Georgia Dispatches: Humanitarian Needs

17 August 2008: With some very real doubts and concerns raised by Moscow’s inability to withdraw its troops from urban centers such as Gori as well as ethnic-Georgian populated towns and villages in West Georgia and South Ossetia, the number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Tbilisi is considerable.

And while the number of IDPs varies given the random and uncoordinated nature of their arrival in the Georgian capital, one thing is certain. They number in their tens of thousands and create further problems for a country still having to deal with hundreds of thousands of displaced persons from previous conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. UNHCR has already detailed the extent of the problem and its contribution to a $58.5 million emergency fund.

The latest estimates of displacement related to the conflict total more than 158,700 people – based on figures provided by the Georgian and Russian governments. It is reported that up to 30,000 people are displaced within South Ossetia. In addition, some 98,000 people are displaced in Georgia proper, including most of the population of the town of Gori. Russian officials in North Ossetia indicate some 30,000 people from South Ossetia are still in the Russian Federation.

UNHCR urgently needs additional funds to ensure continued assistance to the newly displaced population in the Caucasus region. Our part of the US$58.5 million Georgia Crisis flash appeal, launched yesterday in New York, amounts to US$16 million for the next six months. This will cover UNHCR’s protection, shelter and assistance programmes for the newly displaced in the Caucasus region.

Unprepared for a new influx of IDPs, many of those fleeing the conflict in South Ossetia and in Georgia proper have ended up in Tbilisi without anywhere to stay and with little more than the clothes they were wearing when Russian forces backed up by South Ossetian and North Caucasus militia attacked their towns and villages. Some voices within Georgia are already decrying the fixation on the military aspect of the conflict with Russia when a humanitarian crisis has hit Tbilisi.

Global Voices Online’s Veronica Khokhlova, for example, translates a post by oleg-panfilov on a political action staged by one member of the Young Georgian Lawyer’s Association — an organization otherwise quite vocal in its criticism of the authorities — outside the Russian Embassy in Tbilisi [view photos].

To the Russian embassy in Tbilisi they brought old refrigerators, toilets, rolls of toilet paper, irons, bottles of vodka, forks and spoons, clothes and other objects that [looters from the Russian army] took interest in during their visits to private houses of Georgians, state institutions, military bases and army barracks.

People are coming up to have a closer look, shake their heads, laugh. Cars that are passing by are honking…

Tbilisi-based blogger tony-geo thinks such actions miss the point given the humanitarian needs in the city.

In a kindergarten [in one of Tbilisi’s neighborhoods], there are 110 refugee families with lots of children. Social aid hasn’t made it there. They put them there and that’s it, if there’s time - we’ll help you. At this kindergarten, unlike at the school in the same area, there are children’s beds at least. Most people sleep on the floor. There are no blankets and mattresses. They eat what they can buy on the money they’ve got left. As you understand, they don’t have much money left. Yesterday, food was delivered just once to this kindergarten. Stale bread. For 110 families - seven kilos of sugar.

[…]

Georgians, damn it, enough of the information war. Look out of the window, there are kindergartens and schools packed with refugees out there. First, take what you can to them, and then go to the Russian embassy. […]

The frustration is understandable, but while many Georgians are angry at the Russian invasion and occupation of their country, that is not to say they are not also pitching in to help. Venturing up to the Russian Embassy on Sunday, one car waving a Georgian flag from the front passenger side-window did indeed stop to voice criticism of the Russian government from a megaphone.

Russian Embassy Protest, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

However, those in the car — members of the New Generation Youth Group — were also on their way to deliver humanitarian assistance they had gathered from friends and neighbors to IDPs living in an abandoned dormitory on the outskirts of the city. They asked if I wanted to tag along, and of course I agreed, especially as visiting IDPs had already been set as my main priority for the day.

IDP, Abandoned Dormitory Building, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Most of those inhabiting the depilated building devoid of anything other than electricity were from Gori, the Georgian town 67 kilometers away from Tbilisi now occupied by Russian troops. Most of the crumbling rooms were empty and lacking anything to sleep comfortably on. Families of five and more people lived together in rooms little more than five square meters in size or less.

IDP, Abandoned Dormitory Building, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

The three girls had come to deliver them basic supplies. One of them, Nato Uzunashvili, a 21 year-old journalism graduate, said most of her friends were doing the same.

