Thousands Of Refugees Flee Georgia

Many Hiked For Hours To Escape Violence With Russia Over South Ossetia

(AP)  They described being shelled and shot at and forced to run for their lives - leaving homes, family members and most of what they had behind.

Hundreds of refugees from the fighting in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia sought shelter in Russia on Sunday. They are among thousands who fled the region, and in particular the capital city of Tskhinvali, in recent days as Georgian forces battled for control.

They talked of hiking for hours to escape the fighting, hiding in the woods, being mocked by Georgian soldiers and passing the dead on the roadside.

Marina Dudayeva, a woman in her early 20s, fled from Tskhinvali wearing only her bed clothes and a pair of plastic slippers. On Sunday she found herself at a leafy, run-down summer camp near Alagir in the Russian region of North Ossetia, just across the border from South Ossetia. The residents of both regions are ethnic Ossetians, and have close family and cultural ties.

Dudayeva said she doesn't know what happened to relatives she left behind, including her 19-year-old brother.

"We can't contact them," she said, standing with her arms folded across her chest.

Many who fled still appeared to be in shock.

"The Georgians burned all of our homes," said one elderly woman, as she sat on a bench under a tree with three other white-haired survivors of the fighting.

She seemed confused by the conflict. "The Georgians say it is their land," she said. "Where is our land, then? We don't know."

Before the woman could give her name, police at the camp interrupted the interview. Two foreign reporters were later fined for working without special permission in a restricted border zone.

Russian authorities have detained and questioned a number of journalists working in the region. They have focused on those working for the Western news media - an apparent sign of rising tensions over the conflict in South Ossetia, a region that broke away from Georgian rule in the early 1990s and developed close ties to Russia.

Hundreds of other refugees gathered Sunday at a central square in Vladikavkaz, the North Ossetian capital, waiting to be sent to Anapa, a resort city on the Black Sea.

Zema Kulumbegova, a 43-year-old part-time English teacher, said when the shooting started last week, she, her husband and two children took shelter in the wine cellar of their two-story home in Tskhinvali.

At first, the skirmishes lasted a few hours and the Kulumbegov family would venture out. But by early Friday morning, the fighting became intense.

Kulumbegova said a rocket hit their neighbor's house and started a fire. "It's amazing that we weren't all killed," she said.

Her husband, a teacher and craftsman, refused to leave. So did her 90-year-old father, who said he wanted to spend the last days of his life at home.

So she gathered her three girls - Ina, 14, Lina, 12, and Marina, 11 - and called a relative to pick them up in his car. They spent the day in a nearby village, watching the fighting grow closer with friends and family. Finally, she said, Georgian tanks started firing into nearby houses.

Those huddled in the house climbed into two cars and started off along a road through a stretch of woods. As they passed through the forest, they came under fire.

Kulumbegova said she and her daughters ran among the trees and lay on the ground until the firing stopped.

When they returned to the road, they found their vehicles crippled. So she and her girls hiked up the road to the next settlement.

At one point, she said, they ran from the sound of gunfire and a group of Georgian soldiers laughed at them.

At last they reached a village where buses were waiting to take refugees north across the steep Caucasus Mountains and into Russia.

They arrived in Vladikavkaz on Friday, and at first moved in with a distant relative. But there were five other refugees already living in the apartment, a total of 12 people in four small rooms.

Kulumbegova said her father survived, but like many other South Ossetians has become embittered toward the Georgians.

"He always talked of the Georgians as 'our brothers,"' she said. "But now he doesn't say that any more."

Many Ossetians say they believe the United States supported Georgia's use of military force to try to restore Georgian rule in South Ossetia.

Following the Georgian assault on Tskhinvali, Kulumbegova said she expects many South Ossetians who once might have agreed to reunification with Georgia to oppose the idea. More, she predicted, will support unification with Russia.

"If you beat a dog, it will run away," she said, bitterly. "If we become part of Russia, I think that the way we live will in many ways be better than it is now."

[thegoodtexan]

I am disgusted that the US Marines are supporting terrorist attacks against unarmed civilian populations for the purpose of oil business and economic expansion. Bring those criminals home and put them on trial.

[stn_sage]

Well, this tends to be part of the fallout when war is taking place! Things are destroyed, people are killed, and everybody else runs for their lives!

And the Bush administration quietly set the Georgian government up for this ''bruhaha''! Gheesh, as far as we know he might have promised them military support, and then reneged! How do we REALLY know?! We DON"T!

He provided support, training, and encouragement and they may have had reason to believe WE were going to come to their rescue, that WE the American public know nothing ABOUT!

[gx1103710]

Your US marines train the Georgian forces and yet you claim to have no part in this. When you start playing dirty politics this is the result. Tin pot countries like Georgia feel they can start ethnic cleansing without consequences killing women and children with unguided rockets. Stay out of the world affairs and stop your meddling. The US makes the world more dangerous not less. Terrorist attacks in Madrid and London are direct result from the Iraq war.

