04.04.2009 20:28 | The Mother and Her Daughter Died of Burns

Raisa Tskhovrebova and her daughter Ellina Kadzhaeva lived in a private house on Sanakoeva St., Shanghai area. As their neighbours say, Raisa was about 55 years old, Ellina was 26 years old.

Misery came to their life in the middle of Nineties when the householder, Raisa`s husband Kavkaz was killed by Georgians near village Ergneti.

But before they recover from loss, Raisa`s son Soslan was killed too. Raisa and Ellina were very cut up by their death. In recent years Raisa was out of work.  

Ellina was the employee of the Committee of State and Economic Safety of RSO.

As their neigbours Alla Gassieva and Ella Tekhova said, during the bombardment of Tskhinval by Georgian gunners, Raisa together with her daughter and the brother, who came from Nogir, were hiding in the inspection pit in a court yard of their house. They had no basement in the house. “On August, 9 the next massive bombardment of our area started. The shelling was from the direction of the Georgian village Nikozi. At 11:30 several shells simultaneously hit Kadzhaev`s house, later the expert examination established that it had been the shells of “Grad” rocket system.

30.03.2009 18:54 | Georgian soldiers left them to die

74-year-old Anisim Dzhagaev lived with his wife in a private house on Kulaeva Street.

 During the heavy shelling of the city from the Georgian positions they were in the house. They don`t have a basement to be hidden, and they didn’t go to the neighbours, because Anisim`s wife Chyznal can hardly move, she is the invalid of the first group.

As their daughter Dzerassa told (she knows about the tragedy from the mother’s words), on August, 9 the next house, where two single women lived, lighted up in result of the shell hit. Anisim helped them to extinguish fire, but they didn’t manage to put out fire by their small forces. They only managed to take furnishing out of the house. In a few minutes after the house caught fire, the shell of “Zrad” rocket system hit the roof of Dzhagaev`s house and it began to burn too.

Anisim tried to stop the fire growing, tried to extinguish it at once. With a pailful of water he walked up the exterior stair to the attic. At that time the next shell hit the house and exploded with a roar. Anisim was on the stair and the splinter hit his leg, his leg war nearly torn off. Anisim managed to slip downwards. The wound was bleeding, he began to lose consciousness. His sick wife wasn’t in condition to give her husband necessary aid; with her infirm hands she couldn’t dress the wound in his leg to stop a bleeding. She screamed for help, but nobody answered.

30.03.2009 18:51 | How did we know it was their last trip?

Thousands of peaceful citizens became the victims of heavy shelling of sleeping Tskhinval, undertaken by Georgian army at night from the 7^th to the 8^th of August.

The residents of Commissarrov St., 26: father and a son Ruten and Elbrus Kosaev and their neighbour Vladimir Tedeev, - met their tragic fate.

- At the first night, as soon as the massive bombardment of the city with heavy weaponry began, all of us took cover in a basement of our neighbor as it seemed to us it was the most reliable and could stand the bombing attacks of the Georgian airforce, - Svetlana Guchmazova, the resident of Commissarrov St., 26 says. The explosions were occurring all night long. In the morning of August, 8 when it became a bit calmer, Elbrus together with his neighbor Vladimir decided to take his old father to the North, in Vladikavkaz. How did we know that it was the last time we saw our neighbors?

When they passed the territory of the Oak grove, the shelling of the road with heavy weaponry began. "My father was driving, - Elbrus`s daughter Milena Kozaeva says. My father was wounded by the first shots and he lost bearings. After a while a big explosion occurred, the car was thrown into the air, but the Georgian soldiers continued to shoot at it. Inafewsecondsthecarcaughtfire…"

27.03.2009 21:25 | "They put the bodies on each other, poured them over solar oil and lighted them up"

It hurts to see Edward. Long time before he used to be strong and optimistic, now he has sad look and guilty smile. He has a nervous disorder. One month ago Edward`s relatives: cousin Mairbeg and his children Aslan and Diana were killed in South Ossetia. 500 persons went to the funeral. Such families in Tskhinval are without number.

