KEKHVI, Georgia: A chicken pecks at the charred corpse of man lying near a house that, like every other dwelling in Kekhvi, has been burned down.
Scenes of grotesque desolation mark this village in Georgia, yet it is a popular destination for at least one group: Looters in trucks and cars are still coming to take whatever they can find.
Most of Kekhvi's people fled as Russian troops advanced from the Moscow-backed separatist republic of South Ossetia into Georgia proper two weeks ago. The few who stayed now can do little but watch in fear as Ossetian men plunder the village, driven by opportunism and revenge.
"This is not looting, this is trophies," said Garik Meriyev, 32, a stubbled South Ossetian dressed in green camouflage pants, black baseball cap and dusty jackboots.
He and four other men in similar clothes loaded their yellow Russian-made minibus Saturday with metal pipes, timber and bricks taken from a burned down house.
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