by Irakli Metreveli
GORI, Georgia, Aug 2, 2009 (AFP) - Nearly a year after it was reduced to rubble by a Russian bomb, 70-year-old Tsitsino Vazagashvili's apartment block in the Georgian city of Gori has been completely rebuilt.
But as she sits in her new living room surrounded by freshly painted walls, Vazagashvili is taking little joy from her refurbished surroundings.
When the bomb struck her home on August 9 last year, Tsitsino's daughter and grandson were in the courtyard. Her daughter, shielding her son with her body, was killed. The boy, now 14, was severely wounded and is unable to walk.
"The government reconstructed my home, but who can rebuild my life?" she asked.
A year after taking centre stage in the five-day conflict between Georgia and Russia last August, Gori is physically healing from the war, its destroyed buildings being restored and deep pits from the shelling being filled in.
But residents here say that the memories of bombing and occupation remain fresh and that with Russian troops stationed only a few kilometres (miles) away in the rebel South Ossetia region, many live in fear of renewed fighting.
"Life in Gori is getting better step-by-step. But we are filled with fear that Russia may attack us again," said another Gori resident, Leila Gogilashvili, 48.
Only 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the border with South Ossetia, Gori bore much of the brunt of last year's conflict, which saw Russian troops and tanks pour into Georgia to repel a Georgian military attempt to retake the rebel region.
Most of Gori's 50,000 residents fled as Russian troops advanced and Russian planes bombed the city, hitting civilian targets including kindergartens and schools, the local university and numerous residential buildings.
Gori was largely deserted when Russian forces occupied the city on August 11 and by the time they had withdrawn 11 days later, the city had been widely looted by South Ossetian militiamen.
In all, 110 civilians were killed in Gori and the surrounding area, and hundreds more wounded.
In the year since, the government has repaired up to 10,000 homes damaged during the bombing and occupation, Zura Chinchilakishvili, the deputy governor of the Shida Kartli region, of which Gori is the capital, said in an interview.
There are now few remaining signs of the war. Reconstructed buildings have been painted in cheerful colours and city parks are again attracting swarms of residents to wander through the greenery.
"Significant reconstruction effort has been made and there are no visual traces of war in the city any more," Chinchilakishvili said.
"The traces of war are in people's souls -- their moral trauma could not be healed in one year."
Many residents, Chinchilakishvili said, are having trouble moving on from the war because of the significant Russian troop presence that remains in South Ossetia.
Russia recognised the region and another rebel province, Abkhazia, as independent states after the war and has stationed thousands of troops in both regions.
Among those who fled the city last August was Robert Maglakelize, the director of Gori's Stalin Museum. If Gori was known outside Georgia at all before the war, it was as the birthplace of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.
Despite the cruelty and violence of his rule, Stalin remains a source of pride for local residents and a bronze statue of him still dominates the city's main square.
During the war, Maglakelize loaded a taxi with exhibits from the museum and fled as Russian tanks approached. Thinking back on the conflict, he said Stalin would be disgusted at the legacy of Russia's bombing and occupation of his hometown.
"How would Stalin feel knowing that the Russians, who he ruled over for decades, would bomb his native city?" Maglakelize said. "He would probably turn in his grave."
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Received by NewsEdge Insight: 08/01/2009 22:20:30
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