24.09.2008 19:02 | The Tragedy Of South Ossetia. Eyewitness Accounts: Kochiyeva Valentina Georgievna

Kochiyeva Valentina Georgievna, born in 1953

Chkalov St, 46. Works as an instructor at a Boarding school.

Me and my son, together with our neighbors, 8 people in total, were sitting in the basement of our house. My son- Valiyev Vladislav, a student in Stavropol, was visiting Tskhinval as part of his co-op program. The basement was small, there was no water, electricity or natural gas and no washrooms. The cells phones were out of power and we did not know what is going on around, we could not call our family and friends… We spent time in this fashion until the 10^th, five o’clock in the morning. In the morning, when it was quiet, we stepped out. There were corpses lying on the streets…

There were 8 of us in the car. From Tskhinval until Kusret village, it’s no more then 3 km. During this short stretch of the road, I counted 17 cars-burnt and shot at… When I came here (i.e. Vladikavkaz), I found out that my second son, a student from Zheleznovodsk has left for Tskhinval, as a volunteer.

My neighbors have been murdered: deaf-mute photographer Irakliy Kozayev and his mother. His wife Eka, a Georgian, is now a refugee, she came here as well.

23.09.2008 23:15 | TSKHINVAL. August 2008

20.09.2008 12:47 | CROWDED JEWISH DISTRICT WAS TURNED INTO SITE OF A FIRE

Populous district, named Jewish, which is located in the East of the city, is one of the most injured districts in result of bombardments of the city. All this area was turned into site of a fire, practically it burned in its entirety. Tens of families have no roof over their heads; they have lost their property, which was acquired for many years. Fortunately, during a fire the residents of a district were in a shelter, in a basement of a building of Regional Cooperative Union. But all the same it didn’t get by without victims. Vasily Bazaev, as his neighbors say, was about 63 years old, he died from shrapnel wounds on August, 8, in the afternoon.

Svetlana Nanieva, one of the witnesses of Vasily`s death, tells about the circumstances: “In the evening of August, 7, I went to bed earlier, than usually as I was very tired, because since early morning when the sun even didn’t rise the heavy shelling of Tskhinval began from the side of the Georgian villages Nikozi and Ergnety. In the evening of that day Saakashvili made a speech on Georgian TV, where with his tendency to be hypocritical he was talking about his great love and respect to Ossetian people, he said he wanted the peace and promised not to begin the war.

Certainly, very few people believed him. Everybody was convinced long ago, that there was a discrepancy between his words and actions. But all the same, I hoped and decided to go to bed, to have a rest after the intense day. Soon I was woken by terrible sounds of exploded shells. As all my neighbors, I took cover in a basement of a former building of Regional Cooperative Union. This is the only relatively safe place in our district. The inhabitants of other nearby streets came there to hide. There were so many people in the basement that we had no place to stand. There were little children, mothers with their babies and the pregnant woman among us.

The shelling of the city didn’t stop even for a minute. I don’t know, why Georgians were vexed with our district, but they fired at it with special cruelty. We heard a roar of the shells, which were destroying our houses. It was impossible to go out to the street. Because of the cramped it was very stuffy in a cellar, but it didn’t matter for us, we were only shaking from fear and prayed for rescue.

19.09.2008 15:30 | The Tragedy Of South Ossetia. Eyewitness Accounts: Kozayeva Marina Pavlovna

Kozayeva Marina Pavlovna., born in 1965.

Tskhinval, Gafez St. 6/31 head of the branch of Polygraphic union of South Ossetia.

My 2 sons are fighting together with the other men; they are in the resistance brigade. And we, together with our neighbors, spent most of the time in the basement of our building. It is located at the very end of the city; beyond it-there is Georgia. Altogether there were 10 of us in the basement.

We spent the entire first night of bombardments in the basement, it was impossible to get out; such was the strength of the shooting. In the morning, rumors started to go around, that the Georgians are controlling Znaur region and they also took the villages near the city. We did not believe it. Then suddenly tanks entered the city from the south and rolled along our street. We were very happy, we thought-finally the Russians came… We even ran towards them. Two tanks separated from the column and started to move towards our building, and then we saw Georgian writing on them. Then we immediately turned around and ran back to the basement; meanwhile the tanks circled around our building, stopped and began firing at it. Then they drove on our street towards the posts. One of these 2 tanks was hit by our boys, and another one fell into the irrigation canal. These guys who hit the tank were all around 18 to 24 years old, and they were armed only with automatic rifles, one machine gun and one grenade launcher.

Then things became more silent … During the night from Friday to Saturday someone has told us, that tanks are again in city and have passed through Shanghai (slang name for a neighborhood in the southern district of Tskhinval) … We were told to leave this area, and in the morning, around 5 o’clock, when the situation became calmer, we moved to the northern part of the city. There we hid in a basement till morning of the tenth. The group of our neighbors has left that morning through Tbet, we too thought to leave, but then we were told that it is impossible to go through Tbet. We drove our UAZ (car model)  through Kvernet. . In one place, four people jumped towards us from the bushes, Tskhovrebova Elina with her mother, and a husband with wife. They were driving together, when their car was fired at and hit their 2 year old son who has died on the spot… They asked to take them with us, but there was no more room in our car and we had to leave them there, on a road. I do not know, what happened to them.

19.09.2008 10:08 | The Tragedy of South Ossetia. Testimony of Witnesses: Bikoeva Nellie Ivanovna.

Mamsurov Street, 5 / 21, director of studies of the State Lycee of Arts

From the seventh to the ninth, we sat through in the basement; to count it, it was three and a half days. The basement did not even have water, but the shelling was so severe that we could not go out, go up to a floor and get a bottle of water… Fortunately, there were no babies in the basement, we were all adults, twenty-two year old girls, they all patiently tolerated… But what was happening during these days was not comparable to what happened seventeen years ago. This is something unbelievable… When there is such bombardment that your breath gets taken away, I do not know, maybe the soldiers are accustomed to it, but for civilians, women, elderly, children, it was such horror - seemed that your innards are about to burst. I do not understand how one can bombard the city by using systems "Grad", shells of large caliber - I am not a military person, but I know that some shells - as they are called, cannons or something like that - they are prohibited, so how can you really bombard a peaceful city in such way? !

It’s a horror of sorts, two direct hits on our building, mass shrapnel, there is nothing left in our building, not one glass, walls are blown to bits… Fortunately, no one died in our building.  But those young men who left to fight - who knows? We were still unable to visit the neighbors; we get in touch by phone, to ask each other, how are yours. We still don’t know anything about two of our neighbors, the lonely elderly Tibilovs: Nana Tembolovna and Geras, her husband. Where are they now? They were also in our basement.

The departure was a nightmare… There were no cars at all; there was no organized evacuation. People left as they could, caught acquaintances… In principle, I would not have left. But then, when we were told that Georgians burst through into the city twice… Prior to my departure, they already entered our courtyard, can you imagine, just came on foot, got out of their tanks and thus went around the city. When it got quiet, we heard steps, and one of three young girls who were with us, said: "Our people are here!" and ran out from the shelter, wanted to know what is happening in the city… Fortunately for her, he had just passed  the entrance, when she came out, she had time to see his back and ran back. But if he were to see her, I don’t know what he would have done with her. By this time, we heard the rumor that they go to cellars, throw in grenades, we have heard that they take girls, women as hostages… We were all women; there was only this old man with us, Tibilov Geras. And three young girls - my daughter and also two neighbors. And so, when these rumors have reached us, we ventured, and crammed all young the women in our neighbor Kabulov Valery’s car and got in ourselves, seven people total, and we departed.