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Last Updated: Aug 21, 2008 - 12:11:29 PM |
Russia’s invasion of Georgia has unleashed a refugee crisis all over
the country and especially in its capital. Every school here in Tbilisi
is jammed with civilians who fled aerial bombardment and shootings by
the Russian military—or massacres, looting, and arson by irregular
Cossack paramilitary units swarming across the border. Russia has
seized and effectively annexed two breakaway Georgian provinces, South
Ossetia and Abkhazia. It has also invaded the region of Gori, which
unlike them had been under Georgia’s control. Gori is in the center of
the country, just an hour’s drive from Tbilisi; 90 percent of its
citizens have fled, and the tiny remainder live amid a violent mayhem
overseen by Russian occupation forces that, despite Moscow’s claims to
the contrary, are not yet withdrawing.
On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee
housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women—Lia, Nana,
Diana, and Maya—who had fled with their children from a cluster of
small villages just outside the city of Gori. “We left the cattle,” Lia
said. “We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because
to stay there was impossible.” Diana’s account: “They are burning the
houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are
stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They
are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators.”
And Nana: “We are so heartbroken. I don’t know what to say or even
think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day
we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very
beginning.”
Seven families were living cheek by jowl inside a single classroom,
sleeping on makeshift beds made of desks pushed together. Small
children played with donated toys; at times, their infant siblings
cried. Everyone looked haggard and beaten down, but food was available
and the smell wasn’t bad. They could wash, and the air conditioning
worked.
“There was a bomb in the garden and all the apples on the trees fell
down,” Lia remembered. “The wall fell down. All the windows were
destroyed. And now there is nothing left because of the fire.”
“Did you actually see any Russians,” I said, “or did you leave before
they got there?”
“They came and asked us for wine, but first we had to drink it
ourselves to show that it was not poisoned. Then they drank the wine
themselves. And then they said to leave this place as soon as possible;
otherwise they would kill us. The Russians were looking for anyone who
had soldiers in their home. If anyone had a Georgian soldier at home
they burned the houses immediately.”
Her husband had remained behind and arrived in Tbilisi shortly before I
did. “He was trying to keep the house and the fields,” she explained.
“Afterward, he wanted to leave, but he was circled by soldiers. It was
impossible. He was in the orchards hiding from the Russians in case
they lit the house. He was walking and met the Russian soldiers and he
made up his mind that he couldn’t stay any more. The Russian soldiers
called him and asked where he was going, if he was going to the
American side.”
“The Russians said this to him?” I said.
“My husband said he was going to see his family,” she said. “And the
Russians said again, ‘Are you going to the American side?’”
“So the Russians view you as the American side, even though there are
no Americans here.”
“Yes,” she said. “Because our way is for democracy.”
Senator John McCain may have overstated things a bit when, shortly
after the war started, he said, “We are all Georgians now.” But
apparently even rank-and-file Russian soldiers view the Georgians and
Americans as allies. Likewise, these simple Georgian country women seem
to understand who their friends and enemies are. “I am very thankful to
the West,” Maya said as her eyes welled up with tears. “They support us
so much. We thought we were alone. I am so thankful for the support we
have from the United States and from the West. The support is very
important for us.” She tried hard to maintain her dignity and not cry
in front of me, a foreign reporter in fresh clothes and carrying an
expensive camera. “The West saved the capital. They were moving to
Tbilisi. There was one night that was very dangerous. The Russian tanks
were very close to the capital. I don’t know what happened, but they
moved the tanks back.” And my translator, whose husband works for
Georgia’s ministry of foreign affairs, made a similar guess that the
West helped save the capital. “The night they came close to Tbilisi,”
she said, “Bush and McCain made their strongest speeches yet. The
Russians seemed to back down. Bush and McCain have been very good for
us.”
Likewise, the women seemed to understand what Russian imperialism has
always been about—and not just during the Soviet era. “Why do you think
the Russians are doing this in your village?” I said.
“They want our territories,” Nana said. “Some of them are Ossetians,
too, not only Russians, and not only soldiers. Some are there just to
steal things, from Ossetia and Chechnya.”
Russia doesn’t want to annex Gori permanently, in all likelihood. But
it does want, as it always has, a buffer zone between itself and its
enemies. It was George F. Kennan, America’s ambassador to the Soviet
Union, who said, “Russia can have at its borders only enemies or
vassals.” Now, Georgia has been all but dismembered. The opening phase
of this crisis may soon come to a close, but it is shaping up to be
merely the first chapter in a potentially long and dangerous era. “We
will never forget this,” Lia said. “Never. Ever.”
Source:Ocnus.net 2008
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