Human Rights Watch is calling on the EU to deploy European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) in Gori, Georgia. While Russian forces starting withdrawing from the region on August 22, reports of kidnappings, beatings, and looting of civilians by Ossetian militias and criminal gangs are emerging.
Georgian police were not allowed to move beyond a series of checkpoints some 8 km outside Gori. Civilians are left at the mercy of anyone with a gun.
Nonetheless, EurasiaNet reports that some 15,000 Georgian IDPs have returned to Gori with UNHCR help. UNHCR representative Helene Caux told reporters in Gori that residents are being intimidated by militias in the buffer zones.
Aid agencies are also reporting that Georgians too old or too sick to leave Gori and find shelter remain in abject conditions. Russian authorities are not allowing the aid organizations to enter the city and seek out these individuals according to EurasiaNet.
Reuters is also reporting that Russian troops are preventing Georgians from returning to their homes. “The Russians have checkpoints and we still cannot bring these people back home. The threat of paramilitary, irregulars, looting and robbing is still very high,” Gori Governor Lado Vardzelashvili told Reuters.
