The population of South Ossetia is about 85 thousand, Ossetins - about 67 %, Georgians - about 25 %, other nationalities - about 7 % (2003). About 40 thousand refugees from South Ossetia are now in the North Ossetia. The 95 % of the population have the Russian citizenship, including the considerable part of the Georgian population of the South Ossetia has both Georgian and the Russian citizenship.
Georgia did not control South Ossetia for 14 years. Georgia wanted to kill the Ossetins in Ossetia before the world community could react to this. After Georgia was through with the killing of Ossetins, it would have the territory inhabited only by Georgians and the rest of the world could only "express the regrets" and nobody could ressurect dead Ossetins.