Embed

Georgia’s Gamble Revisited

South Ossetia's war victims, 10 years later of trying to heal

It’s ten years since Georgian tanks rumbled into Tskhinval, South Ossetia's capital, under cover of night on August, 8. Decades of smouldering tension between Tbilisi and the breakaway republic finally exploded in a military action launched to retake the region.

Rockets and artillery fire rained down on residential districts and a Russian peacekeeper base. Moscow was quick to respond, and the war ended in five days. Hundreds of civilians lost their lives.

RELATED: A city of desolate mothers. The aftermath of the conflict in South Ossetia 

Since that time, rebuilding has taken place, and South Ossetians who fled to safety have returned. Finally, peace seems to have broken out, but the pain still lingers.

RELATED: Act of War 

RTD returns to South Ossetia to talk to war witnesses first encountered in 2008: Soslan Kvezerov, was 9 when he and his family fled the village before the Georgian army arrived, Shorena Kachmazova, gave birth to the sound of heavy artillery shells falling. American, Joe Mestas was on holiday with his family in South Ossetia when hostilities began.

We also visit displaced South Ossetians in one of the refugee settlements in Georgia, as well as villagers left stranded in a no man’s land after a border fence appeared.

They all look back on those tragic events and describe how their lives have changed.

Follow stories the mainstream media ignores: Follow RTD's Twitter

WATCH TRAILER
Please rate this film

2.16(191 users)

Published: 08 August 2018 00:00

Duration

27:34

Tags
Watch this film in Russian

don't miss

26:33
History 24 August 2018 00:00

The Hidden War . History of tensions between Georgia and breakaway South Ossetia & Abkhazia

26:33
Military and War 08 August 2013 00:00

Act of War. Georgia-Ossetia war, the bloodiest conflict in the post-Soviet history.

26:33
Military and War 08 August 2013 00:00

Ossetia, I Love you!

26:33
History 25 December 2020 20:00

Death Factories. Japan's secret Unit 731 – where biological warfare was conceived.

26:33
Politics 18 August 2021 17:00

USSR Collapse: A Crash Course . Why was the Soviet Union dissolved?

26:33
Society 29 April 2013 00:00

The Republic of Texas. Inside the controversial secession movement that wants their home state to be independent

26:33
Religion 17 June 2013 00:00

Dukhobors. Community of Faith. Orthodox Christian Sect that Rejects Clergy, Icons & Rituals

26:33
History 01 August 2014 00:00

Attack of the Dead Men. WWI soldiers launched their final offensive after being fatally poisoned by a gas

26:33
History 08 May 2017 00:00

Immortal Letters. Private letters give a touching glimpse of lives lived and lost in WWII

26:33
History 02 March 2020 18:34

Find My General! The incredible quest for Napoleon's favourite general lost in Russia

26:33
Personalities 19 May 2017 00:00

Skybound. Downed in the wilderness, he lost both legs but kept on flying

26:33
Personalities 01 July 2011 00:00

The Other Life of Radovan Karadzic

26:33
Personalities 20 August 2012 00:00

The last Soviet in Afghanistan

26:33
History 03 September 2012 00:00

War and Peace Roads

26:33
History 18 September 2012 00:00

Borodino: Version 2012. Anniversary re-enactment of Napoleon’s key Russian battle

26:33
History 23 September 2013 00:00

Surviving the siege

26:33
Military and War 17 September 2014 00:00

Vietnam: My Orange Pain. Devastating consequences of the use of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War

26:33
Society 19 June 2015 00:00

The Kosovo Exodus. Kosovo migrants look for a better life in Europe

26:33
History 05 August 2015 00:00

Atomic Message . 70 years after the bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki

26:33
Military and War 07 December 2016 00:00

The Coming War on China

VIEWER’S CHOICE: 1,000,000 VIEWS AND MORE

VIEW ALL