Tbilisi, Georgia
Civilians displaced by the recent conflict in Georgia and the breakaway region of South Ossetia are living under poor conditions in temporary shelters often lacking water and sanitation, the International Rescue Committee reports. Meanwhile, ongoing insecurity is making it difficult for aid workers to access areas close to the frontline.
Gillian Dunn, head of IRC’s emergency programs, has visited several sites housing hundreds of displaced people in the vicinity of the Georgian capital Tbilisi and the embattled town of Gori, some 15 kilometers (10 miles) from the South Ossetian border.
“We are seeing a pattern of women and children leaving the conflict zone and some men and elderly people staying behind only to be blocked off a few days later by closed roads,” Dunn said. “At the moment people are housed in tent camps, abandoned government buildings and hospitals.”
One of the displaced, 47-year-old Marina from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, told the IRC that she left the city with her two sons, but that her husband, brother-in-law and other family members are still missing.
“We had gardens, chickens, pigs,” the woman said. “I wasn’t rich, but I had everything there. Now I just have the clothes I am wearing and I’m not sure my husband is alive.”
“I have no hope of return,” Marina continued. “My house was burned along with all other Georgian houses. We always had very good relations with our Ossetian neighbors. This was completely unexpected.”
Marina says her biggest needs at the site are mattresses and bedding, as her family has been sleeping on pieces of cardboard on the concrete floor of the former military hospital which is now housing some 1,500 internally displaced.
“There is also a shortage of electricity and water in many of the sites housing the displaced,” Dunn said. “Food and hygiene items are also in need as people are running out of money. Toilets and latrines typically don’t function or lack the capacity for large numbers of people. To prevent outbreaks of disease, there’s an urgent need for sanitary facilities.”
Driving from the capital Tbilisi towards Gori on 16 August, Dunn found the road virtually empty.
“The people who have been driven from their homes are now choosing to flee on back roads to avoid the military and police checkpoints,” Dunn said. “We saw several Georgian police checkpoints along the road and about 20 tanks in the brush next to the road.”
“One of our main concern is what is happening in the conflict zone and our ability to reach people there,” Dunn added. “The railway between Gori and Tbilisi was recently bombed and roads are blocked by troops from both sides. Two journalists were fired upon by Georgian troops when they tried to reach Gori this afternoon.”
The IRC is planning to launch programs together with local aid groups, primarily focusing on providing the displaced with water and sanitation services, distributions of hygiene kits and other essential household items, and psycho-social support for children traumatized by the conflict.
Meanwhile, across the Georgian border in the Russian republic of North Ossetia, the IRC is providing assistance to the many people who poured over the border from South Ossetia as the war started. The IRC's team in the North Ossetian capital Vladikavkaz has distributed essential items such as bedding, kitchenware and hygiene items, as well as helping traumatized refugee children receive psychological support.
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Media Contact: Melissa Winker, Melissa.Winkler@theIRC.org or +1 646-734-0305
