South Ossetia
Thursday 14 August 2008
On Thursday 14 August 2008 the President of the unrecognized republic of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, told a news conference in Moscow that only Russian peacekeepers will be stationed in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. He stated that no Georgian peacekeepers "who did not just flee, but shot basely and treacherously their Russian and Ossetian colleagues in their backs" will be admitted to South Ossetia. According to Kokoity, President Dmitry Medvedev and South Ossetian and Abkhazian leaders had agreed that as the situation had changed, the security zone would have to be reconsidered as well. As for the participation of the international community, the republics are prepared to discuss only possible observer missions with the OSCE, the EU and other organizations. The observer missions will not be allowed to enter South Ossetia, and will be monitoring on Georgia's territory.
On Thursday 14 August 2008 a new round of explosions was heard near Gori, just after Russian leaders said they were pulling out of the Georgian city, which has become a focal point in the conflict over the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgian leaders said Russian forces had "changed their minds" about withdrawing, and instead sent in additional troops to Gori, and returned to the Georgian port of Poti. The explosions and smoke seen billowing near the Georgian city of Gori came as Russian and Georgian leaders painted very different pictures of the scene. The Georgian city of 50,000 lies just south of South Ossetia, the separatist province where much of the fighting has taken place. Western media reports said on Thursday morning that irregular paramilitary groups tagging behind regular Russian forces had engaged in "looting, burning, murdering and rape" in Georgia.
Russian military officials said their troops were told not to enter Gori anymore. Russian Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov, a deputy commander with the Russian airborne troops, said he himself gave that command. Borisov said that Georgian police will start working to carry out their normal functions, and that reports of the city being destroyed are wrong. He said he had just been to the city and the buildings were in "normal condition," and that electricity and water were flowing.
The Georgian police failed to enter into Gori so far, despite earlier agreement with the Russian forces to allow them inside the town on August 14. Georgian police vehicles were lined up outside Gori, an eyewitness said, and there are talks underway between the Georgian official representatives and Russian military officials.
President Medvedev called on Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia to remain there as a deterrent to possible attacks by Georgia. At a meeting with army officers who were involved in the fighting, he said that the current goal is to maintain the ceasefire and ensure the withdrawal of Georgian troops. Medvedev said that the situation in South Ossetia continues to be very difficult. "In such conditions we have to keep our peacekeeping contingent in constant readiness. This will be a clear constraining factor for the Georgian side and a necessary condition for overcoming the future humanitarian catastrophe”.
Wednesday 13 August 2008
Georgia said dozens of Russian tanks rolled into a strategic city and seized a military base, violating an EU-mediated agreement to end a six-day conflict. Russia said some of its soldiers went into the Georgian city of Gori, but denied the report of tanks. Russia and Georgia agreed to the cease-fire plan after French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Tuesday 12 August 2008 with leaders in Moscow and Tblisi.
But Georgian officials said dozens of tanks were heading into Gori, a town that Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russia pummeled in the attacks. "As I speak the Russian tanks are attacking the town of Gori and are rampaging through the town," he said. The city of 50,000 people sits on Georgia's only significant east-west road about 15 miles south of South Ossetia, the separatist province where much of the fighting has taken place. Russian officials said they have no military forces in Gori, but some Russians went into the city to try to implement the truce with local Georgian officials. A Russian commander said Georgian troops had been slow to withdraw from the front lines.
Around midday, Reuters quoted eyewitnesses as saying that Russian troops had set up at least two checkpoints on the outskirts of the Gori in what Georgia said was a breach of a cease-fire. One eyewitness said the troops had advanced south from South Ossetia to occupy an abandoned Georgian artillery base some 4-5 kilometers from downtown Gori. Andrei Nesterenko, an official spokesman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, stressed that Russian reinforcement units were still near the town of Gori, and were not moving anywhere as they were preoccupied with a serious problem. They found a large abandoned stockpile of munitions and combat equipment near Gori. It would be wrong to leave it as is, and the troops are taking steps to dismantle the munitions so that they could do no harm to the civilian population.
Subsequent reports suggested a convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles had left Gori and was traveling on the road to Tbilisi, but Russian news reports said they were headed to an abandoned Georgian arsenal outside Gori. Reports that an armed column of Russian troops was proceeding on a major route from Gori toward Tbilisi have been dismissed by Georgian authorities. "I'd like to calm everybody down," Deputy Foreign Minister Ekaterine Zguladze told a news conference. "The Russian military is not advancing towards the capital."
Tuesday 12 August 2008
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered an end to military action in Georgia. Russian military officials say they will not move their troops or peacekeepers from their current positions. "I have made a decision to end the operation to force the Georgian authorities to peace. The goals of the operation have been achieved," he said at the Kremlin. "The safety of our peacekeeping forces and the civilian population has been established. The aggressor has been punished and has suffered significant losses. Its armed forces are disorganized. Nevertheless, if there are little pockets of opposition and other aggressive manifestations, we will make a decision to liquidate them."
Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told Reuters just after Medvedev's announcement that Tbilisi needs more evidence to confirm that military operations have ended, and remains "prepared for everything. ... Everyone in this situation needs a signed binding agreement." Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, whose country currently chairs the OSCE, said on August 11 that the Georgian government had signed a cease-fire proposal worked out by the OSCE and EU, and was "carefully optimistic" that Russia would agree to the plan to end fighting in South Ossetia. Georgian officials said that different locations throughout the country were being targeted by Russian bombing raids.
These announcements came after Tuesday's bombing of the Georgian town of Gori by Russian aircraft. Just hours before the Russian president spoke, Tbilisi said Russia carried out an aerial bombardment of the government offices and an outdoor market in the city of Gori, killing six people including a child and a Dutch journalist. According to media reports, Gori's post office and university were on fire and the town was all but deserted on August 12. Russian officials denied that Russian forces bombed Gori. Georgian officials remained wary, claiming that Russian forces bombed the eastern towns of Kareli and Ruisi even after Medvedev's announcement. The government's claim was confirmed by an RFE/RL correspondent in the area.
Russian Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, told reporters in Moscow that Russian troops "will continue carrying out their tasks" while remaining at the same locations they were at the time when this order was issued. "While we have received the order to cease fire," Nogovitsyn said, "this does not mean we have ceased all actions, particularly our intelligence activities and so on. That would be simply unreasonable. We are trying to keep the situation under control and, most importantly, we are waiting for Georgia's official reaction."
Moscow denied Georgia's assertion that Russian troops were moving in on the capital Tbilisi. The allegation was made by Georgia's Ministry of Defence. At the same time, Russia's intelligence services had not registered any withdrawal of Georgian troops from the military conflict zone in South Ossetia. According to Deputy Chief of General Staff of Russia's Armed Forced Anatoly Nogovitsyn, even if Georgian troops have been ordered to pull out of the territory controlled by the peacekeeping mission, there are still no signs of withdrawal.
Medvedev met in Moscow with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current president of the European Union. Medvedev told Sarkozy it is now time to discuss the "final resolution" of the crisis, if two conditions are met. "First," he said, "all Georgian troops must return to their original positions and these military formations must be partially demilitarized. Our second condition is the signing of a legally binding document on the nonuse of force."
In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice followed the day's developments by urging Russia and Georgia to end hostilities, saying progress apparently had been made toward a cease-fire but that it was important that all parties stop fighting. "I believe that they believe that they have made some progress, and we welcome that and we certainly welcome the EU mediation," Rice told reporters at the White House after briefing President George W. Bush on French-led European Union efforts to mediate with Russia. "It is very important now that all parties cease fire," Rice said. "The Georgians have agreed to a cease-fire. The Russians need to stop their military operations as they have apparently said that they will, but those military operations really do now need to stop."
This came amid reports that some 100,000 people had been uprooted by the fighting. Government sources suggested that some 100,000 people have been uprooted by the ongoing conflict. Up to 12,000 people could be displaced within South Ossetia, local authorities said. Russian officials in North Ossetia indicated that there are some 30,000 people from South Ossetia now in the Russian Federation. Georgian authorities reported that several thousand people have fled from South Ossetia into Georgia proper. There were also reports of population movements within Georgia proper. In Gori, just south of South Ossetia, local officials told a visiting UNHCR team on Sunday 10 August 2008 that up to 80 percent of the population – some 56,000 people – had left. They said most had gone towards Tbilisi but would return once the threat eased.
The Regnum news agency reported that Georgian troops had burned down a 10th century Orthodox church while terrified civilians perished inside. The agency quoted eyewitness accounts of the atrocity after all-out fighting in Khetagurovo, a small village near the republic’s capital Tskhinvali. Almost all of those fighting to defend the village were said to have been killed, but the report says the fate of others, mostly women and the elderly, turned out to be even more horrible. Eyewitnesses were said to have reported that Georgian tanks literally ran people down and that soldiers took almost all the women to another location. Their fate is still unknown.
Sergei Lavrov, speaking at a joint news conference with Finland's foreign minister in Moscow, highlighted the severity of the crimes committed by Georgian forces in their attack on South Ossetia, and said Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili can no longer be considered a partner. "The best thing would be for him to resign," Lavrov said, while stressing that Russia has "no plans to force anyone from power - this is not in our political culture at all. ..." Lavrov said, "We are not making it a condition for ceasing the current stage of military operations, but for the personal information of U.S. leaders, our position is that Mr. Saakashvili can no longer be our partner and it would be best for him to go."
"The fact that with his barbaric acts in South Ossetia, he [Saakashvili] has undermined the viability of the Georgian state, shows the Ossetian and Abkhaz peoples that they will not be safe together with Georgia," Lavrov said. "The crimes committed by the Tbilisi regime in South Ossetia merit investigation at an international tribunal," he said. Saakashvili "has killed our [Russian] citizens, ordered the crushing of women and children by tanks, and the burning alive of a group of girls herded into a cattle shed. And not only did he do all this on the background of European flags, but he declared that he was safeguarding American values," Lavrov said.
