War Always Stays in Mind of Georgians

Nona Suvariani, Tbilisi

You will not notice anything strange at the entrance of the Tbilisi Central Hospital. It is doubtiful that you would even be able to guess that Georgia is on war footing. You should taken another entrance; on the other side where the tablet on the door states “Receptionist” - there you will see things in another light. People are standing in groups and they are not looking at each other. They are just standing in utter msilence. Some of they are looking up familiar names on the lists on the wall…everybody’s face reflects the horrors of war. You can hear somebody crying as we also heard…. A young boy was sitting at a street guard post was also crying loudly behind the post…it is hard to enter there. Naturally we are afraid… we did not say anything to each other. All what happened was not necessary; everything is clear. Finally we looked at each other and entered.…

Doctors are walking in the clean corridors. A substantial number of patients are easily noticed at the very entrance of the hospital.

Ward # 8. Two young boys are lying in this room. They are suffereing from war wound war and there are many others like them in this hospital. One of them, Omar Melikadze served in the Kutaisi Military unit before the war brokeout. On August 9 he was taken to Tskhinvali. However, his unit could not manage to reach Tskhinvali. As a result of the bombardment on Tskhinvali and the Ergneti Bazar area he was wounded.

“Initially we were firing but then their aviation attacked us. I was wounded when we were pulling back from the position. Before entering Tskhinvali they attacked us in the village of Dzevera too. When I say we that means the whole battalion. However, when shooting started we too, and it was a life and dealth situation. We, Georgian soldiers were struggling to escape death. However, under such condition only the brave could survive, and we supported each other .…”

When Omar Melikadze was telling his story one more young man entered the ward sitting in a wheelchair. “Will you receive a guest?!” ”He was fighting besides me,” explained Omari. The newcomer hid his face having seen the camera and warned us not to take his picture. His leg had been recently amputated below the knee. Our host suffered the same problem and were shocked. Initially we did not notice that Omari had his leg amputated; not because of the sheet over his legs; we could not realize that such a joyful young man had lost his leg. He did not regret; nor was he desperate. Thus, we forgot for the moment that it was a serious loss for these boys. So we asked a silly question to him: “Has war changed anything in your life?” His reply was: “Would anything change in your life if somebody cuts off your finger?”

One more ward and two more young boys. The mother of one of them was there and heard our conversation. It was not first war for Giorgi Filauri. Although he is only 23, he has been to Kosovo and Iraq. “I have been in the war but never in such situation-never.” He stated that the fighting in these wars differ from each other. “Here you feel that you are fighting for peace. However, when you are in a foreign land you ask yourself for who you are fighting. If the population asks me why I am fighting what should I answer? What business has a Georgian man in Iraq?”

Giorgi was wounded on August 9 at the entrance of Tskhinvali. Fragment of the bomb wounded him in the shoulder. He cannot sleep without pain medicine and he tells that his generation will always remember this war.

“I will always remember those boys who were beside me and now I will not have them close to me ever again. I will always recall the sound I heard before suffereing my wound. I will also recall those wounded boys who were crying out for help near me. We, soldiers did our best….”

However, he also says that if it is necessary again he will go to war. At that moment his mother could not sit calm and cried out: “Where will you go? I will not let you go anywhere!”

“My daughter-in-law told me that Giorgi was taken to Gori. I immediately guessed that he would be sent to the first line because he served in Comando battalion. We were sitting in front of the TV set and waiting for the phone call. Finally he called me and said he was in the hospital. I was glad to hear his voice but I was impatient to see him. I came here, took of the sheet and checked if he had his legs and hands healthy. I was lucky but I know many mothers are desperate for their sons having lost legs; this war cannot be justified - it was manslaughter….”

The most difficult is to visit the recovery ward of the hospital. The patients with the most serious injuries are here. The X-ray pictures show broken ribs. Sniper shot him and bullet is stuck somewhere in his lungs. There is nobody to speak with. People are either unconscious or too weak. Foreign journalists are running here and actively trying to record everything.

Peaceful civilians were also placed in the recovery ward. Most of them are old people. Sixty-eight-year-old Sonia Chitishvili was wounded in the centre of Gori when he went out in search of  humanitarian assistance.

