Categories
Journalistic Survey
Articles
Reportage
Analitic
Photo Reportage
Exclusive
Interview
Foreign Media about Georgia
Editorial
Position
Reader's opinion
Blog
Themes
Children's Rights
Women's Rights
Justice
Refugees/IDPs
Minorities
Media
Army
Health
Corruption
Elections
Education
Penitentiary
Religion
Others

Casualties: 215 Killed 1, 469 Wounded in Georgian-Russian Conflict

August 24, 2008

Gela Mtivlishvili

As a result of Russian aggressive actions in Georgia, and based on current data, 215 people were killed and 1,469 are wounded; 70 people are still missing. Givi Targamadze, the chairman of the Defense and Security Committee of the Georgian Parliament reported this information to the journalists after the Commission for the Search of Killed and Mission during the Conflict was especially established. However, witnesses of the military operations claim that the number of victims is actually much larger.

Targamadze stated that 1,023 people out of 1,469 who were wounded have already been dismissed from hospitals and are not receiving outpatient medical treatment. He also added that the lives of wounded is not life threatening at this time.

As for the number of victims and civilians killed, Targamadze stated that only 61 were wounded and 69 killed out of 130 victims.

209 employees of the Georgian Internal Ministry are wounded and 24 out of them are undergoing in hospital medical treatment. A total of 13 people from the ministry have died.

133 people were killed from the Georgian Defense Ministry and 7 of them are not identified. 1,199 victims from the Ministry of Defense are reported as wounded. 361 of them take medical treatment and 70 are missing. 4 out of 133 injured are reservists.

Eye-witnesses of the military operations and IDP population claim that official data differs from real situation and the victims of the recent hostilities are much larger.

Jambul Kamushadze and Aleksandre Giunashvili, residents of Gori who remained on the place, state that as a result of the bombing in Gori that nearly 100 people lost their lives.

One of the soldiers, who participated in the military operations in South Ossetia, stated in his conversation with the Human Rights Center that he himself was wounded on August 12 and between the time that the Russians started bombing and his injuries that many other soldiers were wounded. We could not assist them; even could not transport them to hospitals because Russian aircrafts were dropping bombs directly on our units. They dropped many cluster bombs and we had even more wounded after that bombardment. At the place where I suffered my wound I personally saw more than 150 soldiers killed. We could not count just how seriously wounded soldiers,” said the soldier who preferred to remain anonymous.

Neither IDPs from Shida Kartli region and Tskhinvali agree with official data of the number of victims. “There are now villages in Tskhinvali region that no longer exist; they have been blown off the map. Russian forces followed the bombing and looted and destroyed everything. Before the hostilities started many locals were unable to escape. We were running during military operations and soldiers were chasing after us and firing their weapons. Tens of people died while fleeing. Several seriously wounded civilians died later at the hospital in Gori,” said Guram Otinashvili, a resident of the village of Achabeti.

IDPs further states that tens of civilians died during the Russian bombing of Georgian villages. Many people died when their houses were set on fire.

“Initially they opened fire at residential houses in the village of Tkviavi and villages of upper zone. Then they proceeded to set the houses on fire. I personally witnessed myself how they burnt our houses and those locals who survived then fled from the villages.”

“The same situation existed in the villages of Beloti, Vanati and Satskheneti in the Gori district. Civilians were sheltering the basements of their houses but Russian troops and local band formations entered into the basements too. Militants shot 65-year-old Vladimer Jaoshvili in front of his own house in Vanati. They knifed to death a resident of the village of Tkviavi; there were others who were seriously wounded,” said Giorgi Khabazishvili.

Russian soldiers raided the village of Karaleti with a particular degree of cruelty.

People, who stayed in conflict zone during whole hostilities, reported that on August 18 Russia sent a sanitary battalion to Tskhinvali region. Battalion members burnt many bodies of dead people at several locations. Other dead bodies were buried in mass graves dug with backhoes.

On August 20 the administration of South Ossetian self-proclaimed republic came out with an official number of those who lost their lives during the war. According to the separatist government and Irinia Gagloeva, the head of Printing Committee, as a result of the attack by Georgian forces in South Ossetia, a total of 1,492 persons died in Tskhinvali and its surroundings.

Short time ago, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had earlier stated that 1.600 people died in South Ossetia. However, researchers of the international organization Human Rights Watch claimed that there were not thousands who perished only rather only several scores of people who died in Tskhinvali.

“We do not confirm the officially number as reported. We suppose that only tens of civilians died instead of reported thousands,” stated Ana Neistat, researcher of the Human Rights Watch who visited the South Ossetia.

Neistat stated that initial data was estimated by law enforcers based on the data gathered by the hospitals that were handling the victims from the most damaged districts, and these figures are based on eyewitness reports. According to information provided by law enforcers, these most damaged districts are located in the southern, south-eastern and the centre of Tskhinvali.

News