Русская версияRussia claims that more than 2,000 people have been killed in
fighting in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
Yet
those casualty figures have not been independently varified. A
report by Human Rights Watch on Monday, Aug. 11 said that the
organization had heard only second-hand accounts of casualties.
An estimated 24,032 South Ossetians fled across the
border to seek shelter in Russia since the fighting broke
out on Friday. Roughly half of those since returned, according
to Russian documents obtained by Human Rights Watch. Those that
returned did so to "join the volunteer militias of South Ossetia,"
the documents stated.
Human Rights Watch said it was impossible to know the exact
dimensions of the refugee situation, since multiple border
crossings seemed to be commonplace.
Residents hid, then fled
The displaced people told Human Rights Watch that they had spent
more than three days in the basements of their houses, unable to
leave due to incessant shelling. Those from the South Ossetian
capital city of Tskhinvali said they left on Sunday, Aug. 10 when
Russian troops reportedly control. Russians organized a convoy of
buses to transport local residents to a safe zone across the border
in Russia, according to what the displaced people told Human Rights
Watch.
There were also reports of multiple civilian casualties, but Human
Rights Watch did not have any first-hand information on the death
toll.
Residents of the South Ossetian village of Satskhenet told Human
Rights Watch that they fled their homes during heavy shelling on
Friday morning and spent two days hiding in the woods before making
their way to towards the Russian border.
Georgia
says civilians hardest hit
Human Rights Watch visited a field hospital located in Russia's
North Ossetia run by the Russian Ministry of Emergencies. A
hospital representative said that 52 wounded people were being
treated there, nearly all of them military personnel. The hospital
was expecting another 170 wounded to be delivered by ambulance from
a mobile military clinic in South Ossetia.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili claimed that 90 percent of
his country's casualties were civilian. Saakashvili spoke about the
losses in a conference call with reporters Monday morning.
Several hundred Russian servicemen have been killed and 80 Russian
aircraft shot down, Saakashvili claimed in the call.
(Deutsche Welle)
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