Following are firsthand testimonies from an interview made by iviews.com with Dr. Shahid K. siddiqui, a cardiologist from Napa, CA who has recently returned from a humanitarian mission to the border of Georgia and Chechnya.

Refugees are in need of food and supplies. There's nothing there. It's basically rocks and extremely bitter cold. It's amazing. I don't know how a people would ever live there, even in non-military conditions. Most of the Georgians who live there vacate the region during wintertime. It just struck me how people could even survive there at that elevation and in that bitter cold without any natural resources.

Injured victims were a mix of both civilians and fighters - more civilians than fighters. And most victims' (injuries were the result of) Russian bombs and snipers, fewer (as a result of bullets).

Most of the injuries were quite disfiguring - dislocated limbs and dislocated bellies - pretty gothic. In my 14 years of medical training in the United states I had not seen so much as what I saw in those two days.

Most of these victims were brought in from central Chechnya and each one of them reported a travel journey anywhere from four days to three weeks. They were trapped, they were stopped in many spots due to security reasons, and they were basically transported in secret. And mind you, this whole time (they had) sustained injuries, bullets in place, broken limbs, and unhealed wounds. Bleeding continued and almost all of them appeared extremely anemic.

Every time I asked one injured victim, "How are you," the unanimous response was "Alhamdulillah" (Praise the Lord). It was just outstanding. I could not begin to tell you. They were in true pain because most of them had not even had any opportunity to see the doctor. There's no concept of anesthesia. At any twist or turn in the bed, they would moan. But when asked (how they were doing) they would say Alhamdulillah.

Each of the injured victims had a horror story to tell. Basically, most of them were victims of bombs and snipers and mines, they were all civilians, they were all walking around doing their own thing when they suddenly met their destiny.

When they (the injured) were brought to the local (Chechen) hospitals - this is a war in the happening, a war in transition - the hospitals themselves were unsafe. They had transferred most of their patients to the basement of the hospital and some hospitals were so overcrowded that the patients had to stay on teh first floor knowing tha they were at higher risk. And they continud to hear the bombing throughout the day and night.

The fighters, for unbelievable rasons, were extremely optimistic. In their minds it was a win/win situation no matter how you look at it, because they were fighting for a cause. They were not just fighting for a piece of land.

At the border, if feasible, (there should be) a transient medical care unit operated by Chechen doctors to temporarily stabilize victims before they an be transported farther down to Tbilisi. This medical care unit would have to be fully equipped with trauma and surgical care accessories and obviously with antibiotics and local anesthetics.