Georgian Civilians Tell of Miserable Conditions as War Captives

Georgian forces returning to Gori found two of their large bases crumbled by the Russians, who detonated explosives as they left the city Friday evening. The Georgians deactivated mines planted against the support columns of a third large base. Still, the facility was ransacked and burned. Everything of value had been destroyed or stolen.

"They are pigs. They live in the Stone Age," Gen. Zaza Gogava, the Georgian army's chief of staff, said of the Russians. "Eighty percent of everything we had here is gone. But if we need to, we can still fight."

Russian troops continued to man checkpoints Saturday along the main road leading north from Gori to Tskhinvali, in violation of the terms of the French-brokered cease-fire agreement, Georgian officials said. Russia calls the soldiers "peacekeepers," and says they are authorized to remain in place under a provision of the accord that allows for forces to "monitor" the conflict zone.

Russian forces also remain in the western port city of Poti, far inside undisputed Georgian territory.

Meanwhile, Georgian and South Ossetian officials continued to negotiate the release of the remaining Georgian captives. Georgia says that it has returned all Russians and Ossetians captured in the fighting.

Lomaia said that in exchange for the Georgian civilians, the South Ossetians have demanded the release of 14 convicted criminals held in Georgian prisons, including those who carried out a 2006 car bombing in Gori that killed three officers and two civilians.

"None of the people they want have anything to do with the current conflict," Lomaia said. "We may release some of them, but we can't release terrorists."

Some of the recently released Georgians, nearly all of whom were women, declined to speak to a reporter because they were concerned about the safety of their husbands, fathers or sons still held. Those in custody were as young as 12 and as old as 95, they said.

Tina Mebienidze, 60, from the Georgian village of Kekhui, said she fled north to Tskhinvali during the fighting and was rounded up with other Georgians by the local police.

"The guards would throw scraps of bread into the cell full of people and say, 'Eat it, you pigs,' " she said. "They had no reason to hold us. We asked them, 'You burned our houses, what more do you want?' "

Giorgi Gogia of Human Rights Watch, who also interviewed the former prisoners Saturday, said, "It is very clear that these people were unlawfully detained on the basis of their ethnicity." Gogia said the "ghastly conditions that these people have been kept in" were a "violation of international law."

Correspondents Tara Bahrampour in Tbilisi and Philip P. Pan in Moscow contributed to this report