Displaced Georgians Straggle Home to Looted Villages

GORI, Georgia - Three weeks after the guns fell silent, ethnic Georgian families are returning to villages inside the buffer zones patrolled by Russian troops — and finding many of their homes looted or burned.

The war began Aug. 7 when Georgia launched an assault on the separatist capital of South Ossetia; Russia answered with a crushing counteroffensive that drove deep into Georgian territory before a cease-fire took hold.

Human rights investigators say they have documented looting and arson in Georgian villages in and around South Ossetia, as well as cluster-bomb strikes on civilian areas by both sides.

Russia says its remaining troops are peacekeepers enforcing the cease-fire; Georgia and its Western allies call them occupiers and point to the Kremlin's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as proof of annexationist intent.

Some 30,000 Georgians remain in temporary shelters, according to the United Nations, which estimates the war displaced nearly 190,000 people in total.

The conflict has frozen Georgia's aspirations of joining NATO, which had promised eventual membership at its April summit — a pledge many in Europe now regard as a provocation that helped set the war in motion.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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