Roses in the Ruins

In the frontline village of Ergneti, red and white roses bloom next to the smoke-blackened shells of what were once people's homes.

Nearby, at a fortified checkpoint, Georgian interior ministry forces stand almost face to face with their Russian and South Ossetian enemies.

The opposing sides' flags have been raised just metres from each other; a symbolic reminder of a political stand-off which remains highly volatile more than ten months after last year's war.

Apart from birdsong, the only sound comes from the engines of armoured vehicles and the bomb-shredded metal roofs of houses creaking gently in the summer breeze.

"At night it's terrible, because you can hear all the burnt metal rattling in the wind," says a Georgian farmer who was sitting next to the ruins of his home.

Like tens of thousands of others, Jemal Doijashvili and his family (pictured above) fled during the war, but later returned to live in the only undamaged room in their shell-scarred house.

They have no water, no electricity and no work, but Jemal offered green plums from his orchard as he took refuge from the midday heat beneath the shattered remnants of an ornate staircase.

Read the rest of my report for Al Jazeera on the fears raised by the impending departure of international monitoring missions from Georgia's conflict zones here.