Ossetians Jail Georgian Civilians

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The Wall Street Journal

Ossetians Jail Georgian Civilians
By ANDREW OSBORN
August 18, 2008; Page A10

TSKHINVALI, Georgia -- Tamaz Barbikadze tip-toed out of South Ossetia's Interior Ministry Sunday flanked by three armed guards. A frail man of 69 years, he was given five minutes to describe to two reporters how he and more than 100 other civilians had been rounded up 10 days ago and thrown into prison. As he spoke, one of his Ossetian captors casually shifted his Kalashnikov from knee to knee.

Mr. Barbikadze's crime: He is Georgian. In South Ossetia, Georgians are regarded with visceral hatred after Georgian tanks rolled into this tiny pro-Russian separatist republic fewer than two weeks ago. Mr. Barbikadze said that he and about 150 other ethnic Georgians had been locked up in the squat Interior Ministry building since Aug. 8, the day the tanks entered the city. Appearing terrified, he said he didn't understand why he had become a "hostage." "We are not fighters, we are peaceful people," he said. "We want to go home."

The only time he and the other Georgians see natural light is when they are forced to help clean up Tskhinvali's dusty debris-strewn streets, he says. South Ossetia's prosecutor general, Taimuraz Khugayev, put the number of Georgian civilian captives at 131. They have been locked up under martial law "for their own safety," he added.

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Ossetian authorities refused to show reporters the conditions in which the civilian captives are being held in Tskhinvali. Instead, after much persuasion, they agreed to let Mr. Barbikadze speak with a pair of Western reporters for five minutes. Mr. Barbikadze said the conditions in which he is being held are "normal." Yet his trousers were covered with grime and a strong smell of urine emanated from him. He said about 150 prisoners are being held with him, a mixture of women, children and old people. A guard said the youngest prisoner was a 12-year-old boy.

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In his office in a crumbling, low-slung whitewashed building, Mr. Khugayev said he was investigating "war crimes" against Ossetian civilians committed by Georgian forces during the roughly 24 hours between their initial arrival and being forced out by Russian forces. Georgian forces deny targeting civilians. Mr. Khugayev said he had opened 200 criminal cases, having positively identified 200 civilian corpses. He gave the example of six young girls he said had been abducted and raped by Georgian forces in the village of Khetagurovo. He said that witnesses had seen them being forced into tanks on Aug. 8 and that they hadn't been seen again.

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