or assigned residence of protected persons such as civilians for "imperative reasons of security."[474] However, unlawful confinement of a protected person is a war crime.[475]

Human Rights Watch has not been presented with evidence that there were reasonable security grounds for the detention of the 159 persons detained by Ossetian and Russian forces. Many of those detained were very elderly, and one was a small child. Most were detained in circumstances that strongly suggest that they were not taking up arms, not participating in hostilities, and not otherwise posing a security threat, as described below.

If, among the detained, there were Georgians who participated in hostilities against Ossetian or Russian forces, but who were not members of the Georgian military, under international humanitarian law such persons would be considered non-privileged combatants.[476] Georgians who took up arms to defend their lives or property from advancing Ossetian or Russian forces would be considered armed civilians. In both cases, detention of such persons would be considered reasonable on security grounds. Such persons are entitled to the protections guaranteed to civilians under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Detentions must be carried out in accordance with a regular procedure permissible under international humanitarian law. Those detained have a right to appeal their internment and have their case reviewed every six months.The Fourth Geneva Convention provides detailed regulations for the humane treatment of internees. The International Committee of the Red Cross must be given access to all protected persons, wherever they are, whether or not they are deprived of their liberty.[477]

Given their particular vulnerability, children are afforded special protections under the Geneva Conventions. Protocol I states, "Children shall be the object of special respect … Parties to the conflict shall provide them with the care and aid they require, whether because of their age or for any other reason."[478]

Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity has stated that "ethnic Georgians were detained for their personal safety" and that "the Ministry of Interior [was] protecting them and saving their lives."[479] While the Geneva Conventions allow for internment in order to provide for the security of civilians, Human Rights Watch has not found evidence that the detentions by Russians and Ossetians had this purpose or were justified on these grounds. The fact that the majority of individuals were detained as Georgian soldiers were retreating and in areas in which Russian and Ossetians exercised effective control suggests that in most cases civilians were not likely to be threatened by armed combat. Furthermore, Russian and Ossetian forces apprehended most individuals in a violent and threatening manner and subjected them to inhuman and degrading treatment and conditions of detention, and forced labor, reflecting no intent on the part of these forces to provide for the personal safety and well-being of those detained.

Ill-treatment at the Time of Arrest and during Transfer to Custody, and an Execution

Human Rights Watch interviewed several Georgian detainees from South Ossetia and the Gori district who reported ill-treatment, including beatings, humiliation, threats of killing, and mock executions when Ossetians detained them. Some also reported ill-treatment during transfer to the Ministry of Interior in Tskhinvali. Human Rights Watch documented the execution of one man during his transfer to the Ministry of Interior. Willful killing and ill-treatment of protected persons constitute war crimes.[480]

Detentions in South Ossetia

After Ossetian forces entered Kekhvi on August 11, Shermadin Nebieridze, age 71, fled to a neighboring village and then returned to his home in Kekhvi that evening, where his house was burning (as described in Chapter 4.2). The next day, August 12, he was in his yard when Ossetian forces armed with automatic weapons and wearing camouflage uniforms with white armbands spotted him and forced him into a neighbor's yard at gunpoint. Nebieridze described to Human Rights Watch his treatment as the men detained him:

One of them loaded his weapon and pointed it at me. He said, "I'll kill you, you motherfucker!" I begged them, "Please don't kill me. I haven't done anything. I am an elderly man." A second fighter came and pushed the gun away and said, "Don't kill him." The first then kicked me in the chest and I fell back on the concrete. I must have hit my head because I lost consciousness. When I woke up I struggled to get up. The second fighter kicked me in the neck and I fell back down. They picked me up and walked [me] out of the yard.[481]

Husband and wife Ilo Khabareli, 73, and Salimat Bagaeva, 69, from Zemo Achabeti, described to Human Rights Watch the ill-treatment they each endured during detention by South Ossetian forces. Ossetian forces entered the village on August 10. Bagaeva, who is an ethnic Ossetian, had gone next door to her son's house to check on it when 15 armed Ossetian militia entered the house, pointed their guns at her and cursed her, saying, "Why the fuck are you not leaving this place!?"[482] When Khabareli, who is an ethnic Georgian, came to the house to help her, they again yelled at Bagaeva saying, "Why did you marry this Georgian pig?" One of the Ossetians then kicked Khabareli in the chest, knocking him down. When he tried to stand, a second soldier hit him with the butt of a gun in the neck, knocking him down again. When he was finally able to get up, one of the Ossetians punched him in the face, causing Khabareli to lose several teeth. The Ossetian forces forced Khabareli and his wife and daughter to stand facing the wall of their house while they shot at their feet and in the air.[483]

