United Nations Radio

The UN Refugee agency (UNHCR) is concerned that there is no more room in the Georgian town of Gori to accept internally displaced persons fleeing the conflict in South Ossetia.

The town, which borders the buffer zone with the conflict region, is hosting some 4,200 people registered as internally displaced persons, 1,200 of them in UNHCR tent camps, the rest staying with host families or in collective centres.

UNHCR Spokesman Ron Redmond says the agency has determined that around 450 arrived from their villages within the last week due to harassment by militias. The rest were actually on their way back home to South Ossetia from the capital Tbilisi and other parts of Georgia, where they had sought refuge during the conflict, but got stuck in Gori when they could not proceed into the 'buffer zone'.

"Some told UNHCR they had been traveling on foot and in hiding for more than two weeks before reaching Gori and the UNHCR tented camp. Our teams report that IDPs are deeply worried about the future of their families. Uncertain about whether or when it will be safe to return to their villages, they worry about their houses, their harvest and livestock and how they are going to survive the winter."

At the height of the conflict in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia in early August more than 158,000 people were displaced -- about 128,000 within Georgia and some 30,000 who fled to the Russian Federation.

Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Bissera Kostova.

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