Marina Dzagoeva's Story
Name: Marina Dzagoeva (44)
Place of residence: Tskhinval
Occupation: Housewife, has a son
On 7 August I was at home. Approximately at 23:30, the bombardment of the town started. Our family decided to go down to the basement. We stayed there till the morning hiding from the shelling. About 20 persons were in the basement. On 8 August we, my two sons Atsamaz Tedeev, 22, and Taimuraz Tedeev and my mother-in-law Babutsa Tedeeva, 75. decided to leave for Vladikavkaz when the firing stopped. At about 7 o'clock we left Tskhinval and reached the village of Tbet when we saw that infantry and tanks were moving towards our direction. We thought they were Russian troops.
My son Atsamaz stopped the car and got out of the car to tell those approaching us that we were heading for Vladikavkaz. As soon as we got out of the car, the Georgian soldier fired at his legs. Atsamaz fell down. Taimuraz, my other son also jumped out of the car to help his brother and was also wounded. The Georgian soldiers came closer to the car and fired one shot to the head of my mother-in-law, Babutsa Tedeeva. She died at once. Then they grasped Taimuraz and took him in the centre of the road and wanted to drive over him with a tank I kneeled down and begged them not to do it. They wanted to take us hostages and were waiting for a car. Suddenly they left us and hurried to the town.
Taimuraz, who was heavily wounded, somehow drove the car and took us to the village of Zar. We were provided first aid and then taken to the village of Zar and from there he was transported to Alagir hospital, where doctors did their best to stop bleeding. On 9 August, on the day of his birthday he died. We buried him in the village of Kambeleevka, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. My mother-in-law remained for 2 days on the road and then was taken to Tskhinval mortuary and the doctors buried her on the territory of the hospital. Then her daughter re-buried her in the village of Kambeleevka, next to her grandson
Yakov Kozaev's Story
Name: Yakov Kozaev (72)
Place of residence: Galuanta village, Tskhinvali region
Occupation: Pensioner
On 9 August at about 13:00 we learned that Georgian troops occupied the village of Tsunar (Khetagurovo). Inhabitants of Khetagurovo village, women, children and elderly people, started to hide in our village and in neighboring villages. My son, Nugzar Kozaev was going to leave for Tskhinvali in order to see our relatives and to find out if they were alive. We tried to talk him out of it but he left for Tskhinval together with our neighbour Atsamaz Gagloev. In an hour we heard shooting of sub-machine-guns and hid with my neighbors (about 7 persons) in the cellar of my house. The yard of the house was visible from my basement.
We heard people in camouflage talking in Georgian language enter my yard. Also we saw how tanks stopped at the outskirts of the village. I saw the soldiers coming up the staircase into my house. They made several shots into the ceiling and the walls. One of the soldiers went down to the basement door and opened it. He saw us and told to come out. We did. He asked me in the Georgian language if we had weapons. I told him that we had not. Then together with another soldier he left to check the cellar, probably for the weapons. Later on he came out and told us that they were not going to kill us and soon left in the direction of the forest.
In the morning on 10 August my neighbor came to me and told that not far from his house Atsamaz Gagloev's car was found but there was no one in it. I went to see the car and also found out that there was nobody in the car. Not having found my son I returned home. In several minutes I heard women crying. I went out and saw that they were crying over my son's and our neighbors bodies. Both of them were killed.
Nadezhda Kokoeva's Story
Name: Nadezhda Kokoeva (74)
Occupation: Pensioner
(She is telling the story of her neighbors)
On the 8 August we were together in the basement. In the evening the four of them, (the mother, Raya Tskhovrebova, 50, her daughter, Elina Kadzhaeva, 26, her uncle and their neighbor, 82 years old woman), went home, and climbed down to the concrete pit in the garage of their house. They covered the pit with an iron covering, thinking that that was the safest place in the house. The car was standing over the pit, and there was a barrel with water beside the car. When the missile hit the house and there was an explosion, the car started burning and the iron covering was torn away by a violent explosion wave and the four people in the pit got the fire and began burning. The shrapnel from the explosion hit the water tank and the water partially poured into the pit and on the uncle, S. Tshovrebov, thus stopping him from burning and saving his life. But the other three women, Raya Tskhovrebova, her daughter, Elina Kadzhaeva, and their neighbor N. Dzhiova were on fire. S. Tskhovrebov somehow managed to get out of the pit and tried to help the burning women out too, but they already were so burnt, that he couldn't get hold of them for a long time, because their skin was falling off. Eventually he managed to take them out of the pit. They were still on fire, but they ran to our house. When I saw them running towards our house, all black with smoke and burns and still on fire like three running torches, I was terrified to death and couldn't immediately recognize them.
At that moment our gate was brought down with another violent explosion and we all ran to our neighbors' house. The three women were in terrible pain from their burns, and we tried to help them treating them with sunflower oil, but it was of little help, because the wounds were too serious. Elina died in the morning of 9 August of her burns. The other two women laid on the floor and didn't move. By that time the Georgians already occupied the street and were conducting a house-to-house �cleaning�. We were in panic. Our neighbor had a mini-van, so by some miracle he managed to get us into the car together with the dead Elina, and under unstoppable fire we somehow managed to leave the street and headed for the Zar road (which led to Vladikavkaz). Near the Zar road we again were shelled, but fortunately the car was not seriously hit, there were 18 of us in one car. . On the way to Vladikavkaz, Elina's mother also died of her wounds, while the neighbor, the old woman Natasha, was taken to hospital first in Alagir and then to Moscow.
Elina Kadzhaeva's father, Kavkaz Kadzhaev, died during the first Georgian aggression in 1992. Elina's brother, Soslan Kadzhaev, died during the second Georgian aggression in 2004. Elina and her mother, Raya, died during the third Georgian aggression of 2008.
The whole family fell victim of Georgians.
Elena Doguzova's Story
Name: Elena Doguzova (32)
Place of residence: Tskhinval
Occupation: Housewife, has two children
On 3 August I took my two sons Artur Galavanov, 7, and Igor Galavanov, 3, to Valdikavkaz for them to spend their summer holidays. My husband stayed in Tskhinval as he was working as a peacekeeper. On 7 August at 11 o'clock I called my husband and told him that I had watched TV and heard the Georgian President stating that Georgia was for peaceful negotiations and would not make a single shot. My husband told me that according to the information he had the Georgian side was surrounding the town and were preparing themselves for the attack. The whole night I kept calling him and but there was no reply. As later I found out he was wounded on 8 August at the peacekeeper's head-quarters during the attack by the Georgian troops. He was being operated in an ambulance car when the Grad system shell hit the car. A doctor and a nurse were killed as well. Remnants of my husband's body were brought to Vladikavkaz where he was buried.
Read these and many other stories of the August 2008 South Ossetian massacre survivors at
http://helpossetianow.org./
