Vadim, a South Ossetian militiaman, raced through the deserted Georgian streets, a Soviet Makarov pistol in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other. Dishevelled, unshaven and wild-eyed, he was searching for someone to kill.
As heavy artillery rounds exploded on the edge of town, we came across other civilian cars and minivans with Russian numberplates crammed with Vadim’s fellow South Ossetian militiamen. Like Vadim, who was in a tattered camouflage uniform and white trainers, they looked wild and menacing. They wore white armbands to identify them to the Russian army as friendly forces.
Some hid their faces behind black balaclavas.
On Friday, Russia even threatened Poland with nuclear retaliation for agreeing to host US rockets as part of its antimissile shield. Not that Vadim cared about the geo-political picture. He shouted obscenities at a frightened young woman as we drove by in a side street.
“Wouldn’t mind f***ing one of these Georgian girls,” he said.
Most disturbing were reports that in some incidents the paramilitaries had taken young women as sex slaves.
“A car with a family fleeing their village was stopped by the militias,” said Georgy, a Georgian army commander. “They grabbed the man’s two young daughters and dragged them away at gunpoint. Their father could do nothing to stop them. We have no idea what’s happened to them. They have disappeared.”
In South Ossetia itself, vengeful militiamen were moving into deserted ethnic Georgian villages on what they said was a mopping-up operation to “find Georgian saboteurs and looters”.
As they advanced they carried out widespread looting and burnt houses in an apparent ethnic cleansing campaign to ensure locals did not return.
