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Russian humanitarian aid convoy enters South Ossetia - 2

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Russian humanitarian aid convoy on Monday entered South Ossetia's capital of Tskhinvali, devastated after major ground and air attacks launched by Georgia to seize control of the rebel republic.
(Recasts, adds paras 3, 5, 7)

MOSCOW, August 11 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian humanitarian aid convoy on Monday entered South Ossetia's capital of Tskhinvali, devastated after major ground and air attacks launched by Georgia to seize control of the rebel republic.

Georgia's attack on South Ossetia started on Friday, prompting Russia to send in tanks and hundreds of troops. Around 2,000 civilians have since died in Tskhinvali, according to Russia. A total of 34,000 people are also reported to have fled across the Russian border.

"The first cargo with humanitarian aid has arrived at its destination," a source in the Russian Federal Reserve Agency said.

The convoy of 80 vehicles, accompanied by several armored personal carriers, has brought medical supplies, food, generators and other essentials to the capital of the Georgian breakaway republic.

Russia has sent 41 generators and 226 metric tons of food supplies to South Ossetia, the source in the federal agency said, and admitted that more humanitarian aid could be sent to the breakaway region.

Pavel Plat, a chief military expert at Russia's emergencies ministry, said mobile hospitals delivered by the convoy could begin treating their first patients today. Work will also be carried out on Tskhinvali's hospital, which was almost completely destroyed by Georgian bombs, he said. Over a hundred injured people are currently being treated in makeshift wards in the hospital's cellars.

Tskhinvali, which had a pre-war population of around 30,000, will also receive tents capable of housing 500 people, Plat said.

The heads of a number of Russian universities have also said they are ready to accept students from South Ossetia, Russian Education Minister Andrei Fursenko said.

"A number of regions have proposed using their facilities to house and teach South Ossetian young people," Fursenko said, describing the situation in Georgia's rebel region as a humanitarian catastrophe.

The minister added that Russian authorities would also discuss a longer-term plan for supporting and restoring educational establishments in South Ossetia.

Russia has also sent around seventy 20-seater mini buses to South Ossetia to evacuate people from the region.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced on Sunday that the government would provide $10 billion rubles ($420 million) in aid for South Ossetia.

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