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Show DAILY HERALD Saturday, August 30. 2008 A3 AP IMPACT EDITOR'S NOTE Assoc'h ated Press writer Yuras. spent 11 days travel- military response, sending hundreds of armored vehicles south across Georgia's border and driving the Georgians deep into their own territory. The Russians have accused the Georgians of attempting genocide, saying the barrage ' targeted Tstikinvalis hospital and residential neighborhoods. They say ks tanks rolled over people alive, and fired into basements where Ossetian families cowered. South Ossetian officials and the Russian military say they have done their best to discourage looting and arson and to protect Georgian residents of , the breakaway republic, despite the popular anger at what they say was Georgia's effort to destroy them as a people. We are not barbarians, Kokoity told the APthis week. ; .. South Ossetian officials say ; 1,692 civilians were killed and some 1,500 wounded in Geor- - " . which gia's military assault devastated some Tskhinvali , neighborhoods. At first Russia sajd about 2,000 Ossetian civil-- ; ians had been killed. But on Aug. 20, it reduced that figure, to 133 confirmed dead. "The truth is no one knows, Thomas Hamrnarberg, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner , t old re- porters in Moscow Thursday. In Soviet times, Ksuisiresi- - 7 dents say, Ossetians and Geor- gians lived harmoniously in the prosperous village surrounded by corn fields, grapevines . and orchids with peaches and .apples.; y'v. Now the some 400 homes in the hamlets Georgian quarter .: appear to have been burned and looted. Of about 700 Ossetian houses, a small number bore including a school the. marks of damage from Georgian artillery fire. ' Many Ossetians say their ethnic Georgian neighbors bear collective guilt for Tbilisis Kar-man- battle zones. J - ing independently through the X r. . . - . Si-- Yuras Karmanau THE ASSOCIATED PRESS . . After KSU1SI, Georgia Georgian soldiers stormed South Ossetia and killed Vitaly Guzitayev's friend, he hid in the woods. Once the Georgians left, he set fire to the elegant brick homes of ethnic Gear-- 7 gians who lived nearby. 7 Georgians must not return here. Ossetia is for Ossetians, Guzitayev spat, sitting on a bench in Ksuisitwo weeks later. Let Georgians suffer. Now we are independent from' them. Arson gangs have targeted the homes of ethnic Georgians in breakaway South Ossetia as " the conflict over control threatens to erase a centuries-ol- d v ethnic mix. Since the warfare ..between Georgia and Russia. in early August, Associated .. Press reporters have witnessed burning homes and looting in -villages in the region. The conflict has pitted neighbor against neighbor in this region of mountain slopes and v.. . . , fruit orchards where two eth1' 7. , '7V nic groups have lived sidehy- 7 side for centuries: Georgians ' DMITRY IOVETSKVAmocuM Prei whose culture is rooted on the Black Sea coast and Ossetians Ethnic Georgian Oda Bugadze, 68, is seen in Ksuisl village, near the South Ossetian-Georgia- n bonier, on Tuesday. Bugadze said whose language and customs she hid in a com field as Russian troops swept through, then watched as her neighbors descended on her home, looted It and set it on fire, Now she camps in its ruins. point to. the east. According to Georgia, ait least 28,800 ethnic Georgians have fled South Ossetia in civilians in Ossetian- - and tor of the Europe and Central. A t-! C a 4 V recent weeks, part of a larger areas. Asia division of Human Rights J ' exodus of some 160,000 people r- - r-- ' "It was a concerted action of Watch, said satellite images from the conflict zone. South Russian official military forces confirm militia attacks on eth- -. Ossetian officials say the re- - 7 SOU.rlO1- with paramilitaries," nic Georgian villages in South : together sJwHkrt Ossetia and emphasize the Eka Tkeshelashvili, a senior gkms population of Georgians TlwSovtUnicmihl,.vi.i'.'.'.;ti ; was only about 14.000 when need for Russian authorities official, government Georgian : Ossetia cams under I ; i the fighting started earlier this said at a meeting in Europe in to hold these militias account.,con,ra'; month. ; able." .... Vienna this week. Whatever the figure, no one Over the past three weeks, . 7 A Human Rights Watch U s s r e Id o t n, " AP reporters have witnessed team visited five Georgian vildisputes that there are few 7 : bunting 7. in South Ossetia from in than homes more .assault."''' Georgians left in South Ossetia. ' 1 7- lages ' 7 NORTH And any who try to return will : The mother of Guzitayev's : half a dozen Georgian villages. Aug. 1 she said, taking Q88ETIA ir find many of their neighbors On Aug. 11, sin AP reporter . ' photographs and interviewing friend, Lenya Doguzov, '-. s. 7 . . T"'-saw looting by armed men hi victims. The team witnessed 7 clutched the earth and wailed hostile, their language despised of the in an orchard that had been 7 and their homes destroyed north Georgian villages looting and burning in two of 'Sy'v,Oiia Bugadze, 68, is one of her son's grave site before his South Ossetian capital of Tskh- the villages, Tamareshni and SOOTH., V 7.7 invali a handful of ethnic Georgians l-v- ' KekhvL as Russian troops body was moved to a cemeVi-'-vOSSETIA left in Ksuisl She said she '. Until the last years! of the . etery. .. tfoodby. .... : ' f CULTL hid in a corn field