Georgian Villages in South Ossetia Burnt and Looted

What is affected

	Housing private
	Land Private
	Communal
	Water, sanitation and elictricity

Type of violation

Forced eviction
Demolition/destruction
Dispossession/confiscation

Date

12 August 2008

Region

E [ Europe ]

Country

Georgia

Location

Kekhvi, Nizhie, Achaveti, Verkhnie Achaveti, Tamarasheni

Affected persons

	Total 500
	Men 0
	Women 0
	Children 0

Proposed solution

Stop eviction. Authorities provide reparation for those dispossessed, injured and killed.

Details

Georgian Villages in South Ossetia Burnt.doc
COHRE CERD rpt on roma in italy.pdf

Development

Forced eviction

Costs

Demolition/destruction

Land losses

- Land area (square meters)

- Total value

Housing losses

- Number of homes

- Total value €

Duty holder(s) /responsible party(ies)

	State
	South Ossetian militias, Russian Government

Brief narrative

Source: Human Rights Watch; http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/13/georgi19607.htm

Human Rights Watch researchers interviewed South Ossentian women displaced from the Leningori district of South Ossetia. The women, from the mountain villages of Tsinachari, Monasteri, Zakori, Tsubeni and Tsair, told Human Rights Watch that they had fled with children and elderly people when Georgian military personnel entered their villages on the night of August 7/8.

The displaced persons spent several days in the woods with brief respites in neighboring villages before being picked up by South Ossetian militia and transported to the town of Java. This group of approximately 100 people was accommodated in the Java school building for the night and was due to be moved by buses to North Ossetia in Russia on August 13.

A woman from Tsinachari told Human Rights Watch,

The Georgians came to the village at around two o’clock in the morning. They told us not to be afraid and said that if our men wouldn’t shoot, they wouldn’t shoot either. They shot in the air – probably trying to frighten us. They entered the houses, checked identification documents, even took away the passports from some of our neighbors. They also looked for young guys and for the men. Though all our males were already gone by then – they joined the militia and hid themselves in the woods. The Georgians were also looking for firearms but our men had taken their weapons with them, so there was nothing much to find. We were very scared and could not stay in the village while the Georgians were there, so we also fled into the woods. For the first night, we just walked non-stop.

A woman from Tsair, who fled with her two small children, said that her husband and brother were both in the militia, and told Human Rights Watch that the Georgian soldiers stole whatever money she kept at the house. They also took away the rifle that the men in the family had left behind as well as the passports of the residents, all of whom have citizenship in the Russian Federation.

Another woman from Tsinachari told Human Rights Watch that on August 8, a group she was with was stopped in the woods by the Georgian military. According to the woman, the soldiers said, “Tell your men not to open fire. If they don’t shoot we aren’t going to shoot either.”

During the time they spent in the woods the fleeing civilians were provided with food and assistance by the members of South Ossetian militia, mostly their own relatives. When the militia finally drove them to Java, the women said a wounded man was transported along with them. He was a member of the South Ossetia militia who they were told had been seized by Georgian soldiers in the mountains, beaten up and released. He suffered several broken ribs from the beating.

Costs

€ 0

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