The Ossetians gathered Bagaeva, Khabareli, and about 10 or 15 other Zemo Achabeti residents and forced them to walk one kilometer toward Kvemo Achabeti. According to Bagaeva, one of the soldiers told the group, "Come with us now, or you will all be killed. No one is allowed to stay here overnight."[484] The group was put into a minivan and taken to the Ministry of Interior building in Tskhinvali.[485]

Nunu Gogidze, 60, described how, on August 10, two Russian soldiers and two Ossetian soldiers entered her yard in Tamarasheni while she was home alone and demanded that she come with them. When she asked them to let her get her documents, "they shot at the ground in front of my feet."[486] On that same day in Tamarasheni, three or four Ossetians looted the house of Tamar Khutsinashvili and set it on fire (see Chapter 4.2).[487]  The Ossetians directed Khutsinashvili, 69, and her 73-year-old husband to the side of the road where they had gathered numerous other Tamarasheni residents. Khutsinashvili recalled, "I was terrified. I told them, 'Kill us here if you want.' One Ossetian hit me on the head with a gun butt and cursed me and said, 'Stop speaking the language of dogs [Georgian]!'"[488] Ossetian forces then took Gogidze, Khutsinashvili and several of their neighbors to the South Ossetian Ministry of Interior.[489]

Detentions in Gori district

On August 10 Tamaz Chalauri, 60, fled his home in Mereti and boarded a white minivan in Tkviavi. As the van approached the center of Tkviavi, Ossetians on an armored personnel carrier stopped it and forced the passengers out. Chalauri told Human Rights Watch, "I got out and they hit me in the stomach with the butt of a gun. They were swearing at us … saying, "You pigs, you killed so many of our people. Now we will kill you."

The Ossetians forced the minivan's male passengers, as well as the male passengers from a car they had stopped in the same location, back into the minivan. An Ossetian drove the van, but lost control of the wheel on the outskirts of Tirdznisi, and the van rolled over several times. Chalauri told Human Rights Watch, "Most people got out of the van, but there was one person left inside. The Ossetians then sprayed the van with gunfire. The man inside was then dead, but I'm not sure whether it was from the accident or from the shooting." Chalauri was injured, and complained to us of pain in his head and back.[490]  Another man who had been in the van, but managed to escape in the chaos immediately following the accident, believed that the Ossetian driver was also killed.[491]

Another minivan arrived and the Ossetians forced the remaining 10 Georgians (at least four had escaped) into it. Chalauri described the ill-treatment he and others suffered in the van and the execution of one of the passengers:

We were made to lie on the floor face down [the van had no seats]. They yelled at us, "Don't lift your heads!" One big Ossetian man in heavy boots was stomping on my ankle in order to try to force me to raise my head.

There was one young man, about 25, lying next to me. He raised his head several times and was hit several times. Then all at once one of them loaded his gun and shot the young man twice in the head to kill him and then shot a third "control" shot just to make sure [he was dead]. The young man's brains came out of his head and onto my body. For 11 days I had to wear those same clothes with his blood and brains on them. They … threw the body out somewhere between Brotsleti and Megvrekisi.[492]

The Ossetians then took the remaining nine men to school No. 6 in Tskhinvali, which Ossetian forces were using as an improvised base and where they had also held Georgian prisoners of war. Ossetian captors again threatened to beat and kill the detainees. A doctor treated two or three of the detainees who had been injured in the road accident, and gave the group water. Later that evening they transferred seven of the men to the South Ossetian Ministry of Interior. Two of the detainees were separated from the group and were not seen again.[493]

Dmitri Abukidze, 24, from Tirdznisi, told Human Rights Watch that on August 13, Ossetians in camouflage uniforms entered the village and began demanding that the residents provide information about three Ossetians whom they claimed were detained by Georgian military, saying, "Where are our three people, from Znauri? If you don't find them, we'll take you to Tskhinvali." They then detained Abukidze, his father, and several of their neighbors and forced them onto an armored personnel carrier. According to Abukidze, "They started moving, and some 30 minutes later I managed to jump off. They fired at me from an automatic gun, and hit me in the leg. Then they let all of us go."[494] The group was released apparently because the Ossetian captors seemed reluctant to take a wounded detainee and several witnesses to the shooting into detention.

