ALBERTO CEOLONI PHOTOGRAPHER

Siberia is not only the land of gulags but also a place of the most uncontaminated of the Earth, its landscape is of a desolating beauty of an indelible fear. Here are still intact habitats, ranging from the Mongolian steppes to the taiga, tundra to the high peaks of the Altai mountains.
The name of this ancestral land, Sibir, comes from the mystical fusion between the Mongolian siber beautiful, pure and tartar Sibir, sleepy land. In Siberia coexist hundreds of ethnic groups and peoples of religions very different. The Orthodox Christian religion is the most widespread in Russia, while the Catholics are estimated 1% of the population. Ordinary people say that Siberia is the quintessence of Russia or the ideal country that Russia would like to be. In the minds of these people, Siberia is represented as a pole of purity. One of the reasons why people are attracted to this land is that here they feel in themselves the boundary between the temporal and the eternal, between what is changeable and Truth, between what goes in and ruin what it is preserved. Caritas, the Latin word which means "brotherly love", work since 1991 in Western Siberia, in a geographic area that extends eastward from Ekaterinburg to Keremovo region, north reaches the Arctic Ocean, along the great rivers like the Yenisei, the longest river in Russia, the Ob and Irtysh and south runs along the border of Uzbekistan-China, covering an area of 2.5 square kilometers. Caritas provides a response to various social problems in Western Siberia such as care for children and orphans, most of whom live in extreme poverty, amid alcoholism, drug addiction and domestic violence; support for single mothers with children, attempting to create a healthy and rich environment for their own development and that of their children; and aid to those who are elderly, sick, handicapped, homeless and poor. Of great importance for Caritas is the protection of the family as a basic element of Russian society and as a natural place for the development of moral and spiritual of its members, especially children. With this reportage I documented stories of simple and humble people who live hard lives and their ability to maintain a sense of dignity in suffering, a sign according to their Orthodox Christian culture, the presence of Christ in the land of Russia. Caritas in Western Siberia, with its charitable activities and its Christian values of love and brotherhood, seeks to awaken this "sleeping land" that has a potential indefinite and unlimited, as its geographical extent, that finds in the depths and in the folds the soul of its people; a people which is characterized by the spontaneity of feelings and their depth for better or for worse, for the generosity and solidarity, for his peaceful nature, for the ability to sacrifice the individual self to a higher moral good.

Going towards the south-east corner of Georgia, the landscape makes a sudden change. The colour green is replaced by the arid Samgori steppe that stretches away to a hilly horizon. A washed out blue of the sky, as in the cupola fresco of the Assumption by Correggio into Parma Cathedral, is the background to the landscape and an unexpected light surrounds and transfigures everything. An almost treeless panorama is encircled by white peaks. A huge well-irrigated Alazani valley lays in the centre of the Kakheti. Lovingly tended grape-vine, sprawling across dozens of kilometres in either direction. At the end of this valley lays the border with Muslim Azerbaijan. Best Georgian wine come from the Alazani valley. The cultivation showed no sign of the brutal history associated with this area. The invading Mongol and Persian armies had marched through it many times during the past centuries from the north to the south. Strolling down this delight land, it may still hear the cries of the nationalists that have scourged Georgia in the its long history of inter-ethnic struggles and that continues to flare Abkhazia and South Ossetia in this recent times. The consequences of this social tragedy are still so vivid in the hearts of refugees forced to flee from two breakaway provinces and whose souls being haunted by recollections of their lost country. Kakheti suddenly seem a very fragile place again. Belonging to a forgotten past, lost Udi people, one of the most ancient native population of the Caucasus, came to Kakheti, about 80 years ago, from the village of Vartashen, in the Muslim Azerbaijan. They settled in the village of Zinobiani where they finally found a quiet resort to give a meaning to their lives with the strength of Christian religion. Churches and monasteries punctuate the blissfully land of Kakheti, images of a celestial world reflect on the earth. Wandering in the countryside, it may caught the breath of ancient spirits of this land that were pursued in the rural poetry by Georgians like Akaki Tsereteli, Alexander and Ilia Chavchavadze and as Pushkin nostalgically wrote in a 1828 poem: I beg you please sing no more The songs of Georgia, For their mournful sounds Recall for me A distant life A distant shore

During its short history of independence Georgia, former republic of the Soviet Union, experienced three severe military conflicts on the own territory. During these conflicts thousands of people were killed from the both sides, hundreds thousands – exiled, and two regions – Abkhazia and South Ossetia - separated de facto from Georgia and now they are trying to gain formal independence since breaking away in the early 1990s. As a result of this political event, after the Abkhazian civil war (1992-1993), some 250,000 Georgians were obliged to abandon their homes and livelihoods in Abkhazia. Most of them left by sea, but others fled over land, across the mountains of Svaneti, where many of them, around 30,000, died in the difficult climatic conditions. Abkhazia was a rich and prosperous region before the conflict, many of the Georgian families who left were well-off and belonged to the élite classes. They were displaced into Georgia proper, part of them, approximately 44 %, were given temporary shelter by the Government (so called collective centers – former public buildings: hostel, hospitals, shops, hotels, kindergartens), majority are living in private accommodation, with friends, relatives, are renting the dwellings. The refugees were obliged to accept a radical change in their life-style, leaving behind them not only their material possessions but also something even more important: what had given a meaning to their existence, going to live in run-down hovels lacking basic services for subsistence such as supply of water, gas and heating. The main problems of refugees are related with lack of possibility to return to their native lands, high unemployment, lack of proper shelter, lack of opportunities to be included in the development process. Refugees still suffer from uncured psychological trauma, exclusion and stigmatization. The health status of both, refugees and local population is poor, children are starving from malnutrition. The refugees community requires more attention, understanding and compassion to realize the main aim – to provide this people with the opportunity to live in dignity and safety, to build their lives.

