GEORGIA: President Saakashvili visits a military cemetery on the first anniversary of Russia-Georgia war

Record ID: 572717

  • Title: GEORGIA: President Saakashvili visits a military cemetery on the first anniversary of Russia-Georgia war
  • Date: 8th August 2009
  • Summary: RELATIVES OF SOLDIERS CRYING OVER TOMB (SOUNDBITE) (English) GEORGIAN OPPOSITION LEADER IRAKLY ALASANIYA, SAYING: "This day when we remember our heroes, who gave their lives, who sacrificed themselves for the unity of this country, is a very tragic day for all of us." TOMB OF SOLDIER VIEW OF CEMETERY
  • Embargoed: 23rd August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Georgia
  • Country: Georgia
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA2QY0A8MB21P2HWCV918LYL6ED
  • Story Text: As Georgia marked the first anniversary of the five-day war with Russia on Friday (August 7), President Mikheil Saakashvili visited a military cemetery to meet bereaved relatives of Georgian army soldiers killed during the the August 2008 fighting in breakaway South Ossetia.
    The pro-Western former Soviet republic launched an assault on South Ossetia late on Aug. 7 after days of clashes with separatists and years of escalating tension with Moscow, drawing a devastating Russian counter-strike that ended on Aug. 12.
    The war killed at least 390 civilians and at its height displaced more than 100,000. A year on, an unfulfilled ceasefire pact, sporadic gunfire and the withdrawal of monitors from Georgia's two rebel regions keep alive the risk of renewed war.
    There have been a series of competing ceremonies on Friday (August 7) in both Georgia and rebel Ossetia, including a show of midnight bonfires in the Georgian capital and other towns In the military cemetery in Tbillisi, those who gathered to remember their slain loved ones had a mix of emotions.
    "It is a very difficult day and at the same time I am very happy that I was a wife of a hero and that I am bringing up the hero's children," said Leila Khasaya, widow of a soldier who died in last year's war.
    Some grieving saw the death of their loved ones as a sacrifice for Georgia's unity.
    "This day when we remember our heroes, who gave their lives, who sacrificed themselves for the unity of this country, is a very tragic day for all of us," said Georgian opposition leader, Irakly Alasaniya, who met bereaved families at the memorial ceremony in Tbilisi military cemetery.
    Conflicting narratives of the war persist.
    Russia blames the "aggression" of Saakashvili and his U.S.-trained army, and says it fought to defend Russian peacekeepers and civilians holding Russian passports.
    Georgia says Russia had already invaded when it launched the assault on South Ossetia, a charge Moscow dismissed as absurd.
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