Screams of the injured rise from residential streets

Sunday Telegraph

Georgia conflict: Screams of the injured rise from residential streets (comparison to Putin's assault on Grozny)

By Adrian Blomfield in Gori

Last Updated: 8:10AM BST 10 Aug 2008

For two days, Georgia has been convulsed by a Russian air and groundassault in a conflict that has escalated rapidly from a localisedwar against separatist rebels in South Ossetia into a full-scalemilitary confrontation.But this was the first time that Russian bombs had struck aresidential area.The fighter jets responsible for the devastation had been targetinga military barracks in the built-up outskirts of Gori, a Georgiantown 15 miles from the Ossetian frontier. They missed.Just one of their bombs struck the base. At least two others fell ina compound of long, low-slung apartment blocks, five of which werequickly reduced to blackened shells. A third hit a small secondaryschool, which crumbled to the ground in a pile of rubble and twistedgirders.From the gutted buildings, survivors began to emerge, some hobbling,others bleeding from shrapnel and flying glass, all covered in acloak of soot and dust.Then they brought out the dead.In front of a row of garages, a corpse, covered in a chalk-likefilm, lay on the ground. Kneeling beside the body of her son, amiddle-aged builder identified by neighbours as Iano, the white-haired woman cursed the Russians, then cursed God. Then shebeseeched his forgiveness and cursed the Russians again."You have taken my boy, you pigs, you criminals," she said in a lowvoice, before turning her face towards her dead son as she tenderlystroked his matted hair. "I loved you like I loved no other. Now bewith God."Standing to one side, her frail husband propped himself up on awalking sticks and stared into space, blank incomprehension in hiseyes.Up a small flight of steps in a nearby courtyard, a young man, bare-chested and kneeling on the ground, cradled the head of his brotherin his lap. Shaking off hands offered in comfort from neighbours, hemoaned in agony and begged - in ever more frantic tones - for hisbrother to live.Still wailing, he was hauled away from the body by Georgian troopswho bundled the corpse into the back of a Lada. His face streaked inhis brother's blood, the man raced to keep up with the car, his handrepeatedly pawing the rear window.Slowly, his legs buckling beneath him, he began to fall behind.Giving up the chase, he knelt unmoving in the middle of the road,his face staring in the direction of the receding car.More dead were brought out of the buildings, among them a mother andher daughter who were laid side by side in the back of a militarytruck.Those who survived stood in small groups on the road outside theirshattered homes, bewilderment etched on their faces.Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, and insists that theoffensive in Georgia is not war but a "peacekeeping mission". (*)Few of the people of Gori believe that. So powerful were the bombsaimed at the barracks that they shattered windows in a half-mileradius. Even if all had hit their intended target, the chances ofcollateral damage would have been high.As a lone fire engine battled the inferno, with flames spreadingacross the roofs of two blocks of flats, this small part of Goribegan to resemble another scene of Russian military retribution:Grozny.The Chechen capital was pounded into submission in 1999 on theorders of Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, with littleregard for civilian life. By the time Chechen rebels lost the city,barely a single building stood intact, forcing residents to eke outan existence in cellars and basements for six years until Moscowfinally began serious reconstruction in 2006.While the bombing of Gori has not been remotely comparable, Groznywas in the back of many peoples' minds as they took shelter."We know what the Russians are capable of," said Nina Kogiddze, ateacher who was flung to her kitchen floor by the force of the blastas she was brewing coffee. "Do you think that when they fight wars,they abide by civilised rules? They hate Georgians. They would behappy to kill us all."No official death toll from the apartment bombings has been releasedas yet, but there can be no doubt that the casualty rates would havebeen much higher if most of Gori's residents had not fled theprevious day, after the first Russian bombs fell.It was fortunate, too, that the school holidays were under way."If classes were in progress, we would have a hundred childrendead," said Givi, the headmaster of the Lyceum College, as hesurveyed his devastated school.Other Russian bombing raids in Gori killed at least two civilians inanother block of flats in a nearby suburb.On the road to Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's ramshackle capital, andthe main stronghold of the Moscow-backed rebels, Russian jetsmaintained their bombardment, strafing Georgian artillery positionsin the fields near the frontier.The rebels, who have been reinforced by Russian tanks and groundtroops, claimed to have retaken the town after intense hand-to-handfighting. Georgia says it still controls a significant portion ofTskhinvali and claims to have shot down four Russian jets yesterday.Georgian officials showed to Western reporters the papers of oneRussian pilot they claimed to have captured.Russia also launched air strikes across Georgia's wider territoryfor a second day, striking an airport at Kutaisi in the west and thecountry's main Black Sea port of Poti."The Russians are now bombing civilian targets at will, including aport, an airport and a railway station where 17 people were killed,"said Shota Utiashvili, an interior ministry spokesman.Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia's pro-western president, was preparingto declare martial law, a process that would involve the fullmobilisation of every man of fighting age, Mr Utiashvili said.Against the might of the million-strong Russian army, it is unclearhow effective such a strategy would be. Reservists have already beendrafted onto the front line, but few have any battle experience andmost have had just a week's training.When a bomb fell close to their positions, one company of newrecruits scattered frantically for cover, ignoring pleas and ordersfrom their commanders to remain in place."On Tuesday I was a bank clerk," one fresh-faced reservistsaid. "Then they woke me up in the middle of the night and gave mehalf-an-hour to report. I've been up on the front line and I'venever been so scared in my life."Given the challenges, it may prove difficult for Mr Saakashvili tosustain morale.Already his tactics seem to have back-fired, analysts and diplomatssay that he may have launched military actions with the intention offorcibly reclaiming South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia ina short but brutal war 17 years ago. His gamble may have been thatRussia would not intervene militarily.Moscow, increasingly belligerent on the international stage and longat loggerheads with Georgia over its pro-Western policies, has givenfinancial and military support to the rebel republic, but there havebeen rumours of a fall-out between the secessionist leader EduardKokoity and the Kremlin.It was suggested that Russia was fed up with the tiny state, justone-and-a-half times the size of Luxembourg, that has largelysustained itself on smuggling, the counterfeiting of money andalleged pension fraud against the Russian authorities. US diplomatssay that half the fake dollar bills on the American east coast aremanufactured in South Ossetia.Instead Russia was said to be concentrating its support on helpingAbkhazia, another, much larger, breakaway region that has long beena popular holiday destination and has a much more advanced economythan South Ossetia's. Russian planes yesterday bombed the KodoriGorge, a region of Abkhazia still under Georgian control, raisingthe prospect of the conflict spreading to a second front.Yet from the Russian perspective, the reincorporation of SouthOssetia would bring Georgian accession into NATO, a move stronglyopposed by Moscow, closer. European members opposed a US pushearlier this year to bring Georgia into the alliance on the groundsthat the frozen conflict of South Ossetia and Abkhazia had yet to besettled.Russia, which has repeatedly punished Georgia with economic anddiplomatic sanctions for its pro-western Rose Revolution in 2003, isdetermined not to lose one of the last few holds it has over itsquerulous neighbour, analysts said.Mr Saakashvilli may also have banked on support from his closestally, US president George W Bush, whose administration is said tohave given tacit support for a Georgian assault on South Ossetia inthe believe that the territory could be recaptured within 48 hours.But as events have unfolded differently, Washington has offeredGeorgia - one of the largest contributors of troops in Iraq - littlemore than lukewarm vocal support.In a demonstration of the fact that Georgia could be abandoned byits chief ally, President Bush warmly embraced Mr Putin at theopening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing on Friday.With the West apparently unwilling to participate in a proxy warwith Russia at a time when relations with Moscow are already highlystrained, Georgia now faces potential isolation in its conflict withits giant neighbour.Already the economic consequences of the war are being felt asWestern specialists involved in helping Georgia develop itsinfrastructure began to flee.Americans and Britons gathered in hotels in the capital Tbilisi toorganise road convoys into neighbouring Armenia after Russia closedits air space and most airlines cancelled flights after a militarybase close to the airport was bombed on Friday."Its the last straw," said a British architect who was preparing toleave Georgia for good. Three days ago we were making promisingprogress but now two thirds of our staff have been called up and itssimply too dangerous to stay in Tbilisi."The Georgian government yesterday ordered the evacuation of thecountry's parliament and all official buildings amid fears that theycould become new Russian targets.By a swimming pool in one hotel, a nervous American clutching aBlackberry read out the latest advice from the US Embassy to herfriends. All dependants had been ordered to evacuate and anyone inthe country for "non-essential" reasons was also urged to leave.At the news, one of her friends sank his head into his hands."The Georgian dream is over," he said.