On the night of August 7-8, 2008, the criminal regime of M.Saakashvili in defiance of the international law unleashed the aggression against the people of South Ossetia.
In the first minutes of the invasion, the Georgian troops delivered a rain of rockets and shells on the sleeping capital of the Republic, the city of Tskhinval. Civilian residents of the city and practically unarmed Russian peacekeepers got under fire of multiple rocket launch systems Grad, large-caliber howitzers and tanks. At the sunrise, Georgian attack aircraft joined the pre¬planned killing of the Ossetian people and Russian soldiers. They dropped internationally banned cluster bombs on the Ossetian towns and villages. It was the beginning of the third genocide against the Ossetian people in the history of "independent Georgia".
In the morning of August 8, when peaceful Tskhinval was already in ruins, assault detachments of the Georgian troops supported by tanks and artillery systems entered the city. The amok soldiery flushed with the smell of blood and success of the first hours killed everybody on the way. Georgian threw hand grenades into basements of the houses where old men, women and children tried to seek shelter. They fired over the sights from tanks and grenade-launchers at windows of residential buildings, hospitals and schools;
they smashed and rolled in the dust and dirt of Tskhinval streets the monuments to the victims of 1992 genocide by the tracks of their heavy combat vehicles...
The bloody massacre began also in Ossetian villages and checkpoints of the Russian peacekeepers. In the first hours of the aggression, ten residential settlements of South Ossetia were wiped off from the face of the earth. In Ossetian villages Georgian tankmen just for fun crashed women and children with tracks of their vehicles. "Elite" Georgian commandoes copying "the deeds" of fascist SS troops burnt the Ossetian people alive in their houses and sheds, and so-called Georgian "peacekeepers" killed wounded Russian soldiers forgetting about the honor and dignity.
Dozens of thousands of refugees tried to escape from South Ossetia under bombardment and shelling. The way to the life-saving Roki Tunnel became a real road of death for them. Getting the range to the only road running towards the Russian border, Georgian guns accurately fired at convoys of refugees. Georgians had no mercy upon anybody, in cold blood they fired at civil buses, ambulances and private cars and trucks.
But Tskhinval resisted... In a basement of the city hospital Ossetian surgeons in incredible conditions saved lives of wounded people. Outmanned and outgunned the Russian peacekeepers surrounded in
the outskirts of the city fought on bravery to repel the attacks of the aggressor. Without electricity, water and food under the massed intense fire the peaceful people continued their unequal fight. Face to face with the ruthless and guileful enemy they have held out and defended their right to freedom and independence.
What a high price of this victory! The Georgian gamble cost the lives of two thousand Ossetians and 74 Russian peacekeepers, several hundred people were wounded, more than 40,000 became refugees. Once the flourishing city of Tskhinval has been destroyed to smash, Ossetian villages have been ruined... These crimes of the Georgian soldiery and its Fuhrer are not forgettable and forgivable.
But the life goes on. The unbowed Ossetian people will overcome this hard time, restore the country, recover from the effects of the war, and children again will go to school. The music of D.Shostakovich and P.Chaikovski played on the ruins of Tskhinval by maestro Vatery Gergiev and Orchestra of the Mariinksy Theater became a bright symbol of the Ossetian revival and tragic monument to the killed.
This photo album is devoted to the heroic fights of the Ossetian people against the Georgian aggressor, memory of the fallen for the freedom of their Motherland, and act of bravery of the Russian peace¬keepers who have done fully their military duty.
We express gratitude to all residents of Tskhnval, Russian and foreign journalists who responded to our request and provided the documents on genocide against the Ossetian people, and war crimes of the Georgian regime.
Association of Independent Journalists of the Caucasus In Behalf of Victims of Genocide
A children picture book - that all they have managed to take from their destroyed house
A Georgian sniper shot at independent journalists in cold blood
A Georgian tank has broken the fence to enter the cemetery and intentionally crushed the monuments to genocide of 1991-1992
A majority of Ossetian refugees have no homes to return to
A removed OSCE plate an effort of the Georgian soldiery to hide the vestigial traces of their crime
A tragedy of Tskhinval - without a shelter late in life
A Tskhinval book-store - also a target to destroy
After the hospital was shelled by Georgian tanks, Ossetian surgeons had to evacuate badly wounded people to shelters
Ambulance teams exposed to the direst saved the lives of Ossetian civilians
Ambulances became full of wounded people within minutes
American citizen and resident of South Ossetia Joe Mestas The war is when military fight against military. But the Georgian army is killing innocent civilians. This is genocide
Another destroyed school
As a guarantor of peace and stability in the zone of Georgian-Ossetian conflict Russia has terminated the genocide against the Ossetian people
Besides physical annihilation of the Ossetian people, the Georgian aggressors pursued the aim to destroy the city of Tskhinval as much as possible
By this car a father tried to evacuate his family. But his lite and lives of his children were cut off by a shell fired from a Georgian tank
Charred bones of a peaceful Ossetian family
Distribution of humanitarian aid to sufferers of Tskhinvai
Eduard Kokoity, President of South Ossetia The heavy losses suffered by the Republic in the days of armed confrontation are irrecoverable for the small Ossetian ethnic community
Eyewitnesses confirm that Georgian soldiers finished off wounded Russian peacekeepers in cold blood
Georgian aggressors had no mercy even on old men
Georgian Grad rockets smashed whole residential quarters in Tskhinval
Georgian leader M. Saakashvili claimed a few hours prior to the aggression that he respects the Ossetian people and wants to keep the peace, and promised to refrain from the war
Georgian military aircraft have mounted a bombing strike on civilians houses, and then the village was entered by soldiers who shot up old people women and children
Georgian tanks firing over the sights at residential building windows
Georgians entered surprisingly and immediately started firing. Five tanks made several drives across the village. They shot directly at our houses The tanks were followed by infantry men
Georgians knew the city well enough, they understood well that they are shooting at a residential quarter
Georgians named their military operation aimed at annihilation of the Ossetian people
Georgian-style
Heavy shelling of Tskhinval from all types of large-caliber weapons started on the night of August 7-8, 2008 when residents were peacefully asleep in their houses
Hundreds of houses have been destroyed in Tskhinval and many villages the aggressors wiped them off from the face of the earth to remove even minor traces of Ossetians in this land
In the first hours of shelling residential quarters hospitals and schools became prime targets
It s a strange manner to make Ossetians to rejoin Georgia by dropping hundreds of the Grad rockets on their heads
It was incredible shelling. Nobody knew where to evacuate wounded people because the hospital was under fire too
Lasting values help the Ossetian people to regain belief in the future - the concert of the Mariinsky Theater in Tskhinval
Many refugees received grave news that their family members and dear ones are dead already after they reached North Ossetia
Mikhaii Saakashvili employed the scorched earth tactics in South Ossetia
Old men and children spent several days in deadly terror without water and food in basements of destroyed buildings
Ossetian militia men bravely defended their right to life and freedom
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