Ill-treatment in detention and degrading conditions of detention at the South Ossetian Ministry of Interior, Tskhinvali

All of the detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch described appalling conditions of detention in small, overcrowded basement cells of the South Ossetian Ministry of Interior building in Tskhinvali. Many detainees described degrading treatment, particularly upon arrival at the facility. Material conditions in Tskhinvali at the time of these detentions were dire: the city had no electricity, very little food, and very little water. Irrespective of these conditions, Russian and Ossetian authorities had an obligation to provide humane conditions of detention in accordance with international standards. Ill-treatment and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health constitute war crimes.[495] Several detainees told Human Rights Watch that Russian Federation officials were present at certain times at the Ministry of Interior during their detention.[496]

Ill-treatment in detention

Tamaz Chalauri described treatment by Ossetian forces upon his arrival at the Ministry of Interior building in Tskhinvali on August 10: "They lined us up facing the wall. They wrote down our names, searched us, took everything we had with us. They were hitting us, kicking us, cursing us the whole time, and calling us, 'You Georgian pigs, you motherfuckers.'"[497] Others also described searches, which sometimes involved beatings or stripping of clothes, as well as confiscation of money, cellphones, jewelry, and identity documents. Nothing was returned to the detainees upon their release, except identity documents in some cases.[498]

 

Some detainees reported that Ossetian forces forced them to walk across or spit on a Georgian flag placed on the ground near the Ministry of Interior building.[499] When Ilo Khabareli refused to step or spit on the flag and said, "Kill me here because I won't do that," an Ossetian fighter hit him on the head, forcing him into a wall, where he hit his head again.[500] Vazha Lagazashivili told Human Rights Watch that when he tried to walk around the flag, Ossetians hit him with the butt of a gun on the back and neck.[501]

Human Rights Watch did not interview anyone who was beaten at the detention facility, except in those cases when the interviewee was beaten upon arrival as described above. However, former detainees told Human Rights Watch that many of the men, particularly the young men, were beaten, and that some were beaten frequently. They described consistently how men would be taken out of their cells and out of the basement, and how, when they were returned, they showed clear signs of beatings.[502] Manana Gogidze, 48, from Tamarasheni, told Human Rights Watch that she witnessed young men regularly being beaten:

We saw them being taken upstairs and we could hear their screams. When they were brought back, they would bear clear signs of beating.… I saw the bruises myself as I was trying to help them. There was a young man from Tirdznisi who was beaten several times. I saw large dark bruises mostly on his back … There was one [elderly] detainee … who spoke no Ossetian despite having an Ossetian name. He was hit once by the guards for not speaking Ossetian.[503]

Salimat Bagaeva told Human Rights Watch, "[Y]oung men would be taken out and then badly beaten. I saw them. Their bodies would be covered in bruises. There was one who had a broken nose."[504]

Several, although not all, detainees reported that they were interrogated during their detention. One reported being insulted by an Ossetian police officer, but none of those interviewed by Human Rights Watch reported ill-treatment during interrogation.

Degrading conditions of detention

Detainees stated that the basement contained five dark, dirty, poorly ventilated cells without windows, designed for short-term detentions. Women and men were held in separate cells. The cells quickly became overcrowded and the guards eventually opened the doors of the cells and detainees could move into the hall or the small, fenced-in, outdoor exercise yard accessible from the basement.[505] These areas quickly also became full as more detainees were brought to the basement. According to one detainee, "There wasn't even space to walk around in the corridor or in the exercise yard" due to the large number of people.[506]

With many more detainees in the cells than there were bunk beds for them, most were forced to sleep sitting up or lying on the floors of the cells, halls, or exercise yard.[507] One detainee, 76-year-old Rusudan Chrelidze, remarked that in her cell, "the women were sleeping like herrings in a tin."[508] A 47-year-old detainee from Karaleti reported that in his cell people slept in shifts because there was not enough space for people to lie down.[509]

Detainees described being given small quantities of water that contained sand and was frequently undrinkable, and insufficient food.[510] During the initial days of detention, detainees received only bread. Guards would throw four to five loaves of bread into the cells, saying "Eat, you pigs!"[511] Detainees stated that later they were given slightly more and better food, including buckwheat cereal, more servings of bread, and tea. Detainees reported losing significant weight during their two weeks of detention.[512]

There was one toilet for all detainees covered with a plastic sheet that the detainees put up themselves. The toilet smelled terribly and frequently overflowed because it did not have water.[513] When asked what had been the most difficult part of her experience in detention, Rusudan Chrelidze said, "The toilet was a big problem. There was only one and there was always a long line for it."[514]

