200808091971 | 'There should be one Ossetia'

'There should be one Ossetia'

Armed with rifles and on tanks, trucks and buses, thousands of Russian soldiers and volunteer militias moved into the rebel Georgian region of South Ossetia to protect its citizens.

After crossing the mountains from Russia they were welcomed into the province, which broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s and maintains close ties with Russia even though its administration is not recognised by any state.

"A United Ossetia, together with Russia and Putin!" proclaimed a slogan painted along the winding road through the Caucasus mountains, referring to Russia's powerful president-turned-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

South Ossetia has long sought unification with the Russian region of North Ossetia, which is inhabited by the same Ossetian ethnic group but which ended up across an international border after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Troops, ammunition

The long column of vehicles carrying troops, ammunition and medical supplies was part of a drive to repel a Georgian offensive in South Ossetia that began overnight and lasted all day on Friday, said one local.

"Of course I'm happy" about the arrival of the Russian soldiers, said Albert, a resident of Java, a village about 25 kilometres north of the separatist capital of Tskhinvali, where fighting raged.

"There should be only one Ossetia. We want to live with our brothers," added the 37-year-old.

Small clusters of visibly nervous men guarded improvised checkpoints at border crossings and tunnel entrances.

Some soldiers collected leaves from trees nearby to camouflage a tank, while volunteer militiamen armed with assault rifles bustled around their cars, shouting into cellphones.

Volunteers ready to fight Georgians

One resident of Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia and the largest Russian city near the border, told AFP that thousands of such volunteers were on their way, heavily armed and ready to fight the Georgians.

The largest contingent was coming from Abkhazia, another separatist region of Georgia. Near Vladikavkaz, dozens of buses - apparently arranged by Russian authorities - were parked along the road, waiting to transport the volunteers.

In South Ossetia, traffic along the road was only slightly thinner in the opposite direction, as busloads of refugees including women and children fleeing violence-ridden areas headed for Russia.

In Java, where shops were closed and electricity was cut, some people were boarding buses while others were preparing for war, including a young man toting a huge rifle to the despair of his father.

"Who needs this war?" asked the father.