Tirdznisi

Interview place, time and date: Tbilisi, 16-08-08. 17:40
Interviewer organization: Public defender's office, Giorgi Kakhniashvili
Respodent:man,53 years
story code:0012
As soon as Georgian military units left Tskhinvali, Russian aircrafts began bombing Tirdznisi. The village was bombed 5 times a day during 2-3 days. On 10-11.08.08, at about 10:00 armed soldiers speaking the Ossetian language came by 3 white Nivas, the second day by a "011" car without a number plate and the third day by a blue Niva without a number plate. They entered none of the houses but on 11-12 they entered Robert Mchedlidze's house. Robert Mchedlidze is a colonel and lives in Tbilisi, but his son Mishiko Mchedlidze, a military doctor with an experience in Iraq, lives in Tirdznisi. Fortunately Mishiko wasn't at home when the soldiers burned the house. Demurishvili, Khevera, Gocha, Nukri, Givi hiding in the garden are all eyewitnesses of the fact.
On 14 August Vano Laliashvili, about 50 years old, saw a 70-year-old person with a cart filled with more than 50 sacks, went to him to help and give some water and they went in a short way and stopped at the main street to have a rest. Three persons joined them to talk with the old man. Suddenly three armed persons approached them by Niva. Those three civilians ran again back to the gardens to hide. The soldiers ran after them and fired but they couldn't find Nukri and Gocha demurishvili, so they came back to Vano Laliashvili and the old man and asked Vano where they could find those three civilians but vano refused, he said there was no one with them. The Ossetians riddled him with bullets. He fell down, the survived old man was watching it.
Laliashvili's wife with a nickname Reiga, some villagers and I buried Vano Lalishvili at the end of the garden. His body was shocking to look at with his throat cut and his hands and chest riddled with bullets.
On 14 August my 5 neighbours and I left the village. The main streets were occupied by Russian and Ossetian soldiers, so we had to go over gardens and fields. In Karaleti we came to the main street where we saw Russian soldiers, they checked our documents and asked us to give them something to eat, we gave them some bread and went.
We were stopped again by soldiers when we walked 2 kilometers more, they spoke a strange language, it was neither Russian nor Ossetian. They checked our documents and let us go. After walking 4-5 kilometers more we were stopped by Russian soldiers and made us to stay in a petrol station at night. They explained to us that if Ossetians happened to meet us somewhere they would kill us. In the morning they checked our documents again, gave us some cigarettes and something to eat and advised us to walk fast not to meet Ossetians. We saw the last post where we were stopped again, there was Chechen among Russians who told us that he couldn't kill Georgians and he was ordered to stay there. He gave us some cigarettes, 3 bars of chocolates, something to eat and let us go.