(8 Sep 2008) SHOTLIST
Gori
1. Wide of central square with crater caused by Russian bombing and statue of Stalin in background
2. Mid shot of crater
3. Tilt up from crater to municipal building, statue
Karaleti
4. Wide of Russian checkpoint with UN relief agencies being blocked from passing through
5. Various of Russian troops
6. Cutaway of Russian flag
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Wolfgang Gressman, CARE International, Emergency Response Advisory:
"Unfortunately this morning they just turned us back, so we will try now something else."
8. Various of CARE car turning around and leaving checkpoint
Tbilisi
9. Exterior of public school Number 51 being used as shelter for internally displaced persons
10. Mother holding child outside shelter
11. Interior of school with families seated
12. Women and children seated
13. Close-up of baby boy
14. Close-up of mother holding her baby
15. Mid of two children living in shelter
16. SOUNDBITE (Georgian) Nino Okropiridze, Internally displaced person from Gori region:
"Of course I want to return to my home but is it impossible because our village doesn't exist any more. They have burned down everything. The houses, kindergartens, the schools, the village doesn't exit."
17. Various of young boy wheeling his sibling through shelter
STORYLINE:
Russian soldiers turned back a United Nations convoy for no apparent reason on Monday in a blunt demonstration of who is in charge in a tense zone around Georgia's breakaway province of South Ossetia.
The demonstration of Russian authority inside Georgia came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy was heading to Moscow to try to persuade Russia to honour its pledge to pull its troops back to the positions they held before the fighting broke out August 7.
In Gori, which was occupied for two weeks, physical evidence of the fighting remains with craters from Russian bombs littering one central square.
A convoy of four vehicles from UN aid agencies waited for about an hour at the checkpoint in Karaleti on Monday, but was turned away after a brief discussion with a Russian general who arrived to negotiate.
David Carden, who was leading the interagency mission by the World Food Program, UNICEF and the UN refugee agency, said they were trying to do a preliminary humanitarian assessment mission.
The convoy - three aid agency SUVs and a World Food Program truck loaded with wheat flour, pasta, sugar and other staples - turned around on the road and drove off.
The Russian general left immediately after the exchange, and a serviceman at the checkpoint said he was unauthorised to comment on the reason for the refusal.
Russian servicemen said the general was Major General Marat Kulakhmetov, head of the Russian peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia.
A vehicle from CARE International on an assessment mission on behalf of several non-governmental aid agencies was also turned away on Monday, before the general arrived.
Wolfgang Gressman, an emergency response adviser to CARE International, said he had been turned away on Sunday and told to come again on Monday after submitting a list, in Russian, of the agencies involved.
"Unfortunately this morning they just turned us back, so we will try now something else," he told AP.
Meanwhile in Tbilisi, public schools continued to provide shelter to women and small children internally displaced by the war.
Having fled Russian bombardment in the villages around Gori, these families would like to return home but fear nothing there remains.
"Of course I want to return to my home but is it impossible because our village doesn't exist any more," said Nino Okropiridze.
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