Terrorists Volunteering to Kill Georgians

Terrorists Volunteering to Kill Georgians

CBS Monday, Aug. 11, 2008

By JOHN WENDLE / VLADIKAVKAZ

Ramaz Kuchiev a former soldier in the Russian army and other men waitfor their papers to be processed Russian army to join the fighting in South Ossetia and Georgia The Vladikavkaz City Recruiting Center in the Russian territory ofNorth Ossetia lies just outside the main town, through a tall, steelgate.

Inside, along a small driveway overlapped by tall pines, lie aparking lot, pavilion and fruit orchard. A low, two-story concretebuilding with peeling paint serves as the recruiting center. Men inclean, dark green fatigues organize would-be recruits. They are mostlymen in their 50s and 60s who have already served but are too old now.Lots of gray hair and mustaches, gold teeth and cigarettes.Around the courtyard, the potential recruits, men of all ages, squatand stand. There are half a dozen in their 20s; at least twice as manyolder men, some as old as 50. A group of 10 Cossacks — in theirtraditional blue breeches with a wide red stripe down the side, greentunic bedecked in medals and tall black riding boots — forms to oneside. One man has a curled handlebar mustache and watery pale-blueeyes.

The men in this group won't talk to the press and keep walkingoff to stand and talk in a circle in the orchard. But one told areporter earlier that he had come all the way from Siberia to serve inthe Russian operations across the border in Georgia and its breakawayregion South Ossetia. They look like a rough, hard bunch.A tall, athletic Serb in his mid-40s, with blue eyes and curly longblond hair, comes into the courtyard. He walks over to the group ofCossacks, picks the oldest one out of the group and gives him a bighug and a kiss on each cheek.

According to two of the men in thecourtyard, the Serb, who is wearing new fatigues and slightly wornAsolo hiking boots, had fought Bosnia and is now there to fight inSouth Ossetia and Georgia. He may have fought in Chechnya, but no onewill say. I talk to him for a moment. He speaks some English but ismore comfortable in his lightly accented Russian. "I've come to fightin South Ossetia alongside the Russians," he says.The older men in the group of would-be recruits sit in a row on abench smoking cigarettes. Some carry plasticred-white-and-blue-striped rice bags. The few recruiters who agree tobe interviewed tell similar stories. They accuse the American andWestern press of lying about the events in Georgia. No one believesthat the Russians have invaded Georgia and that Tbilisi and othercities have been bombed. Because the Russian press has not reportedit, they say, it cannot be true. A rumor widely circulated is thatblack soldiers have been spotted fighting on the Georgian side. Thisis seen as incontrovertible evidence that America is helping Georgiawith military aid.

There is widespread, anti-American sentiment here.That's one of the reasons men continue to trudge into the recruitmentcenter as the morning unfolds. "Hopefully I will go to servetomorrow," says Ramaz Kuchiev, 27, who has arrived from Mozdok, a cityin North Ossetia. "Probably we will go to Tskhinvali. There is a group of 50 of us that are prepared to serve right now." Kuchiev has ambereyes and a calm but intense demeanor. He served his two years in theRussian army at a base near Moscow. Now he is unemployed; he iswearing a bright red shirt and pointy black shoes. "I want to go toTskhinvali. The Georgians shot small children there. I want to go killGeorgians."