(Note–This is a re-post of some material I had to take down due to formatting issues that happened after I posted photos of Pres. Bush patting the ass of an Olympic volleyball player, will see about re-posting those photos, but wanted to get this back up first.)
What follows are several reports on the Russian/Georgian conflict that you won’t be getting form the mainstream press. In particular, as the 2nd missive below from Human Rights Watch reminds us, war and conflict are not merely ‘military’ actions, they impact the lives of innocent civilians the overwhelming number of whom are women and children.
Via e-mail from Women in Black:
Thank you for circulating the statement. It’s really terrible to see what’s going on in South Ossetia, and I am afraid that it will spill over to Abkhazia. It has turned now into a Russian -Georgian war. But before Russian military actually entered the territory of South Ossetia, Moscow was waiting for almost 24 hours, during which Georgian artillery and plains were sending the capital of South Ossetia to ruins. Almost 1600 people were killed in the shelling. Now it is being presented by the main stream media exclusively as Russia’s intervention and expansionist policy. I am no Russi’a advocate, as you know very well, but I have a question (rhetorical mainly): WHY nobody, particularly the US, did nothing to stop Georgians from exterminating the Ossetians? Even before the Russians intervened, the US refused to sign a declaration at the Security Council, calling on BOTH (Ossetian and Georgian sides) to stop hostilities. I have spoken on the phone to our colleague from South Ossetia, who managed to flee to the North , and she said that the Georgians put them in absolute hell. Civilians were under constant shelling for hours and hours. The city is completely in ruins. Georgia has been long trying to refocus the international attention on her relations with Russia, and was claiming that the main source of trouble is Russia. It’s true, that Russia is doing everything to prevent Georgia from joining NATO, but this has NOTHING to do with Georgian-Abkhaz, or Georgian-South Ossetian conflicts, which have longer histories. Our problem is, that Georgia has the US as its ally and chief supporter, and Georgia understands very well, that if one positions oneself as Russia’s victim, you will get endless dividends from the West.
Regards to everybody,Liana Kvarchelia
Centre for Humanitarian Programmes
Sukhum, Republic of Abkhazia
e-mail: lkvarchelia @ yahoo.comStatement by Non-governmental Organizations of Abkhazia
Civil society in Abkhazia is appalled at the tragic events in South Ossetia that are developing before the very eyes of the international community as the entire population of South Ossetia have actually become a target for a massive attack from the Georgian army. Georgia has violated all previous agreements, as well as principles of international and humanitarian law.
Despite declarations about adherence to exclusively peaceful ways of conflict resolution, the Georgian leadership has now taken a treacherous decision to start military operations against the people of South Ossetia. Hundreds of civilians are dead and wounded, the hospital, schools accommodation blocks in Tskhinval have been destroyed. Barbaric shelling of the civilian population testifies to a gross transgression by Georgia of human rights and has caused a desperate humanitarian disaster across the whole of South Ossetia.
One can hardly call Georgia’s recent actions spontaneous. They are a deliberate fulfilment of Tbilisi’s plans to undermine the existing negotiation and peacekeeping formats. In his recent interviews the State Minister of Georgia Temur Jacobashvili has spoken openly about Georgia’s intention to liquidate these formats.
By repeatedly declaring its commitment to a peaceful resolution Georgia is attempting to mislead the international community about its true intentions. It must be obvious that Tbilisi has embarked on the path of a resolution of conflicts by force of arms. In light of this the so called ‘peace initiatives” by Saakshvili are perceived in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as nothing other than a screen to mask Georgia’ s goals, which are far from peaceful.
We cannot but be concerned by the fact that at a time when so much attention from the international community is focused on our region, and just after the visits to Tbilisi of highly placed officials from world powers, Georgia has permitted itself yet again to resort to military force to attain its goals. This demonstrates that too often Tbilisi succeeds in avoiding having to take responsibility for its criminal actions, which destabilize the situation in the Caucasus and place under threat the lives of thousands of people.
In the current situation we expect from the international community, from all countries and organizations involved in the resolution process an unambiguous assessment of the actions of Georgia. We consider that the international community is well placed and obliged to use all levers at its disposal to put a stop to Georgian aggression, if it so wishes.
Center for Humanitarian Programs
The Sukhum Youth House
The Sukhum media Club
Association “Inva-Sodeistviye”
Women’s Association of Abkhazia
The Gagra Center for the support of civic initiatives
The Youth Initiative of Tquarchal
The Ochamchira Youth House
The Association of Business Women
The Civic Initiative Foundation
The Pitsunda Youth Association
And from Human Rights Watch:
“Human Rights Watch visited a camp for the displaced in the village of Alagir and interviewed more than a dozen individuals, including those from Tskhinvali and neighboring villages. Those from the city reported spending more than three days in the basements of their houses, unable to come out because of the incessant shelling. Two individuals from Tskhinvali – a mother and her pregnant daughter – said their apartment building was severely damaged by shells and they only dared to come out of the basement on the fourth day, early in the morning of August 10, when Russian troops took full control of the city and started transporting local residents to a safe zone. They said the convoy consisted of six buses (about 27 people each), escorted by the military to the safety zone.
Residents of Satikhar village told Human Rights Watch that after the village came under heavy artillery fire on the night of August 7, all women, children and elderly (more than 100 people) started fleeing their homes; most of them spent the next two days hiding in the woods and then trying to make their way toward the Russian border. They were assisted by the Russian military in the village of Ger and transported to North Ossetia.
Many families were separated while fleeing the fighting in South Ossetia, and to date they have not been able to obtain any information as to the fate and whereabouts of their relatives whom they left behind.
One elderly man told Human Rights Watch:
“I’ve never heard such heavy shelling in my life. For the first two days, I was hiding in the basement with my family. Finally, I tried to step outside. As I was outside, a shell hit the roof of the house. I fell to the ground and tried to bury myself under a tree. At that point, another shell hit the ground not far to me – I got my leg hurt by the fragments. I was so scared – I just started running away and left my family behind. Now no one can tell me what happened to my two sons, my daughter, and my two grandchildren. No one knows where they are.””
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