BRIEF: Georgian Refugees Have No Place to Go

by Sarah Benczik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

TBILISI, Georgia - The AP reported on Sunday that Russian troops in Georgia were "effectively preventing Georgians from returning to their homes."  Now the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that the Gori refugee shelter capacity is "exhausted."

UNHCR reports that 450 people arrived from the "buffer zone," reporting "massive intimidation by marauding militias," beatings, and looting.  On Sunday, Melita Sunjic, a UNHCR spokeswoman explained that while the Russian troops were not actually preventing refugees from returning to their homes, their language effectively blocked them.

"If they say 'we can't guarantee your safety,' you don't go," she said.  Many of the refugees - around 3,750 internally displaced persons - would return to homes in the "security zones" set up by Russia in Georgian territory around South Ossetia and Abkhazia. 

The UNHCR reports that 4,200 people have been registered as "internally displaced" by the conflict, and that South Ossetian militias were mostly responsible for driving residents out of their homes near the border.  Last Monday, The Times reported that Georgian refugees reported that South Ossetian militiamen - "paramilitaries backed by Russia" - were "ethnically cleansing" villages on Georgian soil and committing acts including torching houses, beating the elderly and murdering civilians.

For more information, please see:

AP - UN: Georgians effectively blocked from homes - 31 August 2008

BBC - UN says Georgia refugee camp full - 2 September 2008

The Times Online - Russian-backed paramilitaries 'ethnically cleansing villages' - 28 August 2008

USA Today - U.N.: Georgians effectively blocked from homes - 2 September 2008