TBLISI // Six Georgian soldiers stood over a pile of flowers and banners draping the coffin of their comrade, Ilia Sheklashvili, 25, their faces etched with anguish and exhaustion as they took turns holding a small cup of brandy to raise a toast to their friend, who died when the Russian army seized the city of Gori more than 10 days ago. Each man murmured a small prayer in Georgian and an individual tribute to the courage of their friend, their voices barely audible as they spoke to a man who could no longer hear them. As each finished speaking, the brandy was swallowed, with a grimace that came from more than the harsh taste of the homemade liquor. When it was time to bury Sheklashvili, his friends gently picked up a framed photograph, brushed the dirt off his image and took turns kissing him goodbye.
Sheklashvili was one of seven Georgian soldiers buried yesterday on a stark hilltop overlooking the capital of Tbilisi, but he was the only one with a name. The other six were unrecognisable after laying on the battlefield for more than a week, killed in a rocket barrage as the Russians stormed out of the breakaway republic of South Ossetia and into Georgia itself. Georgian military officials said they would eventually be identified but as of now, the army does not know who is dead or captured by Russian troops, only who is missing.
The bodies were delivered by the Russians hours earlier on Georgia's main east-west motorway, on the front line between the two sides who have been locked in a bitter battle since Georgia tried to retake its Russian-backed breakaway republic on Aug 7. And even as Russian officials continue to insist their military advance has been halted and preparations for a withdrawal continue, each new day seems to find Russian soldiers acting more boldly and taking up new positions closer to the capital.
"We don't know if they will ever leave our country," one senior government adviser said in a text message sent to a reporter. "Everyday they say they will leave and we wake up to find them closer to our capital." The exchange, which also saw 15 Georgian and five Russian prisoners swapped, began as a pair of Russian Mi-8 helicopters arrived in the now front line town of Igoeti, which the Russians seized days ago, bringing them within 50km of the capital.
Two badly wounded Georgian soldiers were wheeled from the choppers, followed by a mix of uniformed and plainclothes Georgian captives as the Russians loaded their five prisoners into the helicopters in a scene witnessed by Georgian and Russian officials. "It went smoothly," Maj Gen Vyacheslav Borisov, the Russian ground commander told the handful of reporters able to observer the exchange from afar.
At the same time, Georgia accused Russian forces of entering the oil shipment port of Poti on the Black Sea yesterday and detaining 20 Georgian police officers. In Moscow, the General Staff confirmed at a daily briefing that its forces had arrested 20 "heavily armed" Georgians in Poti. It said they were travelling in five Hummer vehicles and suggested they posed a security risk. Independent verification of the claims is proving difficult.
Russian checkpoints, which have broken this tiny nation into small chunks, are refusing to allow western journalists to enter much of the country without Russian media accreditation - which is only available in Moscow. The checkpoints remain a key sticking point for the Georgians and also act to prevent neutral observers from entering key areas around the city of Gori as well as parts of South Ossetia, where both sides are rumoured to have committed atrocities.
Thus, little is known about conditions in the ethnic Georgian villages and, 10 days later, it remains extremely unclear about which side was responsible for turning a bitter political feud that pits Georgia's two separatist republics and their Russian patrons against the US and Nato backed government in Tbilisi. But at a military hospital near the capital, Georgian soldiers and their families were more concerned with embracing the returned prisoners. Two of the released detainees were critically injured, while the rest looked hungry, tired and greatly relieved to see their families. "Hello, hello, hello," said Giorgi Ramazashvili, 21, to his four-year-old nephew Sergi from a wheelchair, his finger bandaged and his face drawn with stress and fatigue. "See I am back."
According to Georgian military officials, more than 100 soldiers remain missing. @Email:mprothero@thenational.ae
