Europe's top human rights official has arrived in war-ravaged South Ossetia on a fact-finding mission. Commissioner Thomas Hammarberg from the Council of Europe Human is being accompanied by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Lukin. They say their goal is to gather evidence from all sides and to compile a report on their findings.

Thomas Hammarberg said: "I know that human rights were violated during the conflict."

"I'm not going to involve myself in politics", he said. "I am only here to look at the human rights situation and come up with recommendations on how these rights can be protected in the future. Our report will be objective and impartial". 

To watch the interview withThomas Hammarberg, please follow the link. 

Vladimir Lukin added: "Many people had their rights violated, including the primary right to life, to housing, and so on. And this issue requires much attention so we've come to find out what happened from that perspective."

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, said the scale of damage inflicted on Tskhinvali is overwhelming. He spent two days visiting refugee shelters in North Ossetia and the devastated neighbouring South Ossetia and praised the efforts of Russia's Emergencies Ministry in dealing with the humanitarian crisis in the region.