By Matt Robinson and Margarita Antidze
ERGNETI, Georgia (Reuters) - Thousands of Georgians made homeless by the August war with Russia over breakaway South Ossetia watch anxiously the approach of winter, marked by snow on the mountains and yellowing leaves on the poplar trees.
There is little hope in the near future of returning more than 20,000 refugees who fled villages within South Ossetia during the five-day war, and the government says 3,000 homes on the Georgian side of the de facto border need rebuilding.
Almost every house in Ergneti, on the boundary and in view of the separatist capital Tskhinvali, was destroyed as Russian forces expelled Georgian troops trying to take control of South Ossetia and swept into Georgia proper.
Villagers, returning after the Russian withdrawal, come by bus to till the fields and pick the fruit in their orchards before winter strikes, and go back to temporary shelter. They put little faith in official pledges of help for reconstruction.
Tamaz Jokhadze's home in Ergneti remains a shell. Fire buckled the roof and blackened the walls, and even the gates were stolen, he said.
"Some officials came about two weeks ago, took some measurements and left. We haven't heard anything since," said Jokhadze, 52.
More than 20,000 Georgians have poured into this border region since Russian troops and tanks pulled back, many finding their homes looted, their orchards heavy with unpicked fruit.
A tent camp run by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) near South Ossetia has been dismantled ahead of winter, but refugees remain in kindergartens and disused public buildings in the Georgian capital and the once frontline town of Gori.
The UNHCR estimates that 78,000 of 133,000 displaced people registered by Georgia have returned to their homes.
The government hopes within days to rehouse many of the rest in row upon row of identical houses springing up in improvised settlements on the road south from Gori.
NEW HOMES BY WINTER
President Mikheil Saakashvili's pro-western government, stung by domestic criticism but backed by billions of dollars in international donations, says 6,000 new homes will provide shelter from the harsh Caucasus winter.
Work continues day and night, and there is a sense of permanence to the villages. Their new residents are unwelcome in South Ossetia, now recognized by the Kremlin and secured by Russian troops.
Georgia's refugee minister-designate, Koba Subeliani, said the government was obliged to offer decent shelter.
"It's not about keeping them in these houses forever," he told Reuters. "Our main task is to restore our territorial integrity, and one day they will go back to their homes."
Moscow, accused by the West of a "disproportionate" response to the Georgian attack, says its hand was forced by heavy Georgian shelling of Tskhinvali that put some 30,000 South Ossetians to flight.
The UNHCR says the vast majority have returned, but reconstruction continues there too.
Georgia's last refugee influx was in the early 1990s, when South Ossetia and Georgia's other rebel region, Abkhazia, threw off Tbilisi's rule and tens of thousands of Georgians fled.
In Ergneti, there is no sign of repairs or rebuilding.
A spokeswoman for the regional governor said a damage assessment had been done and renovation would start "within a couple of weeks."
Some residents say they feel insulted by the government offer of $15,000 (9,154 pounds) compensation. "Saakashvili should resign, look what he's done," said a woman dressed in black. "He's not interested in our problems," she said.
With patriotic fervour dwindling, Saakashvili is coming under attack from opposition leaders who accuse him of dragging Georgia into a war it could not win, making thousands of people homeless and putting off much-needed foreign investors.
Saakashvili says he was defending Georgia from a Russian invasion and Georgian villages from separatist shelling.
In Ergneti, Georgian police in camouflage uniforms and sunglasses kick the dirt and eye Tskhinvali through binoculars.
Unarmed European Union monitors observe the cease-fire, but rumours are rife of kidnappings and firefights. Uncertainty eats at the confidence of those who would like to rebuild.
"The other villagers are all talking about another war," said Jokhadze, "so what's the point?"
(Editing by Tim Pearce)