as Russian Another AP reporter saw .. Soviet Union, Grorgians and v. .."Georgians should lie next r ; " I 7 , and looting of Geor-giOssetians had lived peacefully. to my son," Yekaterina Dogu-- . troops swept through,.then I G E O R G I A V .1 Mm Annsnlon t. burning But as reforms weakened watched as neighbors descendhomes in at least six zova, 70, said latterly as she ' ed on her home, looted it and separate areas from Aug. 22 ; Moscow's grip, Ossetians and grieved alongside her daugh-- . .f7''f Georgian ' set it on fire. Now she camps in Zemfira Doguzova, . Thursday: the villages Georgians formed nationalist v"1' .7 ! Osastlan 71 . through 34. the ruins of her kitchen, of Achabetiug, Kekhvi, Tama-.rashe- movements, each staking a 7 : ' :'i Chachon Ksuisi and Eregvi, as afraid" said Bugadze, ; claim to their shared homeland. - .. Pavel Panikaev, 73, angrily ' Russian ( ; Well as near the capital Tskh-- ' clad in a worn-ou- t black shirt ; After Ossetia declared its recalled how Georgians beat invali. and skirt, as she showed a visiindependence, Georgian forces 'him with rifle butts. "We have tor the destruction. Every day SOURCE: U S. Dept, of Stats; Bureau o( European and Eurasian Affairs With most Georgians gone, a right for revenge," he said. invaded, launching a AP there seems to be an effort to We will not leave Georgian war that ended in 1992 in a they threaten me and want to erase even the memory of their Kremlin-brokered deal that di- houses, orchards, nothing. We drive me out of Ossetia." Georgian officials say some dominantly Georgian village in punishment. "The Interior Min-- f presence here. On Thunday, : vided the region. South Ossetia will erase them from the face r South Ossetia. After the fight-- : istry protected them to save ethnic Georgian men were fell within Georgias borders, of earth!"',' a South Ossetian policeman . their autono-shot said. With Lena Kudakhova, 67, of Ksubut she he down men a with with the knocked 7 said, lives," wide, ended, by.militia sign summarily ing operated But Kokoity also said any name of the Georgian village , my. North Ossetia came under isi was married to a Georgian fighters in the aftermath of the guns looted and torched her home and took her to a jail in : ethnic Georgian civilians who man killed in the recent fightof Tamasheni, written in both Moscows control fighting, a claim that the AP. was not immediately able to. The uneasy peace that fol- sided with Georgian military Tskhinvali.; ing. Now her half Georgian Georgian and Latin scripts, as bulldozers razed the last re-- . lowed was marked by sporadic .daughter is in hiding nearby, forces will not be allowed to There, she said, she was. . independently confirm. ." However, an AP reporter locked in a basement cell with return. "We warned them in maining houses. At least three dashes, which intensified whep fearing retaliation, and her 43 other women, most of them advance," he said. half Georgian son has fled to saw dozens of ethnic Geormore Georgian villages have 7 Georgian President Mikhail David Sanakoyev, a South or oldlike her ethnic Georgians. been bulldozed in South Osse- - Saakashvili came to power .7 ' the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. gians all middle-age-d She wonders what will haper men who were rounded Ossetian government official, four years ago, vowing to asGuards, she told the AP in tia, witnesses said. held 182 in said and interview an the mocked said of Watch total sert Tbilisi's authority over Human after a Tbilisi, fighting Georgian Rights up pen to her. Nobody needs me Ossetian militias have been .... Georgias separatist regions. in an independent Ossetia," she in the basements of South Osand kicked the hostages. civilians were detained for 'Women were forced to sweep their own protection and that . involved in systematic persecu- This only stoked animosity setias Interior Ministry. .said. , the streets, she among South Ossetians, who they were eventually bused ;. tion of" ethnic Georgian civil--. They were forced to haul bombed-oubelieve Georgia has no right to I Associated Press writers t to the Georgian side. The last . Ians. debris on streets .. said, while men were made to ' Mansur Mirovalev and rule them. bury the dead. group of 85 men was escorted They aim at pushing Georby Georgian rockets and artilMaria Danilova in Moscow, On Aug. 7, Georgian forces Smith Ossetian President Ed- to Georgia on Wednesday, he gians out of their villages, lery. The AP saw at least three such groups escorted by armed uard Kokofty said some Georsaid. launched a devastating rocket and Jim Heinti and Misha , 7 to make sure they have no and artillery assault cm South , DzhindzhikhashviH in Tbilisi, South Ossetian policemen. .. place to return to," researcher gian civilians were detained Georgian officials charge Ossetias capital of Tskhinvali,. . Georgia, contributed to this Asmat Babutsidze lived in .. for their own protection, not as there was a coordinated camTatyana Lokshina said. Rachel Denber, deputy direc Russia mounted a massive thehamlet Achabeti,apre- paign against ethnic Georgian part of an effort at collective report . . -- & . . . kg"' . . . .Sva. S.-- . y, 7? ' . 7VJ... . . Russian-- IhP 2t L . . controlled . . ( c't'f-i'.- . T: r ... . ; era t fr'l.A ' . . 7 ; . 12-1- r . . . . V :.;' .' . : . . 7 . . .; w 7'vj.: ..lam : an . : ' ! 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