Ten days after a war between Georgia and Russia had ended,
Russia announced the creation of a Buffer Zone on Georgian territory between
Gori and Tshinvali. Neither NGOs nor Georgian police were allowed to enter the
security zone and more than 50 Georgian villages were left at the mercy of
Ossetian paramilitaries and militia.
Soon,
this area became a ghost place: houses were burned and plundered, and the dead
bodies of villagers laid in gardens or basements. Still, some of the elderly
have remained, either too old to move, or to protect their houses from being
destroyed. For more than two months these people lived in permanent fear of
being harassed by militia, without electricity and drinking water. At the same
time, their families, almost fifty thousand, fled from their villages and
remained stranded in camps and schools.
One year
after the war, less than half of the buffer zone inhabitants have been
able to
return to their homes. The new border with South Ossetia has been
established and the atmosphere continued to be tense. Gunshots could be
heard
almost
every night, and thousands of cluster bombs laid untouched in gardens and
fields. Permanent lack of water supply destroyed crops, the only income
for
villagers. Once the wealthiest part of Georgia, the district of Gori
has
become a land of despair and poverty.