Refugees caught in the middle of Georgia-Russia tensions

It started on August 7 2008 when Georgian troops attacked Russian-backed separatists in the breakaway region of South Ossetia. The Russian Army retaliated, driving deep into Georgian territory.

Tens of thousands of Georgians fled their homes and some 30,000 are still displaced.

Some of them now live in a colony in Akhali Tserovani. It was built by the Georgian government, which pays cash subsidies to residents every month.

The people who live there say all they want is to return to their homes. But their homes are now in Russian-occupied land.

Georgia's Orthodox patriarch Ilia II says he discussed the fate of the displaced during a meeting with Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, several months after the war.

The Georgian patriarch explained to CNN that Medvedev had told him that refugees must return to their homes.

"This was very happy news," Ilia II said. "But it is a fact that these words remained just words and they were not fulfilled."

Russia and Georgia share a mountainous border nearly 500 miles long and their cultures have been closely intertwined for centuries but it has rarely been an easy relationship.

As it stands right now, the Russians and the Georgians have re-opened one border checkpoint and there's a trickle of traffic going back and forth. But still, the two governments do not get along.

Moscow and Tbilisi still aren't talking to each other and each side blames the other for starting the conflict.

Nika Galauri, Prime Minister of Georgia told CNN: "It's political will from Russian side that needs to be shown in order for situation to move forward."

But that's little consolation for Ano Chevaidze, one of the few Georgians left in Erganeti.

"It started on August 7 2008 when Georgian troops attacked Russian-backed separatists in the breakaway region of South Ossetia. The Russian Army retaliated..."

Lol! Right off the bat the Communist News Network (CNN) distorts the facts!

From SkyNews, August 10, 2008

"The crisis was sparked earlier this week when Georgia sent troops into the breakaway province of South Ossetia to quell a Russian-backed separatist uprising."
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Russia-On-Verge-Of-All-Out-War-As-Troops-Clash-In-Georgias-South-Ossetia/Article/200808215074261?lpos=World%2BNews_4&lid=ARTICLE_15074261_Russia%2BOn%2BVerge%2BOf%2BAll-Out%2BWar%2BAs%2BTroops%2BClash%2BIn%2BGeo
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From the New York Times, September 15, 2008
Georgia Offers Fresh Evidence on War’s Start

Russia has not disputed the veracity of the phone calls, which were apparently made by Ossetian border guards on a private Georgian cellphone network. “Listen, has the armor arrived or what?” a supervisor at the South Ossetian border guard headquarters asked a guard at the tunnel with the surname Gassiev, according to a call that Georgia and the cellphone provider said was intercepted at 3:52 a.m. on Aug. 7.

“The armor and people,” the guard replied. Asked if they had gone through, he said, “Yes, 20 minutes ago; when I called you, they had already arrived.”

Shota Utiashvili, the director of the intelligence analysis team at Georgia’s Interior Ministry, said the calls pointed to a Russian incursion. “This whole conflict has been overshadowed by the debate over who started this war,” he said. “These intercepted recordings show that Russia moved first and that we were defending ourselves.”

The recordings, however, do not explicitly describe the quantity of armor or indicate that Russian forces were engaged in fighting at that time.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/world/europe/16georgia.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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