New Generation & IDPs, Abandoned Dormitory Building, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

IDPs, Abandoned Dormitory Building, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

All have stories to tell of fleeing Russian bombs or marauding South Ossetian irregular militia who looted, pillaged, raped and razed ethnic-Georgian villages to the ground. Accompanied by some of my photos, the Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) carries some of their accounts.

Natia escaped from her village, which was already burning, on August 8. “I can only vaguely remember being lifted on to a lorry with my child. When I came to we were in Tbilisi,” she said.

Everyone here has a tragic story to tell.

“My husband is lying there killed, left to be eaten by dogs, “said Dali Romelashvili from the village of Kvemo Achabeti. “My husband’s sister was burnt alive. Ossetian fighters made her set her own house on fire, then they pushed her in there and locked the door behind her.

“I phoned my Ossetian neighbours, asking them to bury my husband. They said they had tried, but the fighters threatened to kill anyone who would try to bury a Georgian. I’ve been haunted by nightmares, I can’t carry on living.

“I left my home as early as August 6,” said Ketino, a refugee from the village of Nuli. “My village took the hardest hit. They bombed and fired at it from all sides. In the morning, after the attack on our village stopped, we got out of our cellar and fled.”

As the conversation went on, one of the women was crying constantly.

“This is Leila Maroshvili, she is from Karoleti,” said one woman. “She had to leave her old father behind, she doesn’t know what happened to him. The village was destroyed and plundered and lots of its residents were killed.”

“If you’d met my father, you would know that he was an absolutely harmless person, he did not deserve a death like that,” wailed Leila. “And he cried so much, when I was leaving… how can I ever forget his eyes?”

[…]

Nika Maisuradze, a new arrival at School No. 161, is looking for his parents. “Today I was told that they were killed, but the person, who told me this does not know them personally, he isn’t certain. It’s not reliable information, it’s a rumour. I don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it. I will go on looking for them.”

The BBC also has a report on the situation of IDPs in Georgia, while newly arrived in Tbilisi, Michael J. Totten details a visit to a school now inhabited by IDPs. The situation for those living in government buildings such as schools and kindergartens is much better than that in abandoned buildings such as the one New Generation took me to.

On Monday, I visited one of the schools transformed into refugee housing in the center of Tbilisi and spoke to four women—Lia, Nana, Diana, and Maya—who had fled with their children from a cluster of small villages just outside the city of Gori. “We left the cattle,” Lia said. “We left the house. We left everything and came on foot because to stay there was impossible.” Diana’s account: “They are burning the houses. From most of the houses they are taking everything. They are stealing everything, even such things as toothbrushes and toilets. They are taking the toilets. Imagine. They are taking broken refrigerators.” And Nana: “We are so heartbroken. I don’t know what to say or even think. Our whole lives we were working to save something, and one day we lost everything. Now I have to start everything from the very beginning.”

Seven families were living cheek by jowl inside a single classroom, sleeping on makeshift beds made of desks pushed together. Small children played with donated toys; at times, their infant siblings cried. Everyone looked haggard and beaten down, but food was available and the smell wasn’t bad. They could wash, and the air conditioning worked.

Indeed, the situation was the same in three schools I visited on Sunday with families able to occupy large rooms while humanitarian assistance from the ICRC and WFP finally started to materialize in the country and was being distributed. One such school was #57 where 107 IDPs were living and constituted 23 families with 42 children. Both that school and #165 a little down the road were already receiving aid that afternoon.

ICRC Humanitarian Aid Distribution, School #165, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Of course, such measures are temporary. Occupying schools and kindergartens during the summer vacation is one thing, but next month should see the start of the new school year. Unless Russian forces withdraw and also guarantee the removal of the South Ossetian, Chechen and Cossack paramilitaries, there are few places where they can go. This matter was touched upon in a brief interview with Andro Dadiani, Georgian Country Director for the London-based EveryChild international organization.

Onnik Krikorian: EveryChild is involved in what areas in terms of humanitarian concerns in Georgia?

Andro Dadiani: In the initial stages we were involved with identifying collective centers and the extent of vulnerability, the number of IDPs in the collective centers, and what are the essential needs such as social work intervention and psycho-social rehabilitation. Now we’re starting to examine and identify the needs more thoroughly, specifically focusing on children and pregnant women or mothers who have just delivered.

There are children who have been separated from their families, for example. According to the database that’s available to us there are 139 unaccompanied minors. However, this does not necessarily mean they are without any family support. They might have been separated from their primary caretakers and are instead with relatives or distant family members and even neighbors. I’ve come across such cases because they were grabbed during the bombing and taken away in cars for their own safety.

We need to try to locate their families, but with regards to expectant women or those who have just delivered I’ve come across one case of premature delivery because of stress after fleeing and arriving in Tbilisi. She’s now in hospital, but she has nowhere to go when she is discharged. Her husband is a soldier and nobody knows what has happened to him. Medical, social and psychological assistance will be necessary here. Others might need legal assistance as they have no documents.

These are the two main target groups, and this is especially the case for mothers because the risk of abandonment (of children) is quite high so we need to provide as much support to them as possible.

OK: You’re working with other NGOs and international organizations as part of some coordinated support structure?

AD: We’re part of what is now called the Humanitarian Coordination Group that’s led by the United Nations in Georgia. There are six sub-groups – protection, non-food items, food items, logistics, water and sanitation. We’re part of the protection sub-group.

OK: The amount of humanitarian assistance arriving in Tbilisi has increased and is now very noticeable, but is it enough?

AD: In terms of the relevancy of that humanitarian assistance, it is what is needed in the initial stages. In fact, the essential needs are very understandable – food, water, sanitation, hygienic supplies, and bedding. Therefore, most of the assistance that has arrived is of this kind. In terms of medical supplies, the government has taken control of that. They also provide mobile medical teams to cover collective centers. Identification numbers are also being issued.

OK: From what I’ve seen, most of the collective centers appear to be in schools, kindergartens and building such as that which means there’s a problem next month when the new educational year is due to start.

AD: There is talk of deferring the start of the school year. It’s scheduled to start on 1 September, but that’s probably not going to happen as I’d say most public schools are now occupied by the IDPs. Some of them were brought there by the government while others broke in out of desperation. It is a problem, and at the coordination meetings this matter is brought up as well.

OK: A few days ago, the situation of the IDPs seemed one of the utmost urgency with little or no humanitarian assistance available. The situation has quickly changed.

AD: More and more aid has arrived in the country. At the beginning for example, the World Food Program (WFP) only had bread to distribute although a plane carrying high energy biscuits was on its way. More people also got organized and the problem has been better identified. However, while IDPs might be receiving food, there are many who haven’t received bedding so have nothing to sleep on. The situation is better than three days ago, but…

The solutions are short-term crisis management. The government, international organizations and NGOs are operating on the basis there will be the return of the IDPs to their homes.

Of course, the problem of refugees and IDPs is one that has affected all sides of the conflict. IWPR has also detailed the plight of refugees who fled to North Ossetia.

During a lull in the fighting on the fourth day, Tatyana and six other women left their shelter and found their house completely ruined and surrounding streets strewn with bodies. A truck was picking up women and wounded to take them to North Ossetia. On the way there, the vehicle came under an attack, but, luckily, no one in it was hurt. Tatyana is now in a refugee camp in North Ossetia.

“It’s no longer possible to live there, out homes are destroyed, as well as our lives,” she said. “I don’t know what will happen next, I just don’t understand.”

The camp, consisting of several dozen tents, is located in Alagir, a town 100 kilometres away from the border with South Ossetia. The camp meets only the most basic needs of the refugees. Some of them have moved to the neighbouring republics of the North Caucasus, finding shelter in sanatoriums and hostels there. But many prefer to stay in the camp in order to be as close as possible to their sons and husbands still fighting on the other side of the mountains.

According to official information, around 35,000 people fled the fighting to North Ossetia. Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has said 500 million rubles (around 20 million US dollars) will be provided to support the refugees.

Around eight thousand have now returned, mainly to see what condition their houses are in, although it is not clear how many can move back in permanently.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the conflict between Russia and Georgia, and whoever is to blame, civilians displaced by the fighting to Georgia and North Ossetia must be given the right to return with firm security guarantees in place now.

IDPs, Abandoned Dormitory Building, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008