UN Agency Reports on Monitoring of Four Villages in Buffer Zone
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) was able to gain access to areas north of the town of Gori, which are currently occupied by Russian forces, the agency said on September 16.
Two initial assessment missions visited four villages north of Gori over the weekend – Karaleti, Tkiavi, Tirdznisi and Dzevera.
A UNHCR spokesman, William Spindler, said that in the villages closer to Gori most residents appear to have returned. In the Karaleti area, seven kilometers from Gori, up to 80% of the population has gone back, he said. Karaleti is on the edge of the Russian-occupied areas.
Deeper inside the buffer zone, however, the rate of return is considerably lower, the UNHCR spokesman said. For example in Tirdznisi, less than 10% of villagers have come back so far, according to the UN refugee agency.
“There is still a great deal of fear among the people currently residing in these villages. Beatings, looting and arson by marauding militias have created an atmosphere of fear and insecurity,” the spokesperson said.
UNHCR also said that the destruction of buildings and houses “is not as widespread as was initially feared and varies from village to village.”
In Karaleti, for example, a UNHCR team counted 29 houses destroyed, out of some 600 there. UNHCR said that in Tirdznisi, only a few buildings have been burned or bombed, “while more material and psychological damage has been caused by lootings and destruction inside people’s houses.”
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