09.05.2009 20:29 | The war in August, 2008. The survivors tell as it was

Tomaeva Mary Davidovna, born in 1953, the resident of village Bekmar, Znaurski area of RSO.

When the war began we didn’t sleep all night. One night I spent at my neighbors, all of us were lying on the floor, in case the things go wrong we could flee. You should have seen our house was shaking. And it’s a concrete. We already thought that Tskhinval and nearby villages don’t exist any more.

It’s happened at night from the 7^th to the 8^th of August. The shelling was earlier too, but never so heavy. It was terrible. I don’t know what happened to me, but I stood up and went out. I sat down on the bench near the extreme house on the hill, where the whole Tskhinval was visible and I looked. It was a night and of course I saw nothing especial, there were onlyflashes of fire and the bouncing.

And in the morning there was a black-black smoke above the city.

09.05.2009 20:24 | The Sniper Cut Short His Life

The bloody August days took away the lives of many wonderful sons of Ossetia. On August, 9 the heart of Inal Gazzaev gave out. The defender of republic was killed by Georgian sniper. On December, 6 he would be 28. Inal was married, his sick 6-year-old daughter (the child has a congenital cerebral palsy) and two-year-old son stayed fatherless. Inal was the only son of his parents.

During the last two years Inal Gazzaev worked in law machinery. Earlier, in 2003, he joined the civil guard. He took active part in the repulsing of Georgian August aggression.

As Inal`s sister Diana Gazzaeva tells, the attack of armed Georgian forces on South Ossetia caught my brother on his post, where he had been since the August, 6. In the evening of August, 8 he came to visit his parents, who lived at Geroev Street.

That day he sent his wife and children, who had been in village Hvetse, Dzausky area, to North Ossetia. Inal`s sister and the parents took cover from noninterruptible bombardments in the basement of five-storey building. Three their grandchildren (two of them came from St.-Petersburg to Tskhinval for the holidays) were together with them too.

"In the afternoon of August, 8 the Georgian military hardware entered the city, - Diana tells. – Several armored personnel carriers drove along the street near to our house. All of us hid in a cellar expecting the worst. Georgian invaders fired at the apartment houses and at the people who came in their way. Our flat nearly lighted up in result of bombardments. Near to us Georgians hit and burnt the car with the family inside. They tried to flee from the city under siege. The father with the children died in this car.

09.05.2009 20:15 | The victims of Georgian aggression: Kachmazova Diana Grigorievna and Kachmazova Zaira Grigorievna

Alan Sipols, 38 years old, London resident, tells:

Kachmazova Diana Grigorievna (my mother) and Kachmazova Zaira Grigorievna (my aunt) lived in Tskhinval, at Dzhioev Pr., 7. Zaira worked as a neuropathologist. This profession was in great demand in Tskhinval after the events of the Nineties. A lot of people, who went through the horrors of war, wanted for the qualified medical aid.

Actually, one of the most common reasons my relatives, rather old people, stayed in Tskhinval during the years of the “first war”, notwithstanding the bad living conditions and depressing mood in a conflict zone, was because of responsibility for sick and disabled people.

In the beginning of August, 2008 when the tension was growing, several people were killed by sniper’s bombardments from the direction of Georgia. I insisted on my mum and aunt should leave to Russia for a while, but they hoped, that it would not be the war and stayed in Tskhinval.

09.05.2009 20:09 | The war in August, 2008. The survivors tell as it was.

Dzhidzhoeva Yulya Georgievna, born in 1944, the resident of Tskhinval, RSO

In the night of August, 7, when the explosions occurred from the direction of Georgia, we couldn’t imagine such large-scale hostility would begin. It was 11.30 p.m. and we were going to bed when the neighbors began to shout in the hall: “Run to the basement, quick!” On the way to the basement I thought: “God be thanked, the children are in Vladikavkaz”

In was dark and very damp in the basement. We brought the blankets and mattresses. We spread them on the wet boards. We were in the basement with our neighbors till the August, 11. We felt sorry for the children, who stayed with us in the basement. Sometimes we managed to cook hot food by help of the oil stove. Our soldiers often ran in the basement and told about what was happening in the city. When we learnt that the Georgian soldiers were killing the civilians in the city, it seemed to us they would kill all of us too.

29.04.2009 00:16 | The Meeting at Rokskiy Tunnel

Since the beginning of August the fights in the villages around Tskhinval did not stop. Every day we were informed about the victims from Ossetian side. At that time I was in Dzhava`s camp together with my brother. Tskhinval`s students lived there the usual camp life – they played football, went to a forest, competed in running, nothing especial, in general. On August, 7 we were tired of competitions and went to bed early at 10 o'clock.

But me and my friend George woke up at once with the first shot, which, as it seemed, sounded somewhere close to us. The settlement Dzhava is located above Tskhinval and it instinctively occurred to us to look from the height at that direction, as if we could see what was up there. We rushed to a window. There was red reflection in the south, where, as we thought, the city had been located. It looked like a sunrise in deep clouds and we heard a continuous roar, which we didn’t hear at any bombardments before.

George wanted to wake the others, but I stopped him, I did not want anybody see that. George agreed, especially we didn’t want Igor to wake up. His two brothers went to war and every hour he got in touch with them by phone. But the roar and howl of “Grad’s” shooting were so loud that Igor woke up and immediately took the phone. Fortunately, it was a contact. The brother reassured Igor, he said everything was ok, the bombardment would stop soon and asked us to go to sleep.