Interview place, date: Tbilisi
Respodent: 7-month pregnant woman
Story code:0014
On August 7th I left for Ateni gorge visiting my sister, where I remained till August 10, in the village of Oluz. When the situation aggravated, my uncle who at that time was in Tbilisi, had been warned not to leave the capital but he still did as his family was there and managed to come to us to leave to take us back.
When he left he received another call with another warning to stay away from the conflict region and not to go into Gori as the enemy was already in the city. We still asked him to keep going in order to get out of the shooting. The Russians were already able to occupy Sveneti police stop on the highway and the militaries with armored vehicles were already there. I got out of the car and begged them to let us go towards Tbilisi but we received a very rude negative answer. They just stopped short of shooting.
We returned and tried to find a bypassing road. There are some short trails and we hoped to bypass Sveneti and then to come up on the highway. When we crossed the bridge at so-called Tsminda Tskali, we found ourselves on an empty highway with no soul around. There was a market place with storages around. The other vehicle but Mercedes car behind us with some folks who hoped to get out on the highway by following us.
Then suddenly a shooting started and we found ourselves encircled with some militaries. Our car was full of children. The militaries shoot at tires and in the air. They did not look as soldiers but wore khaki uniforms with white armbands. There were some Ossetians as well who spoke in broken Russian. I hardly remember the events as I was frightened to death. The militaries were staring at us with pointed guns as a hungry wolf pack. The did not look at us as on humans. I do not know it myself who they were. They looked like solders. Other soldiers were standing some distance away at a checkpoint. Probably they let these folks in for looting as they did not look like humans – black, dirty, unshaved…
My brother works at police and he was afraid that Ossetians not to recognize him. However the attackers pointed their attention to Mercedes car. They rushed to one female passenger who was holding a 7-month baby and shoved her out of car and hoisted her on the highway. The young man next to her was severely beaten and his golden chain taken away.
Those four individuals who encircled us rushed to Mercedes. The woman who was last remaining passenger in the car was shoved into car and taken away. That women started to yell. One attacker stayed with us. When he started to talk it turned out that he was a local Ossetian. In broken Georgian he asked us to calm down and suggested to hide in some deadlock with the shop on the other side. We rushed there but could not stop that woman with a child who was crying for that girl who was taken away and who turned out to be her sister.
This Ossetian gave a sign us to leave. We begged that woman who had a small child to come with us in our car but she declined. The boy with him also asked her to leave but to no avail. Then we got into our car and set off crawling on flat tires. We hoped to head to Ateni gorge again. Someone provided us info on how to leave Kaspi without going on the highway.
We left that car on the road as it was broken. The refugees were heading in the direction of Tbilisi on all available means – on foot, on tractor. We also joined them and so we reached till Igoeti, where a relative of ours met us on a taxi.
We left the passengers of Mercedes car – two women (one was taken away), a young man and a small baby on that place where there were a lot of shop stands. Then we saw three blue tainted cars with some militaries. They had broken windows of the shops and taken all the goods out. Whatever they did not like, they threw left and right.
The next two days I had not slept thinking on that poor girl. I really wonder what happened to her. It seems to me that they were coming from the Western Georgia as all their luggage was thrown out. I could see the thermos for baby, baby food, so on. They all were sun tanned probably coming back from their holiday.
My brother was in the village of Amnevi helping wounded people with rendering assistance. He survived. My sister with her family and grandmother remained in Ateni gorge but there is no communication there.
Respodent: 7-month pregnant woman
Story code:0014
On August 7th I left for Ateni gorge visiting my sister, where I remained till August 10, in the village of Oluz. When the situation aggravated, my uncle who at that time was in Tbilisi, had been warned not to leave the capital but he still did as his family was there and managed to come to us to leave to take us back.
When he left he received another call with another warning to stay away from the conflict region and not to go into Gori as the enemy was already in the city. We still asked him to keep going in order to get out of the shooting. The Russians were already able to occupy Sveneti police stop on the highway and the militaries with armored vehicles were already there. I got out of the car and begged them to let us go towards Tbilisi but we received a very rude negative answer. They just stopped short of shooting.
We returned and tried to find a bypassing road. There are some short trails and we hoped to bypass Sveneti and then to come up on the highway. When we crossed the bridge at so-called Tsminda Tskali, we found ourselves on an empty highway with no soul around. There was a market place with storages around. The other vehicle but Mercedes car behind us with some folks who hoped to get out on the highway by following us.
Then suddenly a shooting started and we found ourselves encircled with some militaries. Our car was full of children. The militaries shoot at tires and in the air. They did not look as soldiers but wore khaki uniforms with white armbands. There were some Ossetians as well who spoke in broken Russian. I hardly remember the events as I was frightened to death. The militaries were staring at us with pointed guns as a hungry wolf pack. The did not look at us as on humans. I do not know it myself who they were. They looked like solders. Other soldiers were standing some distance away at a checkpoint. Probably they let these folks in for looting as they did not look like humans – black, dirty, unshaved…
My brother works at police and he was afraid that Ossetians not to recognize him. However the attackers pointed their attention to Mercedes car. They rushed to one female passenger who was holding a 7-month baby and shoved her out of car and hoisted her on the highway. The young man next to her was severely beaten and his golden chain taken away.
Those four individuals who encircled us rushed to Mercedes. The woman who was last remaining passenger in the car was shoved into car and taken away. That women started to yell. One attacker stayed with us. When he started to talk it turned out that he was a local Ossetian. In broken Georgian he asked us to calm down and suggested to hide in some deadlock with the shop on the other side. We rushed there but could not stop that woman with a child who was crying for that girl who was taken away and who turned out to be her sister.
This Ossetian gave a sign us to leave. We begged that woman who had a small child to come with us in our car but she declined. The boy with him also asked her to leave but to no avail. Then we got into our car and set off crawling on flat tires. We hoped to head to Ateni gorge again. Someone provided us info on how to leave Kaspi without going on the highway.
We left that car on the road as it was broken. The refugees were heading in the direction of Tbilisi on all available means – on foot, on tractor. We also joined them and so we reached till Igoeti, where a relative of ours met us on a taxi.
We left the passengers of Mercedes car – two women (one was taken away), a young man and a small baby on that place where there were a lot of shop stands. Then we saw three blue tainted cars with some militaries. They had broken windows of the shops and taken all the goods out. Whatever they did not like, they threw left and right.
The next two days I had not slept thinking on that poor girl. I really wonder what happened to her. It seems to me that they were coming from the Western Georgia as all their luggage was thrown out. I could see the thermos for baby, baby food, so on. They all were sun tanned probably coming back from their holiday.
My brother was in the village of Amnevi helping wounded people with rendering assistance. He survived. My sister with her family and grandmother remained in Ateni gorge but there is no communication there.
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