Alan Fisher's World

Sunday in Gori

Word spread quickly. Soon, around the disused building, the crowd gathered. As the men lifted boxes from the truck and passed them along the human chain that was quickly created, the women queued noisily and chaotically. They came for bread, for water, for anything that would make life a little more bearable. And in the crowd the desperate faces of those worried that they'd be left with nothing. In Gori they'd waited for days for help to arrive. We were told the town was almost deserted, but aid had lured people out of their hiding holes and into the open.
     One woman told us this was the second time she'd lined up today waiting for supplies. 'There are long queues and we don't always manage to get the food. People are falling, pushing each other.' Waiting patiently in line, Sirafima Meladze can't go back to her home – it's gone, destroyed. She's now staying in Gori with a Russian friend. 'We have no place left to go. If anything more dangerous happens we'll have to move.'
     This town needs two things: aid and security. The food is beginning to arrive but, with the Russian army ringing the town, the locals still don't feel safe. Away from Stalin Square a group of people were talking animatedly with rising, excited voices. They told us that last night armed militia entered Gori, sending everyone into a panic. 'They were drunk, and roaming the town before they headed back to the hills. They broke into shops and stole vodka and other drinks,' one woman said.
     Georgia's national security advisor Alexander Lomiai, who has been here every day since Russian tanks rolled in, told us the Russians were moving, but not withdrawing. 'They are taking up positions across a wider area,' he said.
     We met Tamaz Klimiashvili at his home in Gori. He had hidden from the Russians in his house a short distance from the town centre. He stayed on the ground floor and made little noise. Now he's confident that the Russians pose him no threat and is back picking fruit and vegetables from his garden. 'With pressure from the US and Europe, the Russians are going to pull out but they'll do it slowly. They haven't fulfilled their plan yet and they're not in a hurry to leave.'
     On the road from Gori for up to 20 kilometres, we could see the Russians on the hill digging trenches in the hot summer sun. Their vehicles were pulled into trees and camouflaged, but the guns were still poking out, pointing south.

Photograph by Alan Fisher