Military Drawdown, Nationalist Upsurge: Final Days in Georgia

Sweating it Out in the Conflict Zone

Well, I picked a pretty rough time to visit Georgia's breakaway region.  As I've told many of you, last week I crossed the border into Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia.  I was supposed to go with an Abkhaz citizen studying in Georgia but he flaked out on me.  Reluctantly I decided to go to Abkhazia alone.  

If you've been reading stuff you know that Georgia has been warring with Russia primarily through the breakaway region of South Ossetia.  South Ossetia and Abkhazia have an agreement that if Georgia enters either region, both sides will attack Georgia starting a "second front."

Two days ago I woke up in Abkhazia ready to leave the region after a couple bad nights of getting bit by mosquitos.  As I left the region Russian tanks were mobilizing, getting ready to attack Georgia.  I slipped across the border into Georgia just before the borders closed.

I'm now relatively safe in Tbilisi.  The Russian's have taken back Tskinvali, the South Ossetian Capital, and their tanks and air craft have flooded both breakaway regions.  In my view there isn't any reason for more fighting to take place.  Russia has already asserted control in both of Georgia's breakaway regions, what does it have to gain by destroying another Georgian city.

I don't want to sound like too much of a distant observer here.  My close friends have had their homes and all their possessions destroyed in the fighting.  Many of them don't know if their relatives in Gori are alive.

Below are some pictures from my excursion into Abkhazia:

Riding in the backseat with Abkhaz separatists, I've never been this close to a Kalashnikov rifle.

That's Temo on the left, an Abkhaz militant separatist who took me to Sokhumi—Abkhazia's capital.

In the days of the USSR Abkhazia was the number one resort destination for all the elite Soviet officials and Premieres.

This is my "this country is going to hell, get me out of here" face.  I'm heading back to Tbilisi from Abkhazia.  The radio was blaring the latest news in Georgian as women cried and men looked on distantly in anguish.

I've got to get back to reporting, I'll give an update when I can. I appreciate the words of concern everyone has given me.  I really think the fighting is over now but there's no way to be sure yet.