Lavrov said: "Russia supports the OSCE and EU line that a ceasefire agreement is absolutely essential, but we have questions over several points," in particular a stipulation that the peacekeeping format revert to the setup before August 7. "We can hardly agree to this, as it implies that Georgian so-called peacekeepers should be in South Ossetia... Georgian peacekeepers cannot be there. They committed crimes, shooting their own [Russian] colleagues, with whom they were serving."
Sergei Lavrov reiterated Russia's calls for an international war crimes trial for the Georgian leadership, which he said still poses a threat to Georgia's other rebel region, Abkhazia. The Russian position seems to be that Georgia's troop pullout from South Ossetia will not restore the status quo in the region because thousands of lives in Ossetia have already been lost. Hence, a troop withdrawal will not be enough. Georgia will have to be punished, most likely, by some international tribunal. Russian ombudsman Vladimir Lukin is the only official to have voiced it on the record.
Just before the Russian president's action, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the only way to end the conflict is for Georgia to withdraw from South Ossetia. Lavrov, spoke out against Georgia at a joint news conference with the Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb. He called for crimes committed by the Georgian military in South Ossetia to be investigated by the international tribunal in The Hague. Lavrov accused Georgian peacekeepers of firing on their Russian counterparts and believes they shouldn't be allowed back into the region. “They have discredited the status of peacekeepers,” he said. “They have committed a crime - shooting at their companions with whom they have been serving in a joint peacekeeping force. One can’t discuss the possibility of any form of Georgian military presence in South Ossetia.”
France's proposals for a peace plan, which also included a Georgian peacekeeping presence in South Ossetia, were rejected by Russia at the United Nations Security Council on Monday. A fifth meeting of the UN Security Council ended in no decision made on the conflict in South Ossetia. The French side had prepared a draft resolution which is expected to be presented for consideration of the UN Security Council members in the nearest future. France says this resolution is going to be simple and straightforward, and will include four basic elements: an immediate cessation of hostilities, returning to the status quo which existed before violence escalated on August 6, respect for Georgia's integrity and international help in finding a solution. Georgia says it is completely happy with the principles outlined in France's draft resolution while Russia is not.
After the meeting Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin has commented to the media on Russia’s stance. “The French draft is lacking a number of serious matters of principle: there is no principle qualification of what has happened in South Ossetia, no reference to Georgian aggression, no reference to the atrocities we have seen. You mentioned pulling out Russian forces as a gesture of our good will – it has nothing to do with good will! It has everything to do with the survival of South Ossetians! You should understand the situation: there is a small people exposed to possible attacks from Georgia. They are clearly outnumbered by the Georgian forces and worse equipped. So we pull out our forces, and what if the Georgians launch an attack again?” Churkin said.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili announced his country is to leave the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an alliance of former Soviet republics. Saakashvili made the announcement during a rally in the capital Tbilisi. In his speech he called on other countries in the union to leave the organisation. "We have decided that Georgia will leave the CIS,” he said. “We urge Ukraine and other countries to also leave the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is dominated by Russia".
NATO said its April 2008 summit pledge that Georgia will one day become a member of the alliance still stands, despite fighting with Russia over the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.
Some of the strongest language has come from global broadcaster Russia Today, the Kremlin-controlled English-language satellite channel, which has run its coverage of the crisis under giant captions reading "genocide" and "devastation. Russian media coverage is taking its cue from the rhetoric of Russian officials like UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin and President Dmitry Medvedev, who have branded Georgia's offensive as genocide. Russian news coverage has featured nearly nonstop footage of shelled-out buildings, wounded civilians, and sobbing South Ossetian children.
There was a virtual blackout of information on Russian TV about attacks by Russian forces on targets in Georgia, including bombs dropped in the vicinity of the capital city, Tbilisi. Instead, Russian viewers have been shown horrific scenes of destruction in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, as well as interviews with distraught refugees. They relate stories of Georgian troops throwing grenades or running over civilians with tanks, and deliberately flooding basements to force women and children out of safe havens.
William Dunbar is a British citizen who worked as Tbilisi correspondent for Russia Today, Moscow's international English-language television service. Dunbar resigned his position Saturday when the broadcaster refused to air his reports after he informed viewers on live TV that Russian warplanes had bombed the central Georgian city of Gori. "I felt that I could no longer work for them because there was no real way that I could be able to report the facts, and they did not really want to know what was really going on in Georgia if it did not sort of fit with the agenda that they were trying to put out," Dunbar said.
A top Russian diplomat accused foreign media of pro-Georgian bias in their coverage of the ongoing conflict between Georgia and Russia over breakaway South Ossetia. "We want television screens in the West to be showing not only Russian tanks, and texts saying Russia is at war in South Ossetia and with Georgia, but also to be showing the suffering of the Ossetian people, the murdered elderly people and children, the destroyed towns of South Ossetia, and [regional capital] Tskhinvali. This would be an objective way of presenting the material," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a RIA Novosti news conference.
Georgian media has appeared heavily one-sided. Russian troops have been characterized as invaders who seek to snuff out Georgian democracy and independence. They have been compared to brutal Soviet invaders of Hungary in 1956 or Czechoslovakia in 1968. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili underscores his country's plight in numerous interviews with international media, which has prompted a charge from Russia that western journalists favor the Georgian side.