The Ossetians, are an ethnic group of the Ossetia, a region of the Northern Caucasus to the border between Russia and Georgia, administratively uniform in North Ossetia denominated also "Alania", in Russia and South Ossetia, in Georgian territory. In the night between 7th and August 8th 2008 the Georgian authorities declared to have received news that Russian army was crossing the tunnel of Roki and so they launched a preventive attack to prevent a Russian invasion of their country. The Georgian troops were defeats and only thanks to the mediation of the European Union address by Nicolas Sarkozy, as president of turn of the UE, he reached the signature of the peace. The South Ossetia and the Abkhazia, separate de facto from Georgia got a formal independence, recognized only from Russia, from Venezuela and from Nicaragua, but not from the international community. Both the parts in the conflict violated the international humanitarian law, with the indiscriminate and disproportionate use of the strength against the civilians and the use of cluster bombs. The Russians were also responsible of serious violations of the international humanitarian law because of they ruled over forces occupant of the Georgian territory as occupying army. They would have had to assure the safety and the public order, instead, they stood for the ossetian and abkhaze militias that destroyed the Georgian villages in South Ossetia and in the Kodori Gorge, in Upper Abkhazia, in deliberate and systematic way, carrying out an ethnic cleansing of the Georgian villages in the territories of the two breakaway republics. As a result of such reckless policy, after the end of the war, around 192.000 refugees were forced to leave their houses, of which 35.000 fled in North Ossetia while 167.000 Georgians were forced to abandon their houses ( 25.000 refugees from the South Ossetia and 6.000 from the Kodori Gorge, in Upper Abkhazia). The refugees were displaced in Georgia inside facilities such as collective centers, sanatoriums, hotels, hostels, schools and new settlements. After the end of the war, a building program was started up of 4.542 new houses in the regions of Kvemo Kartli, Shida Kartli, Mtskheta-Tianeti and Kakheti and a economic policy with the aim of creating conditions for the communities to become self-sufficient, via financial aid for setting up small economic activities, agriculture and livestock rearing. The way of life of the Georgians refugees is subsequently deteriorated after the outbreak of the war against Russia in August 2008, the community of the refugees asks for a great attention, understanding and compassion to be able to give the opportunity to live in dignity and safety. This dramatic social situation is becoming an unsustainable burden for the society and the Georgian government without the support of international community.

MSF look after legal and illegal afghan refugees, they are mostly coming from Kunduz, Nimruz, Badham provinces; they are mostly Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks. The most of afghan refugees are Sunni. There are two million afghan refugees living in Iran, 500.000 of them are in Sistan-Balucistan, MSF run three clinics in Zahedan: Shir Abad area, Besat area and Karim Abad area, MSF's project in Zahedan started in 1999, the Shir Abad and Besat clinics run 6 days a week as the Karim Abad clinic runs 4 days a week. The visit-time is from 07:30 to 01:30. There are hundred patients a day for the three clinics, six thousand patient for month for the three clinics. MSF's staff in Zahedan has 70 people, 50 of them are Iranians, Shir Abad and Besat have three general doctors, two nurses and one pharmacist as Karim Abad has two general doctors, two nurses and one pharmacist, the clinics provide for first aid, the several steps are the following: when the patient arrives first is the registration, then the visit and last he goes to the pharmacist getting the drugs if he needs, there is a protocol for what kind of visit MSF providing for patient and a protocol for the drugs giving patients. The local hospital provides for the bad cases, MSF and UNHCR support the cost of the recovery at this facility. IPD (In Patient Department) for the bad cases in the MSF ' s protocol, the patient are admitted into hospital and OPD ( Out Patient Department) the patient goes to laboratory test for x- ray, body scan etc, every kind of radiography, specialist visit, MSF support most of cost for these tests. There are two Safe Delivery Center in Zahedan, one of them in Shir Abad area and one in Besat area where pregnant refugees women go for the delivery, the cost of these kind of recovery are so high but MSF support them, if there are complications, the patient will be admit into local hospital, there are eight hospital in Zahedan, six of them have a contract with MSF. What about the vaccination treatment are several health center in Zahedan, the treatment is free of charge. Newcomers afghan refugees are coming from Afghanistan, more than 30 family per week, 120 family per month, they are forced to flee from your “watan” (country) for safety reasons as US led coalition keep on shelling village where they expected to find talibans or Al-Qaeda fighters but they hit murdered civils raising the toll fatality.