Cherkasov: Georgia evacuated its population before attacking South Ossetia

Alexander Cherkasov, an expert of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", who has visited South Ossetia, has stated that prior to start the war Georgia had systematically evacuated Georgian population from the conflict zone.

Today, on September 11, at 12:00 a.m., the central office of the "Interfax" (No. 2, 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya St.) has started a press conference held by experts of the HRC "Memorial" and the Human Rights Watch on the results of their travel to South Ossetia.

The topic of the conference: "One month after the war: situation with human rights and respect of humanitarian law during the conflict in South Ossetia". According to the "Caucasian Knot", the actors at the press conference are Alexander Cherkasov from the HRC "Memorial", Tatiana Lokshina, deputy director of Human Rights Watch' Moscow office, and Oleg Orlov, Chairman of the Board of the HRC "Memorial".

According to Ms Lokshina, in the overwhelming majority of cases the house cellars had provided defence against bombardments. The majority of Georgian villages observed exodus of Georgian population prior to the start of warfare.

In Mr Cherkasov's opinion, this exodus was not spontaneous, but a pre-planned evacuation of population by Georgia from the combat zone. He added that the absolute number of casualties might be found in the list of the public commission. The human rights activists could not verify this list that includes 300 names of those who perished.

According to Mr Orlov, the "Memorial" will send its mission to Georgia in late September or early October.