[oneamerican_]

Vladamir Putin, the KGB hit man, has definite aims to re-create the Soviet Empire.

He has systematically worked to consolidate his power in the Russian government, reverse democratic gains in Russian government, assassinate his political foes, confiscate private oil and raw material enterprises and force their "nationalization" in order to steal their profits. He has also sought to control the governments of Russia''''s neighbors through intimidation, a mass invasion of Russian loyalists into neighboring regions that they wish to claim, and now, through unprovoked military invasions and ethnic cleansing, is committing mass murder.

Recently, Russia has threatened the United States to fly regular bomber missions again to Cuba, as was the case during the Cuban missile crisis.

All terrorist state aggression in the world seems to have a Russian hand in it, especially Iran.

Russia should be immediately thrown out of the U.N. and the G8, and all Russian diplomats in America and all Western Democratic countries should be sent home.

If anyone has been critical of America invading in order to free Iraq from a dictatorship, they should have no problem condemning Russia for trying to expand its suffocating and murderous Communist dictatorship on sovereign nation neighbors.

Vladamir Putins regime of terror needs to be destroyed.

[closethippy1]

Russia is bashing Bush''s tush.

[enlightenu]

Russia has been waiting for an opportunity to flex its military muscle, to demonstrate its return. i guess strategic bomber patrols got boring. Even though Georgia is scheduled to be a NATO member by 2009, we look mighty week right now as we watch a viable ally get slaughtered. Abkhazia is next, and then the remainder. We can''t do anything tactical. Aircraft carriers? Those blockade ships have probably a dozen subs under them. Stealth bombers? They''ll claim it''s a probable nuclear attack and respond in kind. Ground invasion from Turkey? We''d have to leave Iraq first. ICBM? We''ll end up there once everything else fails. Or we can just sit back and watch.

[incog-nito]

It''s now clear that Georgia attacked first, most likely with the West''s knowledge, maybe even its approval. Where is the West now that Russia is pounding Georgia mercilessly?

[vietnam21]

communists can''t never be trusted....

[vietnam21]

our Stealth and our cruise missile will destroy them first. Russian know better not to with us..Look surround them...

[tawpdawg111]

As the saying goes, you mess with my friends, you mess with me. Goergia should have been in on the NATO. Russia is really pushing their luck. We need more nuclear missles pointed at Russia. This situation os a turkey shoot for Russia...

Posted by vietnam21 at 12:32 AM : Aug 11, 2008
*********************

SHUTUP MAN! These guys believe in pre-emptive wars.......and Russia has TEN-THOUSAND NUKES AIMED AT YOU!

I''ll try not to call you a name but a lot of them come to mind.

Maybe I am giving you the reaction you were looking for, though, eh?

[tawpdawg111]

We''ve known for a long time we should pull the fangs of the oil snake out.

But DENIAL is part of the cycle of addiction, eh?

[tawpdawg111]

There is oil under the ground EVERYWHERE.

But those pipeline routes to the loading port ...........now THERE is something to fight over.

[vietnam21]

As the saying goes, you mess with my friends, you mess with me. Goergia should have been in on the NATO. Russia is really pushing their luck. We need more nuclear missles pointed at Russia. This situation os a turkey shoot for Russia...

[tawpdawg111]

Perhaps the dreaded October surprise is starting early.

Get it going good before Labor Day vacation.

[vietnam21]

God, Please keep the USA out of this. Thank You. AMEN.

Posted by Tawpdawg111 a

If Russian control the oil pipe line in Georgia, then it will effect our gas price, so don''t complain eh...
Go Georgia...we are behind you..

[tawpdawg111]

God, Please keep the USA out of this. Thank You. AMEN.

[cdfoxtrot2]

Where was all this moral indignation when Israel bombed Lebanon two years ago? The Israelis dropped hundreds of thousands of cluster bombs at the time, that continue to go off today, maiming and killing innocent children. At least the Russians haven''t done that to Georgia.

[summarex]

I can''t help but wonder. Given the deviants running around Washington, is it possible that someone suggested to the Georgians that now would be an auspicious time to "liberate" Ossetia. Of course tensions with Russia would help McCain!

If so, I wonder what will happen when the Georgians start to realize they have been played for idiots.

[condumbism]

John McCain has lobbyists working for his pathetic campaign that represent the interests of the country of Georgia. jinGOPig candidate John McCain is nothing more than the bought and payed for voice of Corporate America, and Israel!

[liberty4ever]

Very poor headline, CBS. Sounds like Georgians are being made refugees due to Russian attacks. In reality it is exactly the opposite: South Ossetians being made refugees due to Georgian attacks. We can clearly see where the bias is here.