Nuli

Interview place, time and date:16.08.2008, Public School #32, Tbilisi
Interviewer organization: Liberty Institute
Respodent:woman,60 years
Story code: 0011
Bombardments started on 2nd of August and were incessant for a few days. We left our cattle and an unlocked house in the village. We could hear gunshots from artillery. Ossetian soldiers were very aggressive. There is a Georgian Trinity Church on the opposite side of our village, which is one of the most precious things for each one of us. It has been occupied by Ossetian soldiers for 6 years now. Ossetian gangs have confiscated our church, our territories and our cattle's valleys. We have been patient all this time, but recently their actions have become too aggressive to keep up with. They have forbidden entrance to the church for us and burnt down the whole village. They had a bridge-head in front of the church at first; 2-3 weeks ago they have dug up holes preparing for the war. They had tanks and weapons.
When we got to Gori we were supposed to live in the secondary school #7. However, bombardments began and several people were wounded. We had to hide irregulars from the bombs and we kept them at that school. When the first bomb was dropped it fell on a public residence area and one family got killed off. Even small children were found dead. In fact, there was a baby's leg found, while a pregnant woman is still missing. They could not find her in the ruins.
We know for sure that airplanes belonged to Russians and Ossetian gangs were all over our village Nuli. When we heard shootings we used to turn off the lights and hide in the house. Unfortunately, I did not have a digital camera to take pictures of what was going on. There are our neighbors left in the village: those, who did not want to leave their houses and who were not afraid of armed forces.
This is the second time I have become a refugee: at first I ran away from Tskhinvali, now from Nuli. I strongly agree to the statement that the whole world should oppose Russians and they should bear consequences for what they have done to us.



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