Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in South Ossetia
Ethnic cleansing of Georgians in South Ossetia was a mass expulsion of ethnic Georgians conducted in South Ossetia and other territories occupied by Russian and South Ossetian forces, which happened during and after the 2008 Russia–Georgia war. Overall, at least 20,000 Georgians were forcibly displaced from South Ossetia. The Human Rights Watch concluded that the "South Ossetian forces sought to ethnically cleanse" the Georgian-populated areas. In 2009, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe resolutions condemned "the ethnic cleansing and other human rights violations in South Ossetia, as well as  the failure of Russia and the de facto authorities to bring these practices to a halt and their perpetrators to justice". According to the September 2009 report of the European Union-sponsored Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia, "several elements suggest the conclusion that ethnic cleansing was carried out against ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia both during and after the August 2008 conflict." Of the 192,000 people displaced in the 2008 war, 127,000 were displaced in Georgia proper, 30,000 within South Ossetia, and another 35,000 fled to North Ossetia. According to the 2016 census conducted by  the South Ossetian authorities, 3,966 ethnic Georgians remained in the breakaway territory, constituting 7% of the region's total population of 53,532. 1991–92 South Ossetia War. Between 1989 and 1992, fighting flared in the South Ossetian A.O. and in Georgia proper between ethnic Ossetian paramilitary troops and Georgian Interior Ministry (MVD) units and paramilitaries. South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia. In turn, Georgia abolished South Ossetian autonomous status, which existed since the early Soviet years. The Georgian government, led by the president Zviad Gamsakhurdia, responded by sending in army and paramilitary units, in an attempt to restore its control  of the region. On the night of 5 January 1991, 6,000 armed Georgians entered Tskhinvali. After fierce street fighting, the Georgian forces were repelled and driven out of Tshkinvali by South Ossetian troops. As a result of the war, approximately 100,000 ethnic Ossetians fled from the South Ossetian A.O. and Georgia proper, and 23,000 ethnic Georgians fled from the South Ossetian A.O. into ethnically Georgian areas. 100 villages were reportedly destroyed in South Ossetia. Additionally, the North Ossetia-Georgian border went largely uncontrolled, providing an almost unhindered access point for weapons, fighters, and ammunition in both directions. A deputy to  the North Ossetian Supreme Soviet explained, "When the war began in South Ossetia (Georgia), there were thousands of refugees...Naturally, those Ossetian refugees from South Ossetia and from Georgia who fled here wanted to kick out Georgians living here. There are 15,000 Georgians living here, just in Vladikavkaz...We stopped this; no one fled". Reactions. According to the Human Rights Watch's January 2009 report on the war in Georgia: "[HRW's] observations on the ground and dozens of interviews conducted led us to conclude that the South Ossetian forces sought to ethnically cleanse this set of Georgian villages: that  is, the destruction of the homes in these villages was deliberate, systematic, and carried out on the basis of the ethnic and imputed political affiliations of the residents of these villages, with the express purpose of forcing those who remained to leave and ensuring that no former residents would return... [In undisputed Georgian territory] Beginning with the Russian occupation of Georgia and through the end of September, Ossetian forces, often in the presence of Russian forces, conducted a campaign of deliberate violence against civilians, burning and looting their homes on a wide scale, and committing execution-style killings, rape, abductions , and countless beatings." South Ossetian position. The policy of ethnic cleansing was also affirmed by the president of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, who in his interview of 15 August 2008 given to the Russian publication "Kommersant", on the question "Will Georgian civilians be allowed to return?" gave the following answer: "We do not intend to let anybody in here anymore". "The Economist" also quoted a South Ossetian intelligence officer as follows: "We burned these houses. We want to make sure that they [the Georgians] can't come back, because if they do come back, this will be a Georgian enclave  again and this should not happen". International courts. On 21 January 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruling found the Russian and South Ossetian forces guilty of preventing the return of thousands of forcibly displaced Georgians to their territory in South Ossetia. On 10 March 2022, the International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan filed an application for warrants of arrest of three South Ossetian officials on the grounds of "unlawful confinement, ill-treatment, hostage taking, and subsequent unlawful transfer of ethnic Georgian civilians in the context of an occupation by the Russian Federation". These were Mikhail  Mindzaev, then-the South Ossetian interior minister (2005–2008); Hamlet Guchmazov, then-Head of the Preliminary Detention facility; and David Sanakoev, de facto presidential representative for human rights in South Ossetia.