23.03.2009 17:58 | Kozaev Roin Raminovich, Tskhinval resident
 That night – from the 7th to the 8th of August the massive shelling of our city began. All the neighbours – the women, the children and the elderly, went down in a basement, where the former boiler room had been. The uptown was under the unceasing shelling with howitzers, mortars, tanks and “Grad” rocket systems, and then the bombardment of the city by air force has begun.
The people were taken over by fear and horror. We heard a roar of the destroyed buildings. One old woman has lost her mind; she was stroking everybody’s head and said that the grass was growing on our heads. The small child cried in mother’s arms and constantly asked for water, but it was impossible to go out of a cellar.
In the afternoon tanks and infantry entered the city. People rushed about the city, they didn’t know what to do. I had to look out and watch the situation. The tank began to shoot at our building from the shorter side, then drove past and shot twice from a facade. I went down in a basement and tried to stop a panic. There was a priest together with us and he constantly calmed the people down and prayed.
The Georgian tank fired at the next building and then stopped. I asked everybody to creep into a small part of a basement where the additional fence was. But I understood that in case of a direct hit of a shell everyone would be buried in a common grave.
The young defenders of the city ran into our basement, one of them was hit in a leg, but it was impossible to take him to a hospital. And only when the tank left, they could drive him under the heavy shelling. We don’t know whether they managed to reach the hospital.
The next night became even more terrible. The “Grad” rocket systems fired at our area, our roof was completely destroyed, there were not enough meal, water, and there were no candles. People were running in panic along the streets, and the shell splinters hit them. The number of the victims among the civilian population for two days increased till one and a half thousand persons (it is fixed by the people who saw or heard about died residents).
When the Georgian infantry entered the city, the basements were pelted with the grenades. There were many people with a dark skin and many Asians among the aggressors. Most likely, they were American soldiers from Iraq, they spoke in English.
As it found out later, there were mercenaries from the Ukraine and the countries of Baltic among the aggressors. Georgian infantry shot down everybody and everything, even the animals. They were shooting at women corpses even.
When the people's volunteer corps and Russian peacemakers forced the enemy out of a city, the snipers and mortar men occupied the buildings and private houses. The tanks were in the oak grove and began to fire at the remained buildings and constructions from behind trees.
Then the city drew next heavy fire, the snipers began to work actively.
They shouted that the building was in fire and it is necessary to leave this cellar. There were bed patients among us, but we had to run under the heavy fire to the next building where already a lot of elderly and women with the children have gathered. Everyone was horrified. Our building has burned down in result of a direct hit of several incendiary shells.
When the Russian army interceded for helpless nation, people breathed but not freely. The hidden monsters began to kill people, which got out to white light.
Translated by Tatiana Inozemtseva |
