The destruction of ethnic Georgian communities in South Ossetia, the deep wounds to local society and war damage to the capital city confronted a delegation from the World Council of Churches on the second half of a 3-7 September pastoral visit to Georgia and Russia. The findings added urgency to concerns raised by government and church officials during a stop in Moscow.
Villages - destroyed house by house - were the first sight the delegation saw as it reached South Ossetia by road from North Ossetia. Entire neighbourhoods are razed, mostly by demolition, by fire, or both. The delegates also saw instances of looting and arson, as well as carloads of people who appeared to be vigilantes. The day of the visit was nearly a month after the end of the war.
South Ossetian representatives vowed to the delegation that they would never return the ethnically shared enclave to its status before the recent war.
"We searched for contacts with Georgia," said Alan Pliev, deputy foreign minister, "but we were sent troops."
The officials made sweeping condemnations of Georgia's leaders and its policies toward the enclave. The "Georgia for the Georgians" campaign of the early 1990s came in for special criticism, as it did in most meetings there and in Russia.
Earlier, deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin of Russia had stressed the need for peace between ethnic groups "so that South Ossetia and Abkhazia will not be turning their status into uni-ethnic states". Karasin said the leaders of the two regions understand Moscow's concern, but that the Georgian attack on South Ossetia was a blow to inter-ethnic relations in the region.
Satellite photos show the widespread post-war destruction of the villages near Tskhinvali that were mostly ethnic Georgian. The delegation raised the issue with Karasin. He said his government has a team in The Hague to see the facts presented by the government of Georgia. The Russian army had strict instructions to stop the looting, he said.
"Refugees have the right to return. They should come back if they want," Karasin said, adding that the international community "has to create the right conditions for them". He said Georgian behaviour caused Russia's military action in Georgia.
