“A Slow, Wary Return for Georgian Refugees”

“Certainly we lost the war,” said Ms. Eteri Kusiani, sadly, who is ethnically Georgian, lay awake before dawn on Thursday listening to distant gunshots. “We lost hope of reclaiming our territories. How could we call it a success? People have died. Houses have been destroyed.” “The only hope I have,” she added, “is to run from this place and build a house in another place.” The Article “A Slow, Wary Return for Georgian Refugees” that was published on Friday, October 10, 2008 shows us, the reader, that this young woman’s statement is an accurate one. The article discusses how in the city of Perevi, Georgia, on a day when Georgians streamed back to their homes from refugee camps, this mountain village was shrouded with fog, and its inhabitants wondered if they had been forgotten. The city of Perevi, Georgia, which is just outside separatist South Ossetia, has around 1,000 ethnic Georgians live in the city. The article states that on Thursday, October 10, 2008, hours before the deadline for Russian troops to pull back to the enclave, the citizens were still trapped behind a heavily reinforced Russian checkpoint where a communication station, troop carriers and heavy ammunition were hidden under camouflage. As a result of this madness hogs meander down the unpaved road that runs through the city of Perevi. This type of processions showed that the great-power politics of Russia and Georgia seem impossibly remote. The citizens of the city of Perevi still fear for them lives because though the Russians may pull out, the thought gives them little comfort. It is their neighbors who scare them the most, because their city is between Georgian and Russian military checkpoints, and the soldiers of these military checkpoints still have the memory of the war still fresh in the minds.
My opinion of the Article “A Slow, Wary Return for Georgian Refugees” is that it sad that the citizens of the city of Perevi still fear for them lives. Because I believe that no citizen should have to fear for their live in their own nation. Also that the next American administration should confront the fallout of this war and face a hard challenge that presented. I know it is not possible to craft Georgia policy without looking at the broader United States-Russia policy, while it is not possible to craft a broader U.S.-Russia policy without recognizing the role the United States plays in creating tension between Russia and Georgia. But the next American administration should try to fix the relationship between Russia and Georgia.



Article written by: Ellen Barry

The New York Times

Friday, October 10, 2008

Article on page A6 of the New York edition.