CRS directs humanitarian aid to Georgian crisis
By NADIA MARIA SMITH
CS&T Staff Writer
TBLISI, Georgia — This week Russia officially recognized the pro-Moscow Georgian states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states, causing further tension between Georgia and Russia, which went to war earlier this month. The development is also causing tension for the international aid organizations working to relieve the humanitarian crisis in the area.
Catholic Relief Services, the official international relief and development agency of the U.S. Catholic Bishops, is working with other nongovernmental aid organizations as well as the Orthodox Church to provide immediate material and spiritual needs to the largely Orthodox Christian nation.
With the latest reports from Russia, CRS “is concerned that up to 30,000 people from villages surrounding the disputed city of Tskhinvali may not be able to return to their homes and farms,” said Laura Sheahen, the regional information officer for Catholic Relief Services’ Europe-Middle East office.
“Because of the conflict, violence and bombs, tens of thousands of people had to flee their homes,” Sheahen said, who was deployed to Georgia when the conflict began. “Several thousands fled north to Russia, but the majority fled south to what we call Georgia proper. Right now there are 128,000 displaced people in Tblisi, the capital, in Kutaisi, the second largest city, and really just scattered about the entire country.”
Georgia, a small democracy that was once part of the Soviet Union, began having trouble with its Moscow-backed breakaway province of South Ossetia at the beginning of the month. There were several violent clashes between Georgian police and South Ossetian separatists with increasing Russian intervention, which resulted in Georgia using military force to regain control and order in the region.
In retaliation, Russia, claiming innocent Russian citizens were being attacked in the disputed city of Tskhinvali, deployed tanks, troops and armored vehicles into South Ossetia and Abkhazia and then advanced into and attacked undisputed Georgian cities.
“This crisis is affecting everything about the country — it is affecting the economy and its security,” Sheahen said. “Caritas Russia is also working on the Russian side helping displaced people there, who are grappling with the same things as the displaced in Georgia. There are people hurting badly on both sides.”
Innocent civilians have been killed, wounded or forced to flee, according to Sheahen.
Most fled without their passports, identification cards, money, medications or clothing as they desperately tried to get out of harm’s way, she added.
“The saddest feature of this crisis is that some of the people who are displaced now were also displaced in the early ’90s when there was a similar crisis. They had to flee one region to a new place and now they’ve had to flee that place, so it really is tragic,” Sheahen said. “One man had tears in his eyes and said, ‘What am I going to do now? I can’t be a refugee twice.’”
The Georgians were hopeful when Russian troops pulled out of Georgia last week that they would be able to start rebuilding their shattered lives, Sheahen said.
Some people have returned to Gori, one of the Georgian cities attacked by the Russians, where shops have reopened and people are trying to resume their daily lives, Sheahen added.
However, with the increasing tension between the two countries and within the breakaway provinces, hope is starting to dispel as fear of more trouble looms.
“As far as the humanitarian crisis, it is a very serious situation and it is going to be a longterm crisis in the sense that some of these displaced people will never be able to return home,” Sheahen said. “Their homes were destroyed, or are in the disputed territory. Where will they live? What jobs will they have? How will they start over?”
But rebuilding lives will depend on regaining peace in the Caucasus and rebuilding the fragile democracy and its economy. And time is of the essence as winter approaches. CRS is concerned with providing for people during the cold winter months and will rely heavily on generous donations to do so.
“If people want to donate to CRS that is a wonderful way to show support,” Sheahen said. “It is better to send a monetary donation because we already have partners on the ground that have relationships with warehouses and merchants that sell things like mattresses and bedding, which they negotiate for a really good discount. They can actually buy this stuff and get it to the needy people quickly,” she said.
“It is such a shame that this has happened. It will take a long time to get people back to a place where they are okay, even if they are not where they were before.”
CS&T staff writer Nadia Maria Smith may be reached at npozo@adphila.org or (215) 965-4614.