Forced labor Ossetian forces forced many of the male detainees to work, which included recovering decomposing bodies from the streets of Tskhinvali, digging graves, and burying bodies, as well as clearing the streets of building debris from the hostilities.[515] Two detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch stated that they volunteered to work on some days in order to be out of the overcrowded cells for a few hours. None of the workers received any compensation for this work. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, adults (individuals age 18 or older) may be required to work as is necessary to maintain public utilities, and to meet needs of the army and humanitarian needs, such as activities related to feeding, sheltering, clothing, and health care of the civilian population. People must be appropriately compensated for their work, and there can be no obligation to work based on any form of discrimination. Unpaid or abusive forced labor, or work that amounts to partaking in military operations, is strictly prohibited.[516]

Vazha Lagazashivili, age 58, told Human Rights Watch that he was forced to work every day of his 20-day detention:

They would take us out at 9 a.m. until late evening. We were cleaning the streets. They told me that I must go. We had to clear dead bodies from the street. We had to pick them up and put them into body bags. Some had limbs missing. [We also] collected the body parts.

I was taken out sometimes to do other work, like unload trucks full of humanitarian aid from Russia… They would give us one tin of food per person and some bread after we unloaded the trucks. We could only rest when we were given some food, for about half an hour. Of course I was not paid.[517]

Revaz R., 36, from Zemo Achabeti, confirmed that he was among 30 men who were forced to work from early morning until 7 or 8 p.m. "We cleaned the street, threw out garbage, and removed and buried the dead. We buried about 44 people. Most of the corpses were already decaying," he told Human Rights Watch. He also stated that while they worked they received better food, such as canned meat.[518] After about a week in detention, Ossetian forces also forced 70-year-old Gaioz Babutsidze to work for two days lifting coffins off trucks and placing them in graves. He estimates that they buried 50 bodies.[519]

Those who worked were also subjected to degrading treatment as they were taken from their work locations to the Ministry of Interior building. "Sometimes they would make us walk back to the police station … accompanied by four soldiers… People on the streets would yell at us, insult us. They were cursing, swearing, calling us sons of bitches, pigs, whores," Vazha Lazagashivili told Human Rights Watch.[520]

ICRC, journalist visits to the facility

Detainees reported that the International Committee of the Red Cross visited the facility in mid-August.

Journalists also visited the facility. David Giunashvili stated that he spoke to a journalist from the Moscow newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta.[521] Tamaz Chalauri told Human Rights Watch that he was forced to give an interview to Russian television.[522] Emilia Lapachi, age 51, recalled being pressured to speak positively about her detention experience for Russian journalists:

One day Russian journalists came to interview us. We were told by the guards that … if we wanted to be released, we should tell them that we had been treated well and that we had no complaints. We were told to say that we had been taken to custody for our own safety and security. We discussed it among ourselves and decided to say anything to be released from there.[523]

Release of civilian detainees Ossetian forces released one group of 61 detainees, including most of the elderly and all of the women, on August 21, in exchange for eight detainees whom the Georgian Ministry of Defense described as militia fighters. Other civilians were released on subsequent days, including a final group of 81 civilians on August 27, who, according to the Georgian Ministry of Defense, were exchanged for four people detained during active fighting and described as "militants," as well as nine Ossetians previously convicted for crimes and serving sentences in Georgian prisons.[524] While prisoner exchanges are a recognized and legitimate process to facilitate repatriation of prisoners who are in the hands of the enemy, it is prohibited to use the mechanism of prisoner exchanges as a means of effecting population transfer.[525] It is also prohibited to use prisoners as hostages-that would be to unlawfully detain persons with the intent of using them to compel the enemy to do or abstain from doing something as a condition of their release. 

Detentions by Russian and Ossetian forces in other locations

Four Georgian men who had been working on construction sites in Java for several weeks prior to the outbreak of hostilities on August 8 described their detention at two different military bases prior to being transferred to the Ministry of Interior building in Tskhinvali. Human Rights Watch interviewed separately two of the four, Gogita Kotuashvili, age 30, and David Giunashvili, age 47, who described how the four fled Java on foot when Georgian bombing of the town started on August 7. The men walked south hoping to reach a Georgian village, but mistakenly entered an Ossetian village in the Znauri district in South Ossetia. A group of armed Ossetian men in civilian clothes and several men in military uniforms, apparently members of Russian and Ossetian forces, detained the four men. Upon detention they beat the four, kicking them and hitting them in the back of the head with rifle butts. They also confiscated the men's identity documents, tied their hands behind their backs, and blindfolded them before putting them into a car and driving them to what the men described as a military base, consisting of a military tent as well as at least one tank.

