Thousands of people fled their republic after Tbilisi attacked South Ossetia on August 8 in an attempt to regain control over the republic, which split from Georgia in the early 1990s. A number of Russian peacekeepers and a reported 1,600 South Ossetian residents lost their lives during the conflict.
"Some 33,400 refugees were registered during the August events and currently their number stands at 1,043," said Svetlana Gannushkina, an executive member of the Memorial human rights group.
She added that most of the refugees still in North Ossetia were children and elderly people, who either have friends or relatives in the Russian republic.
Russia's five-day operation to "force Georgia to accept peace" in response to Tbilisi's attack was called disproportionate by a number of Western countries, and Russia drew further criticism when on August 26 it recognized South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian republic, as independent states.