The phones did not answer

Edward Tskhovrebov lives in Kaliningrad since 1995. Twenty years ago he graduated from The Mining and Smelting Institute in Vladikavkaz, and then moved to the Baltic Sea. All that time Edward remembered the native town Tskhinval. Once a week he used to call his relatives. In South Ossetia lived Edward`s cousin Mairbeg with his children and his father Zaur, the uncles, the aunts, about 30 united families in all.

- On August, 7 I had a terrible sleeplessness, - Edward says. - I lay under a blanket when the phone rang in the middle of the night. It was Mairbeg from Tskhinval: “Edik, we are under heavy shelling, such a shelling was not heard of for a long time… We don’t know what to do! Explosions are occurring everywhere… Probably, we’ll take cover in a basement!” My brother is a courageous man, about 200 centimetres in heigh and 150 kgs by weight. The words “despair” and “fear” are not his way. But I’ve heard such a fear in his voice that I realized it was no joke.

27.03.2009 21:11 | The Victims of Georgian aggression: 14-year-old Albina Shonazarova

Many children and teenagers were killed during the events in South Ossetia. 14-year-old Albina Shonazarova, the pupil of 8-th form of secondary school of Tskhinval, is among them. The life of this young girl is ended on disastrous Zarskaya road, when she together with her relatives tried to be evacuated to Northern Ossetia.

It’s hard for Albina`s father Charshambi Shonazarov, Lieutenant Colonel, the worker of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, to tell about the daughter’s death, but he keeps himself in hand. As he said, during the massive shelling at night from the 8^th to the 9^th of August he decided to send his wife together with the daughter and the relatives to Northern Ossetia.

"The car where except my wife and my daughter were four other persons, draw fire from Georgians on Zarskaya road, - the father of the killed girl speaks. - As they said to me, at that moment everybody jumped out of the car and quickly laid down on the ground, but my daughter didn’t manage to bend, looked back for a second and the Georgian sniper immediately shot at her. Albina died an instantaneous death. Her body remained there. The rest of them managed to reach Vladikavkaz. They said me about the death of my daughter in the morning. I went to Zar, found her lifeless body, brought it in Tskhinval and temporarily buried her in a kitchen garden".

Last year, during the shelling of a militia post by Georgians, Charshambi Shonazarov received heavy wounds and it’s a miracle that he stayed alive.

25.03.2009 18:37 | The Tragedy of South Ossetia. Gabaev Hariton Ilich

Gabaev Hariton Ilich, born in 1936, resident of Satikar village (Tskhinvalsky District of RSO):

At Night of August, 7, at about 11-30 pm the shooting began. The shelling was heavy, and we ran to a wood. I felt very bad, my feet were sore. In the morning of August, 8 the shooting became calmer. I decided to go home. My house is in front of the Soviet of the village. I did not even know what was going on there. I wanted to let the hens out of a henhouse. About 50-60 persons sprang from the Soviet of the village. Some of them ran up to me and caught me.

They knocked me down. Then two of them caught my hands and dragged me to the Georgian village Ksuisi. The earth road is strewed with the pebbles. My clothes tore up to pieces, trousers have slipped, I have lost my shoes. So they dragged me to a center of Ksuisi. I had many wounds, all of them were bleeding. They did not let me dress the wounds, did not let me cover myself. They tore my last clothes. They called me “the Russian dog”. They humbled me. They did not let me go to a toilet. Then, at last, they led me there.

At seven o'clock in the morning they took us here. We walked the plank. I uplifted a bandage a little bit and could see. I saw their tanks and cars. There were Georgian inscriptions “Police” on many cars, the other cars were big, they were covered by a canvas and there were many soldiers in them. Maybe they were local, they were in masks.