The four men were questioned upon their arrival, including being asked whether they were in the Georgian military. With their hands still tied, but their blindfolds off, the men were then put into a hole dug out in the ground, approximately 1.5 meters deep, where they were held for three days. They were given food packaged in military green boxes with Russian labels, and saw cars with Russian license plates arrive at the base and heard Russian being spoken in the tent. On August 9, two men wearing camouflage took the four detainees out of the hole, again blindfolded them and tied their hands, and told them they were being taken to Tskhinvali to be handed over to a Russian and Ossetian military base. When they arrived, their blindfolds were removed, and the men could see a large amount of heavy military equipment, including tanks, on the base. The two detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that many of the soldiers were Russian and Chechen members of the Russian federal forces as well as other irregular fighters from Russia.

Upon arrival at this base, the captors, together with 10 to 15 military servicemen, forced the four detainees to kneel down next to the bodies of two Georgian men lying on the ground. They ordered David Giunashvili to shoot one of his fellow detainees, and Gogita Kotuashvili to shoot the fourth detainee. However, when Giunashvili refused to shoot, the captors did not do anything in retribution, other than forcing the detainees to place the two dead bodies in a car.[526]

The Ossetian and Russian forces then forced the men to sit near the edge of a swimming pool, and beat them. Gogita Kotuashvili stated that he was beaten with rifle butts.[527] The detainees were placed in what appeared to them to be a guardhouse, with two beds. The detainees were taken to eat meals in the canteen and were regularly cursed by the soldiers on the base. After two to three days, on August 11 or 12, two men wearing blue and white camouflage uniforms took the detainees to the South Ossetian Ministry of Interior in Tskhinvali.[528]

Nikoloz Eremov, age 40, and Vazha Kebadze, both from Variani (in Gori district), were held a few days later at what is clearly the same Russian-Ossetian military base in Tskhinvali where the four Georgians had been held. According to Eremov, men who appeared to be Russian military detained him and Kebadze in Variani on August 16, drove them to the base, and immediately placed them in the empty swimming pool. Eremov told Human Rights Watch that at the base he saw Russians, Chechens, and Cossacks and a large amount of heavy military equipment. Russian and Ossetian forces forced the detained men to remove all of their clothes and stand facing the pool wall, with their hands tied behind their backs with rope.

Eremov described how one Russian soldier questioned him while three Ossetians beat him: "The [Russian] officer wasn't beating me but the others were. The Ossetians would beat me on the legs and on the shoulders with their gun butts, and the Russian officer would ask questions." Eremov heard other soldiers questioning and beating Kebadze, who shouted out, "Just kill me! Don't beat me anymore!" After three hours they allowed Eremov to dress and released him by leading him to the woods and telling him, "Get the hell out of here and go home!" Vazha Kebadze remained in the pool. At the time we interviewed Eremov, a week later, Eremov had no information of what had become of Kebadze.[529]

On August 12, Sergo Mindiashvili fled Nikozi, right on the administrative border, because the village was being bombed. He began walking to Gori, but was detained at an Ossetian checkpoint in Shindisi. As six or seven Ossetians detained him, they kicked and punched Mindiashvili and beat him with the butts of their rifles for approximately 20 minutes. Then, they forced him to get in a car. "They threatened to kill me if I didn't do as they said. They pointed a gun at me. [In the car] they continued to beat me all over," Mindiashvili told Human Rights Watch.

The Ossetian forces drove Mindiashvili to a location that he described as a base near Tskhinvali, possibly the same base as described in the cases above. Mindiashvili described his short detention there:

They started questioning me, but I was beaten good first. They didn't explain why I had been detained. They took me to … a sort of storage room. There were about 10 to 15 Ossetians, all in camouflage uniforms. They kicked and punched me and beat me with rifles... They asked whether I had served [in the military], where the Georgian forces were located, … I knew one of them, Alan, … he also beat me. … They decided I should be executed... They loaded their guns and one person lifted his arms [to take aim]. I started crying.

Alan then intervened to stop the execution and the Ossetian forces placed Mindiashvili in a small room. Mindiashvili told Human Rights Watch, "Anyone who wanted could come and beat me. I spent two to three hours there. I was beaten several times."

The Ossetians then took Mindiashvili to Variani and handed him over to Russian soldiers at the checkpoint there. Two other Georgians were being held there; the Russian soldiers treated one of the men's wounds and gave all three men food and water. A Russian officer questioned Mindiashvili and told the soldiers to "do away with him," but once the officer left the other soldiers released Mindiashvili.[530]