Georgian capital "absolutely unprepared" for flood of refugees

TBILISI, Georgia — They squat in abandoned buildings, crash in rickety schoolhouses and sleep under bushes and trees. They stumble into the city wooden-faced and traumatized, children in tow, with little or nothing but the clothes they were wearing when they fled their houses.

Tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes by days of fighting and Russian occupation, leaving this small country swamped by a major humanitarian crisis. Georgia is packed with homeless and panicked families in desperate need of shelter, clothes, food and medicine. This week's cease-fire has not ended the suffering.

The crush of displaced people has proved to be more than the government or aid organizations can handle. Many refugees in the Georgian capital say they could not have survived if not for an outpouring of charity from ordinary Georgians, who open their doors to strangers and show up at shelters bearing food, bedding, soap and medicines.

Aid is being quickly airlifted into Georgia, including 82 tons flown in from the United States over the past two days, but many refugees are still waiting. Displaced people are sleeping on the bare floors of schools and other government buildings, some of which lack proper sewage or electricity.

"This is a very hard situation for which we were absolutely unprepared," said Besik Tserediani, a deputy in the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation. "There's a huge amount of people coming in, and it's impossible to deal with it."

Tserediani slumped over his desk on a high floor of the ministry Friday, bags under his eyes and head hanging down as if his neck couldn't hold it up anymore.

Down below, refugees were piling into the yard, impatient and frightened, hollering for shelter, food, medicine. They crowded the steps; some wrestled with the security guards, trying to push past.

"Get back, get back!" a guard shouted, shoving bodies out the door.

"I don't know where I can get food!" hollered a man in thick glasses.

"Just get back from here!" the guard said.

Hatya Zekasashvili had carted her 2-month-old baby to the ministry, looking for formula. She had no money and no way to nourish the infant, whose body seemed to droop down from her mother's arms. The pair had arrived in Tbilisi so destitute that they had slept in a park before locating relatives who agreed to let them stay.

"They said the formula is gone, that it was already given away," Zekasashvili said. "I have a hysterical feeling. I'm so worried about not being able to feed her."

In the chaos of war and occupation, nobody knows for certain how many people have been displaced. International organizations estimate up to 100,000 refugees, including South Ossetians who have fled over the border into Russia. The Georgian government estimates that 40,000 refugees are crammed into Tbilisi and surrounding suburbs.

"We are left without any hope," said Mary Mamistalove, who said she had been separated from her blind parents after their home in Gori was bombed. She began to weep, dark hair hanging down over her eyes. "I came here to get some food. I have not even a penny."

Humanitarian troubles also plague the city of Gori and surrounding villages, where uncounted numbers of civilians remain trapped, reportedly at the mercy of roving bands of militiamen. Supplies have been unable to reach Gori since Russian soldiers clamped the city under closure this week.

Russia dropped a cluster bomb on Gori's main square earlier this week, just as civilians were gathering to collect food aid, a Human Rights Watch investigation concluded. The group also reported the Russian use of cluster bombs in the Georgian town of Ruisi. Russian officials deny the use of cluster bombs.

Living conditions in the South Ossetian city of Tskhinvali, where civilians are beginning to venture back to a ruined city, are also grave, Human Rights Watch researcher Anna Neistat said. There is bread to eat but severe shortages of water and gasoline, she said by telephone from South Ossetia. Refugees complain that corpses are piled in the morgue at Gori or abandoned in the villages.

Despite heavy wreckage in Tskhinvali, Human Rights Watch has been unable to find evidence of official Russian claims that Georgia carried out a "genocide" that killed 2,000 people. So far, researchers have turned up proof of only 44 deaths and 373 wounded, Neistat said.

"The figure provided by official sources has not been substantiated by any evidence, by any source," she said. "We hear all this very strong language of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and I just don't think responsible officials can afford to make these kinds of statements without providing any evidence."

Scrambling to ease the suffering, the United Nations, the World Food Program, France and the International Committee of the Red Cross have brought tons of aid into Georgia. But at the refugee registration centers, the hours stretched long and miserable. "I can't find anything empty," said Ludmila Kalichava, 59, who stood cradling her granddaughter. "If I find any empty space, I'll crawl inside and just stay there, and no way will I leave."