25.03.2009 18:32 | The Tragedy of South Ossetia. Tedeeva Zaira Lazoevna, born in 1946

Tedeeva Zaira Lazoevna, born in 1946

That day, when Georgians entered the city, we left the city by car. There were five persons in the car: me, Eveline Djabieva, Valery Kokoev, his spouse Fatima Gasseeva and their daughter Dzerassa Kokoeva. I didn’t agree to go away as my sons were in Russia. They were in safety there. My son could not get in touch with me by phone. Communication was bad. Therefore he wanted to come and take me away.

Valery insisted on our departure. His daughter Dzerassa was afraid too, she was trembling with fear. Therefore we decided to leave. We wanted to reach village Khvtse.

We left by car. Under never-ending shooting and bombardment we have hardly reached the level crossing. As soon as we crossed it, they opened fire on us. Valery shouted to us to get out quickly. We somehow jumped out of the car and began to creep. Luckily I was dressed in trousers and a dressing gown; in other case I would scratch my knees. We crept to the bushes and have hidden behind them. We waited a bit and then Valery told us to rush to a wood. As I was the eldest I ran the first. When we came to village Tbet we met an old man who also said that it was safety to go to village Khvtse. We were just about to go, but suddenly we saw a column of soldiers. Valery thought they were Russians and even waved his hand to them. When it turned out they were Georgians, it was already too late. They ran up to us with shouts “Get out!” “Don't move!” We formed a line.

23.03.2009 14:58 | Kozaev Roin Raminovich, Tskhinval resident

That night – from the 7^th to the 8^th of August the massive shelling of our city began. All the neighbours – the women, the children and the elderly, went down in a basement, where the former boiler room had been. The uptown was under the unceasing shelling with howitzers, mortars, tanks and “Grad” rocket systems, and then the bombardment of the city by air force has begun.

The people were taken over by fear and horror. We heard a roar of the destroyed buildings. One old woman has lost her mind; she was stroking everybody’s head and said that the grass was growing on our heads. The small child cried in mother’s arms and constantly asked for water, but it was impossible to go out of a cellar.

In the afternoon tanks and infantry entered the city. People rushed about the city, they didn’t know what to do. I had to look out and watch the situation. The tank began to shoot at our building from the shorter side, then drove past and shot twice from a facade. I went down in a basement and tried to stop a panic. There was a priest together with us and he constantly calmed the people down and prayed.

The Georgian tank fired at the next building and then stopped. I asked everybody to creep into a small part of a basement where the additional fence was. But I understood that in case of a direct hit of a shell everyone would be buried in a common grave.

23.03.2009 14:55 | Vladimir Margiev, 62 years old, the fireman of the Russian peace-making battalion

Vladimir Margiev, 62 years old, the fireman of the Russian peace-making battalion "Jugniy” disposition:

- I was on duty at night of August, 7. At the first volleys of the Georgian artillery, which choose as the target not uptown only, but also the position of a peace-making battalion, I had to take cover in the stokehole fire chamber, luckily it wasn`t nessesary to  heat in summertime. I spent there three day, hungry and without water and I became the witness of savage reprisal over Russians. After the Georgian armed forces were put to flight, I could return home. I turned black from a coal dust.

There are thousands histories connected with a genocide and ethnic purges in South Ossetia. For two days Georgia committed so many crimes, which were beyond the human comprehension, that its authority deserved to be in the prisoner's box of the international court for crimes against humanity. But a principle of "one's own bastard" works again when the behavioral model towards a concrete situation is coming into being.

Everybody knows who the real initiator of fighting was, who the aggressor was and who was under attack. But all the same it’s most likely that having a wish to save such a good full-fledged anti-Russian buffer on South Caucasus the West will continue “the restoration of defensibility of Georgia".

23.03.2009 14:48 | Edward Kulumbegov, the captain of a peace-making battalion, the military observer

Edward Kulumbegov, the captain of a peace-making battalion, the military observer: