Displaced meet in Gori as they flee new violence or try to head home
People escaping a buffer zone between Georgia and the South Ossetia region, and other villagers trying to return home, are flocking to the Georgian town of Gori.
GORI, Georgia, August 27 (UNHCR) - People escaping a buffer zone between Georgia and the breakaway South Ossetia region, and others heading the other way and trying to return to their villages in the volatile area, are flocking to the Georgian town of Gori.
By late afternoon on Wednesday, 1,212 people from villages in the 26-kilometre-wide buffer zone separating Gori and South Ossetia had registered with local authorities in Gori as internally displaced. They included the newly displaced as well as people who fled to the Tbilisi area after the recent conflict over South Ossetia erupted on August 8.
The latter want to return to their villages, but have been unable to move beyond Gori. Some claimed they tried to return, but were stopped at Russian checkpoints and advised not to continue because of widespread lawlessness. Others said they found their houses damaged and so returned to Gori because they felt unsafe.
The newly displaced have been arriving in Gori with similar tales of intimidation, beatings and looting by militias in buffer zone villages such as Khvemo Nikozi, Megvrekesi, Ergneti and Kitsnisi. On Tuesday, a group of displaced villagers said at least three people had been killed, but this could not be independently confirmed.
The UN refugee agency issued a statement on Tuesday calling on all parties to the conflict "to make their best efforts to contain further outbreaks of lawlessness which could contribute to additional displacement." UNHCR specifically expressed concern over reports of displacement caused by marauding militias in the buffer zone.
Most of the villagers now escaping south to Gori said they had stayed put when the conflict broke out earlier this month because they were old and weak. The appearance this week of militias had made them change their minds, but they said they had had to leave the most vulnerable behind.
A 50-year-old farmer asked UNHCR for help in bringing out his octogenarian parents, including a blind father, from one village. Others also sought help in rescuing relatives left behind.
A UNHCR team tried to reach the buffer zone villages on Tuesday, but was turned back at a checkpoint and told that the security situation did not allow for movement in that zone. Representatives of the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) told UNHCR that they had not been able to access the buffer zone for one week.
Meanwhile, the new UNHCR office in Gori - opened on Sunday - has been helping the newly displaced from the buffer zone and the growing number of people returning from areas in and around the Georgian capital of Tbilisi since the weekend.
Tsiala, a 75-year-old woman from the buffer zone village of Ergneti, queued with some 200 other people in Gori's main square on Tuesday to be registered as an internally displaced person (IDP). She told UNHCR staff that she feared she would have to spend another night in the open after walking here on Monday.
To help people like Tsiala, UNHCR on Tuesday erected 100 family tents on a football field on the outskirts of Gori. Others have rushed to help: France provided an extra 63 large tents, while the Italian Red Cross pledged to deliver a kitchen.
One of the tents was soon occupied by a group of returnees from Tbilisi, who had hoped to return to their homes in the buffer zone. "We have nothing but the clothes we are wearing," one of them said, while another worried about the livestock on her farm after hearing unconfirmed reports of cattle rustling by the militias.
Many Gori locals have also returned - between 10,000 and 15,000 out of a peacetime population of some 70,000, according to the Georgian government.
UNHCR was also on Tuesday preparing to send non-food items such as blankets, kitchen sets and jerry cans to a temporary warehouse set up in Gori on Sunday. The municipal authorities, meanwhile, were using 17 kindergartens as collective centres for IDPs.
In addition to providing aid, UNHCR will assist local authorities in mapping and assessing the numbers of returnees to Gori, which was largely abandoned during the conflict earlier this month. UNHCR is also coordinating assistance programmes providing shelter and non-food items as an increasing number of aid organizations arrive in Gori and the Georgia operation enters a post-emergency phase.
More than 158,000 people were displaced during the recent conflict - 128,000 within Georgia and some 30,000 who fled to the Russian Federation. Prior to the latest crisis UNHCR has been working on behalf of some 220,000 previously displaced people, refugees, returnees, asylum seekers and stateless people in Georgia.
By Melita H. Sunjic in Gori, Georgia
Related news and stories
Citizenship opens new world for stateless man from Georgia
After 23 years, still hoping for a better future
Statelessness: Young Georgian mother breaks a cycle of suffering
UNHCR welcomes Georgia's accession to the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
Georgia project leads the way for socio-economic integration of refugees
Chechen refugee finds an outlet for his talent in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge
Your search for « gori georgia » matched 79 results. Displaying page 7 of 9 pages.
-
Georgia: Massive returns to buffer zone
17 Oct 2008 ... Earlier this week, the UNHCR tent camp in the Georgian town of Gori, south of South Ossetia, was ... conflict in August, we estimate that more than 78,000 have returned to their homes across Georgia. ...... -
Revised figures push number of Georgia displaced up to 192,000
12 Sep 2008 ... this new population will result in the longer term in Georgia having a total of 254,000 IDPs. ... of Tbilisi to the overcrowded tented camp in Gori, which is already packed with some 2,200 people. ...... -
UNHCR Global Appeal 2000 - Georgia
1 Dec 1999 ... ... In South Ossetia and returnee areas in Georgia proper, the Office works with a Mobile Team, based in Gori, to increase its pro- tection and assistance monitoring capacity. A sec- ond Mobile team will ...... -
Emergency Operation in Georgia: Daily report for 20 August 2008
20 Aug 2008 ... UNHCR Representation in Georgia 0160 Tbilisi 2a Kazbegi Ave tel.: ++995 32 152 054 tel. +995 99 152 ... organized UNCT fact finding mission visits Gori A joint fact finding mission of the UN Country ...... -
Overview of UNHCR's operational strategies in Europe
19 Feb 2013 ... ... In Georgia, UNHCR is working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in the Gori region on long-term interventions to provide IDPs with access to housing and livelihood opportunities. B. ...... -
Guterres seeks humanitarian access, safe passage for civilians in Ossetia conflict
9 Aug 2008 ... The agency has some aid stockpiles in both Georgia and the Russian Federation. Following discussions ... over the weekend from the Georgian town of Gori to safer quarters near Tbilisi, where they ...... -
Consolidated Recommendations on IDP Protection Gaps and Integration June 2009
Jun 2009 ... ... to land to all IDPs and to returnees of the Gori and Kareli districts and to ensure that ... of Internally Displaced Persons in Georgia June 2009 7 Water (Access to water and ...... -
UNHCR Global Report 2012 - Europe regional summary
1 Jun 2013 ... ... In Georgia, UNHCR continued to work with UNDP in the Gori region on long-term interventions to provide IDPs with access to housing and livelihood opportunities. In 2012, European States received over ...... -
UNHCR Global Report 2000 - Georgia
1 Jun 2001 ... ... I M P L E M E N T A T I O N Management UNHCR’s operation in Georgia was carried out through the support of the office in Tbilisi to three offices in the country and a mobile team in Gori/Tskhinvali. ......