The road to and from Gori was incredibly busy (quite a change from a few days earlier when I was travelling with the UN and the road was nearly deserted) … a lot of people were starting to return to Gori and the surrounding villages, and quite a few people who were stuck in western Georgia were using the main artery, the S1, to get to the capital and some eastern parts of Georgia… The Russian checkpoints were gone… so far so good…
Entering Gori, there were burnt and bombed out houses… and some residents have returned for the first time to Gori from shelters to try to salvage some of their possessions and to assess the damage… there were also already some efforts by the government to clean out some of the houses and to start rebuilding…
GEORGIA. Gori. 24 August 2008. Destroyed, burnt and bombed out houses and apartments, caused by the Russian bombardment of Gori.
Despite pronouncements to the contrary and efforts by local government officials to convince residents to return to their apartments, these houses and apartments appear pretty uninhabitable to me…
GEORGIA. Gori. 24 August 2008. Irina R. in front of her bombed out apartment. She has returned for the first time today to assess the damage. During the conflict she stayed with her sister in a nearby village.
GEORGIA. Gori. 24 August 2008. A resident of Gori looks at the damage in his apartment. He has returned for the first time today after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Gori.
GEORGIA. Gori. 24 August 2008. A resident of Gori explains how he was jolted around by a bomb explosion ten days ago and how he saw four fellow residents perish by a bomb that was dropped into the apartment complex by the Russian army.
GEORGIA. Gori. 24 August 2008. Gori, city centre in front of the local government house with Stalin’s statue in the background; a family is returning back to Gori from a shelter in Telavi.
1 comment:
Hi Uwe,
Yeseterday i was in gori too
David
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