Student witnesses war
Sept. 19, 2008
Though he has mastered four languages, it is difficult for junior George Gegechkori to sift through his lexicon and find the proper sequence of words to verbally sketch the distress and destruction he witnessed as the Russian military eviscerated great swaths of his native Georgia last month.
“The things I saw are very hard to describe …” George said, his voice trailing off.
He was at home in the Georgian capital of T’bilisi on the morning of Aug. 8 when Russian forces began pouring into the tiny Eastern European country, which borders the Black Sea and is about the size of South Carolina.
“I knew way ahead from an intelligent guess that there would be conflict,” he said.
George remained in the capital the first day of the hostilities as bombs rained down on strategic points across the city, while many of his government-official friends headed south to a military base in the heavily shelled city of Gori.
The next day George felt he had to do something.
“I really couldn’t just sit and watch the news over TV and watch how the country was getting ripped into parts,” he said. So, on Aug. 9 he hitched a ride with his friends to Gori.
Over the next couple of days, George visited the conflict region and saw images that will be recorded in his memory for as long as he lives.
“I saw a field hospital, and that was pretty rough,” he said. “There were a lot of people wounded, a lot of people dead—small kids as well as elderly citizens.
“The Russian troops didn’t distinguish military from civilians; they were just advancing. They were taking out villages in the conflict region by aviation and by heavy artillery.”
On his last trip from Gori back to T’bilisi, George witnessed a scene that rattled him.
“I turned back, and it was a kind of elevated site, and I was able to see the Russian military advancing. I saw their armored vehicles, tanks, military personnel and military vehicles. It was very disturbing.”
On the night of Aug. 11, as the Russian vanguard pierced deeper into Georgia, T’bilisi was a whirlwind of rumor and confusion.
“People were saying, ‘They’re coming to the capital to take over the government,’ and a lot of the population ran away,” George remembered. “Although I had ability to leave, morally I couldn’t do it. In Georgia we have a saying that it’s better to die with honor than to live in shame and disgrace.”
Fortunately, the next day the Russian juggernaut halted its advance and a cease-fire was declared. But the damage was done. The Russian military machine had chewed up great hunks of Georgia.
“The aftermath of war is always worse than the war itself,” George said. And he witnessed the proof of that statement.
Bedraggled and barefoot, refugees limped into the capital by the thousand. George volunteered to help the public defender’s office collect data on those displaced.
“I had to sit down and listen to their stories,” he said, “and it was very emotional because you’re looking at people who lost everything—everything they were striving for throughout the years. And quite a number of them were not aware of where their family members were.”
Though he had originally planned to return to LaGrange early in August, George decided to remain in Georgia to help. He made it back to the Hill in early September.
He said that even though his country had been plundered, he harbored no ill will or hatred for the Russian people.
“I lived in Moscow for a year and a half and have quite a few friends from Russia,” he said. “I love the people, I love their cities, I love their country. But I despise their government.
“The way their government is currently set up is not a civilized government because a civilized government doesn’t bomb and kill children.”
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