Pensioners burned alive in a church and a baby stabbed to death - just some of the horrific stories from Georgia

By Will Stewart
Last updated at 12:52 AM on 12th August 2008

Shocking claims to support Vladimir Putin's charge that Georgian forces have carried out 'genocide' in South Ossetia were made in Moscow.

Georgian troops were accused of setting fire to an historic tenth century church where South Ossetian pensioners were huddling for safety in the face of bombardment during their brief occupation of the region at the weekend.

The elderly people had gone to hide in the church, a noted Orthodox spiritual centre, after other villagers had been killed by the invading forces, it was claimed.
Local residents pass by a destroyed Georgian tank in South Ossetia's capital Tskhinvali.

"They thought that the Georgians, who are Orthodox too, would not dare touch them inside the holy walls, but it turned out the troops burnt them alive there," said Russian news agency Regnum.

"They also took a big group of young women and moved in an unknown direction. There is no further information about their fate."

In Tskhinvali an old man who survived Georgian bombing that demolished most of the city said a Georgian neighbour had been shot dead for marrying an Ossetian man.

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'His mum was so happy when he brought his Georgian bride to the house. She couldn't take her eyes of her, the girl smiled so much and was so kind. They were a loving family, and now they were both killed, by the Georgians.

'The poor girl was shot dead. I heard the Georgian soldiers who went inside their flat were shouting something about betrayal. They punished her for marrying an Ossetian man.'
Grief: A South Ossetian woman cries outside her destroyed house in the South Ossetian capital of Tshinvali

In another atrocity, innocent villagers were crushed under the tracks of oncoming tanks, claimed Regnum.

Another allegation - again without detail or confirmation - is that locals were cowering in cellars for safety when Georgian forces flooded their hideouts.

Georgian tanks also ruined a graveyard and totally destroyed a local Orthodox church, according to refugee Vanda Kachmazova.

'A tank with the insignia 'Georgian Special Forces' completely ruined the memorial graveyard next to School Number Five in Tskhinvali,' she said.

Putin was reported to have been told how several girls were locked in a village house before it was set on fire, burning them alive.

'We saw how a tank hit and then drove over the body of an elderly woman who was trying to flee,' one eye-witness was quoted as saying.

'We a saw a body of an 18-month-old baby that had been stabbed to death by Georgians.'
Desperate: Refugees cram into a truck as they flee devastated Tskhinvali city

An Ossetian girl was allegedly raped by Georgians in the village of Khetagurovo, according to the Russian media.

Since independent journalists have not yet got into South Ossetia, and there is little detail on these cases, it is not possible to check their veracity - but Russia claims it will pursue such allegations in the international courts once the military action is over.

The cases have been reported by Russian journalists based on sources in South Ossetia or through briefings from the Russian military or security services.

Russian newspapers went into propaganda overdrive as they weighed in behind the Kremlin's military operation in Georgia.

One pro-government tabloid, Tvoi Den, claimed that Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili made a suicide attempt because he realised the war was lost.

'His bodyguard knocked the gun out of his hand at the very last moment," said the paper, which also claimed he was psychologically ill and spiced its report with lurid allegations about his sex life.

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