The 08-08-08 is a date that will live on in the memory of the people of South Ossetia forever. For many people, war is something that is only ever seen on TV, something removed and distant from their lives, but for the people of South Ossetia the night of the 7th of August 2008 brought an unexpected and unwelcome war to their doorsteps when Georgia’s Mikhail Saakashvili’s troops attacked the sleeping town of Tskhinval.

Tension and conflict had existed between South Ossetia and Georgia for many years, but Russian peacekeepers had been defending the peace and security of the people in the Transcaucasian region for years. As Counselor of the Russian Embassy in Sri Lanka, Velery Anichkin explained, the people of North and South Ossetia have been divided for a very long time, and the disquiet between Georgia and Russia has a long history.

On that tragic night, according to an interview with Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, OSCE observes in South Ossetia and Georgia reported an amassment of Georgian troops and equipment near the borders of South Ossetia. The next morning it was confirmed that Tskhinval had been attacked. During the aggression inhuman weapons were used on the peaceful inhabitants of Tskinval and neighboring settlements, unnecessarily injuring and ending countless lives.

The inhabitants of Tskinval have called the Saakashvili and his regime barbarians, vampires and wild beasts. Many innocent people died and those lucky to survive fled the city with only the clothes they were wearing and whatever they had managed to grab on their way out. Refugee camps were set up for those who had managed to escape the city. Returning was not an option as the scale of destruction was colossal and most of the city was leveled to the ground during the attack. All these facts lead to one conclusion, that this was neither a mistake nor a fortuity but pre-planned criminal actions on the part of Georgia.

Peaceful negotiations cannot be so blatantly disregarded and set aside, putting numerous innocent lives on the line. Saakashvili deliberately broke off diplomatic relations with Russia and tore up the peace agreements for peaceful settlements of the conflict in South Ossetia and Abkazia as set up in the early 90s, and by doing so ending any chance of a peaceful settlement with Russia.