The War in August, 2008. The eyewitnesses are telling. Evgenia Gabueva

Mon, 04/07/2011 - 10:45
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Gabueva Evgenia, 1930 d.b., an inhabitant of Tskhinval

On the night of August, 8, I was sleeping when suddenly the war started. Strong explosion resounded about the midnight. I woke up, without realizing what was occurring. I thought that someone had been blown up, but the following explosions made me realize, that it was war. The Georgians had been repeatedly firing us before, almost every evening; we had even got accustomed to it. But we had not heard such explosions, such bombardment even in the 90th of the past century. I was at home with my daughter. I do not have a cellar and we had to run to our neighbours, but at that time the missile hit the next house, I was thrown off to the wall by the blast wave and miraculously managed to survive. My daughter and I have hardly crawled to the cellar. Each explosion made one`s heart shuddering. Through the window I saw, how the missile hit the house of my neighbor Zakhar Tedeev and the fire caught the house.

The smoke was awful, I thought, my house would also burn down. Next morning the Georgians entered the town, we could see them walking along our street. At first my daughter and I were happy – we thought they were our Ossetian boys, but alas, it was not so. The Georgian soldiers were walking along our streets, swearing indecently, firing our cellars and houses. We were very frightened, our fear had no bounds. The whole life was passing by before my eyes; I wanted so many things to be improved in my past life! My grandson was on his post, I was worried about him very much; I prayed God to save him. On the 10th of August the Russian army nevertheless came to rescue us, and the Georgians receded. Thank God that this war has ended. Now our peaceful life is protected by the Russian soldiers whom we are deeply grateful. With the peace which has come to our hero city the life of people is returning to normal.