“I was sick; when I got better I went to get something from the humanitarian aid, as there was no food to be found in the city. At my arrival there was explosion. Many people died on the place. I fainted. The ambulance took me to Gori but there was no medicines there and they then transported me to Tbilisi.”

We left the recovery ward and walked through the corridors of the central hospital. We entered medical training room. There were a lot of beds more precisely there were beds for physical training. Three men are lying in a row of beds. One of them is a soldier and the other two are residents of Gori district. Everybody lies in silence.

Mikheil Ghonghadze was delivered at the hospital on August 12. He was wounded during the bombardment when he was driving towards Gori from one of the villages in the district. However he had to endure much before being wounded.

“On August 11 I could not stay in Gori and went to my village of Phkhvenisi. The peacekeepers arrested me near the village of Variani. I was lying on the asphalt all night. I did not raise my head. Other people also were with me. Russians were shooting cars passing by and killed people. They were hunting on people. Russians stated “We are not the animals like you,” though they did nasty things. They claimed “we do not do any harm to peaceful population.” but they killed innocent people as well. I cannot understand why they did not shoot me. In the early morning they opened fire at three cars passing by and killed people in them. There were houses in the neighborhood and Russians were hunting down the people living in them.”

Mikheil Ghonghadze does not know what happened with his house.

There are also soldiers placed in the old, damaged wards upstairs. However they enjoy less privileges. I do not know why they are treated like that but the only thing I can tell is that their attitude is different. The boys downstairs assessed the situation in different way; they avoided answering questions. But here everything is different. The soldiers from upstairs do not say their names but their statements are very harsh.

A recently married couple lives in one of the wards here. I am not mistaken they do live there. A young boy, who was wounded in the war, was dismissed from the hospital several days ago but had nowhere to go. Consequently, the doctors allowed him to live with his wife in the ward. A resident of the village of Ergneti does not hope to find anything in his native village. His brother died in his arms, and he now has no documents. He had them in the pocket of his military uniform. The soldier lost them when clothes were taken off of him.

“We were dismissed from the hospital but we have nowhere to go and now we have to stay here. How can my wounded husband lie on the floor at school. Nobody pays any attention to us. I went to register as an IDP but they told me that they had finished registration and sent me to the City Hall. The City Hall sent me to the ministry,” said wife of the twenty-seven-year-old wounded soldier.

“Their attention is distribution of humanitarian aid sent from USA and Europe. We chose clothes for him from the second hand clothes; he was delivered to the hospital only dressed his pants,” said relative of one of the patients.

One more soldiers from upstairs was 19 and did not tell us his name.

“I was taken from Kodori at night. There were  forty of us in total when we went to Tskhinvali. We had to enter Tskhinvali at 8 o’clock. We failed at the first attempt but succeeded on the second attempt. We, 32 soldiers were allowed in first and the army of the Defense Ministry was following us. It was 10:30 PM when I was wounded in front of the municipality building in Tskhinvali.”

His relative could not hold her feelings again and interrupted our conversation.

“I spoke with him over the phone and one hour later he was taken to Tskhinvali. How can the psychic of nineteen-year-old children handle the disaster they experience in the first wave of attack? They chose boys from the special unites who were taller than 1, 85 meters. There they did not have any commander and nobody to lead them during the assult He (the soldier's relative) made the commander lead their unit under threat of force. Vano Merabishvili (the minister of internal affairs) has also heard about it. The only assistance we receive so far has been free medicine. This boy is from Gori but now he has no home in Gori. He has a land in Tskneti (a village close to Tbilisi) but it is not registered to him, as the government refused to register the land in his name.”

During the interview a nurse rushed into the ward. She was pale and worried. “Tanks have entered Kaspi too. Russian soldiers are moving through villages; they are deployed in the military base of Uplistsikhe too. They have not raided the locals yet but it might soon happen. My husband is there; many of my friends and relatives live there.” She was receiving the information from somebody she was talking with over the phone. It happened when Russian troops tried to reinforce their positions around Tbilisi.

The last patient we visited was eighty-three-year-old Irakli Tekhov from the village of Ksuisi. He was wounded when a grenade was tossed into his house. However, he does not care about himself; he has not got in touch with his only son who was fighting in Tskhinvali. Mr. Irakli does not know whether he is dead or alive. The old man is crying and is urging us to help him to get in touch with his one and only son…”