The violence was much worse in ethnic Georgian villages in the separatist territory of South Ossetia. Displaced persons told stories of how they hid in basements while Ossetian and Chechen irregulars rampaged through their villages. They recounted tales of neighbors being shot and of homes being torched. Events happened so fast that many, especially the elderly, didn’t have enough time to escape.

"They poured gasoline on houses and lit them on fire everyday," says 84 year-old Alexi Datashvili, one of about two dozen elderly and feeble residents from the Georgian villages [...]

In Gori itself, Russian officials have impeded Georgian television broadcasts, replacing them with Russian programming.

The recently modernized Georgian army base in Gori has been thoroughly ransacked. Several hundred meters north of the base, Russian forces are digging new artillery positions – an indicator that Russian troops are not intending to pull out soon.