Civilians caught in the crossfire as true picture of atrocities revealed
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Tension had been rising in the area for days and Nona Bakarashvilli, a 51-year-old mother of four in a family of ethnic Georgians, was increasingly worried. She, along with her husband Georgi, left their home in the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia to seek safety.
Six hours after leaving their village, Mrs Bakarashvilli was shot at a checkpoint by a drunken militiaman. She died of her wounds.
Mr Bakarashvilli (58) and the couple's children managed to reach the home of a relative inside Georgia proper, but not before losing all their money and the few belongings they had to the gunman.
Now the village where they have ended up is also at the mercy of marauding Ossetian, Cossack and Chechen paramilitaries who have come into Georgia behind Russian troops. They know they must move on again from the danger.
A Human Rights Watch report issued yesterday gave further details of atrocities being committed and "expressed deep concern over the apparently indiscriminate nature of the attacks that have taken such a toll on civilians".
In Tskhinvali, a woman, eight months pregnant, was shot as she looked out of the window. She later died.
The hospital in Tskhinvali had at one stage come under fire for 18 hours during which two sisters working there had been killed. (© Independent News Service)
- Kim Sengupta in Gori
