Georgia

The last contact I had with the Georgian member of our reporting team, a man named Sergo, had been a text message I received a week ago with the name and number of a reliable taxi driver who would be able to take me out of Georgia and across the border into Armenia. Sergo had been with us in Tbilisi during the first days of fighting, but as the war was intensifying all around us, he'd managed to find a way to get to Batumi, Georgia's coastal resort town, where his wife, mother and mother-in-law were all at a relative's house.

The parliament, national security council, ministry of foreign affairs -- all these institutions in the Abkhazian capital of Sukhumi occupy one block of buildings located directly on the Black Sea coast. For Sukhumi, unlike Pitsunda and Gagra, has never been considered only a holiday resort. It was and it is an administrative center, the capital of the region.

Sitting here in a hotel room in the Armenian capital Yerevan, waiting for my flight to Moscow tomorrow, I've been thinking of all the places I've been in the last two weeks and the people I met along the way. We'd been reporting on the situation in Abkhazia, one of the two breakaway regions of Georgia that have been at the center of the last week of fighting between Georgia and Russia. I've traveled widely in this time, all the way from Sukhumi, the Abkhaz capital, to Yerevan, overland.

If there was any lingering concern as to whether or not I should leave Georgia yesterday in a US Embassy convoy, it was erased by the huge, booming explosion that woke me from a sound sleep at 430am - followed shortly thereafter by a series of smaller blasts. I learned hours later that it had been the Russian bombing of a radar installation on a hill over Tbilisi. It sounded like it had been just next door.

Pulitzer Center Executive director discusses Georgia-Russia war with anchor Shihab Rattansi of Al Jazeera English's Washington Broadcast Center. Sawyer reported from Georgia and the southern Caucasus in 2006 for the Pulitzer Center.

Pulitzer Center Executive director discusses Georgia-Russia war with anchor Shihab Rattansi of Al Jazeera English's Washington Broadcast Center. Sawyer reported from Georgia and the southern Caucasus in 2006 for the Pulitzer Center.

TBILISI, Georgia -- For the Russians he is a scary figure. A cunning eastern despot whose main purpose is to humiliate and to outsmart them. They have disliked Mikheil Saakashvili, young president of Georgia, since he grabbed power following the famous Rose Revolution in November 2003.

This morning foreign embassies began evacuating their citizens from Georgia, having decided that the situation here is too unpredictable and that foreign nationals should leave.

Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, for the Pulitzer Center
Tbilisi, Georgia

For the Russians he is a scary figure. A cunning eastern despot whose main purpose is to humiliate and to outsmart them. They have disliked Mikheil Saakashvili, young president of Georgia, since he grabbed power following the famous Rose Revolution in November 2003.

Gori, Georgia (near South Ossetia). A ditch left by Russian bombs. Photograph by Zygmunt Dzieciolowski.

Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, our print reporter working with video journalists Jason Maloney and Kira Kay on the Caucasus conflicts project, was interviewed by Radio Liberty about the war (in Russian).

Interview with Zygmunt Dzieciolowski, by Mumin Shakirof for Liberty Radio
Excerpt translation by Irina Gotman

The president of Georgia declared martial law in the country. Foreign embassies evacuated their staffs from Tbilisi amid fears of Russian aerial attacks.

Read the full article in Russian

Jon Sawyer, Pulitzer Center