Sunday, August 10, 2008
after-georgian-attack-sossetia-chinvali
After georgian military left Tskinvali
S.Ossetians hiding from Georgian attackers
In the hospital basement. S.Ossetians hiding from georgian military
source: © AP Photo/Scanpix,
© Reuters/Scanpix - Denis Sinyakov (http://www.denissinyakov.com/)
S.Ossetians hiding from Georgian attackers
In the hospital basement. S.Ossetians hiding from georgian military
source: © AP Photo/Scanpix,
© Reuters/Scanpix - Denis Sinyakov (http://www.denissinyakov.com/)
Russia points to media bias in coverage of S.Ossetia conflict
"Russia says Georgian forces have killed around 2,000 South Ossetian civilians, mainly Russian nationals, in attacks that began on Friday, and that 34,000 locals have been forced to flee to Russia. In response to the Georgian offensive, Russia sent tanks and troops into the province, and carried out a series of air strikes on Georgian military targets.
"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.
Current Western media coverage of the events in the separatist republic is "a politically motivated version, to put it mildly," he said.
The United States, Georgia's key ally, has called Russia's strikes on Georgian territory "dangerous and disproportionate," and warned that they could harm relations with Washington in the long-term. Georgia said on Friday that 300 of its citizens had been killed, mainly civilians, by Russian forces.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier called Russia's actions "absolutely justified and legitimate from the legal standpoint," and accused Georgia of "full-scale genocide."
At the premier's meeting with South Ossetian refugees at a makeshift hospital camp in Russia's North Ossetia on Saturday, eyewitnesses described atrocities committed by Georgian troops, including an incident where a group of local young women were rounded up and burned alive, and killings of old people and children.
Karasin said on Saturday that the country may ask the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights to investigate war crimes committed by Georgia.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said on Sunday that Georgian forces had fully withdrawn from the separatist province.
However, a spokesman for the peacekeeping command told RIA Novosti: "This statement is a lie, just like [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili's statement on the impossibility of using military force in conflict zones."
Russia has also denied bombing Georgian towns.
"The Georgian side has named some nearby populated areas and towns, saying they are being bombed by the Russian Air Force. I take full responsibility in saying that the Russian side did not bomb any populated area," Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, told a news briefing on Sunday"
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080810/115936076.html
"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.
Current Western media coverage of the events in the separatist republic is "a politically motivated version, to put it mildly," he said.
The United States, Georgia's key ally, has called Russia's strikes on Georgian territory "dangerous and disproportionate," and warned that they could harm relations with Washington in the long-term. Georgia said on Friday that 300 of its citizens had been killed, mainly civilians, by Russian forces.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin earlier called Russia's actions "absolutely justified and legitimate from the legal standpoint," and accused Georgia of "full-scale genocide."
At the premier's meeting with South Ossetian refugees at a makeshift hospital camp in Russia's North Ossetia on Saturday, eyewitnesses described atrocities committed by Georgian troops, including an incident where a group of local young women were rounded up and burned alive, and killings of old people and children.
Karasin said on Saturday that the country may ask the International Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights to investigate war crimes committed by Georgia.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said on Sunday that Georgian forces had fully withdrawn from the separatist province.
However, a spokesman for the peacekeeping command told RIA Novosti: "This statement is a lie, just like [Georgian President Mikheil] Saakashvili's statement on the impossibility of using military force in conflict zones."
Russia has also denied bombing Georgian towns.
"The Georgian side has named some nearby populated areas and towns, saying they are being bombed by the Russian Air Force. I take full responsibility in saying that the Russian side did not bomb any populated area," Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, told a news briefing on Sunday"
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080810/115936076.html
Russia's involvement in the conflict. South Ossetia
"Russia's involvement in the conflict is indeed completely legal and actually mandatory according to international agreements between Georgia, Russia and South Ossetia.
I suppose this may indeed come as a surprise to many of you. In accordance with international agreements, including the agreement of 1999 between Georgia and South Ossetia's separatists, Russia does not only execute peacemaking functions, but is obliged, in case one party breaks the cease-fire agreement, to defend the other party, which is exactly what we are doing in case with South Ossetia. What I find really striking is that this piece of information gets censored in Western 'free' media and is never reported.
Another point I would like to make is about the right of some nations such as Georgia to exert their right to be independent but others like Ossetia to be deprived of it. In the former USSR, some nations had the status of 'republics' and in legal terms were equal to Russia (e.g. Georgia, Ukraine, etc.). However, others such as North Ossetia and South Ossetia were autonomous republics within Russia and Georgia respectively. It was a system created by Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and persisted until the breakup of the Soviet Union. What bewilders me is that all the freedom and democracy loving Canadians who probably abhor Stalin use Stalin's criterion of determining which nations have a right to form independent counties and which other do not.
By the way, why are democratic leaders in North America and Western Europe covering up for crimes against humanity and possibly genocide committed by the Georgian government? Does anyone realize that in a single day about 1,400 people have died, a number that constitutes 2 % of its entire population and about 30,000 since Thursday have fled South Ossetia (roughly 45 % of the population)? "
source: georgi81
I suppose this may indeed come as a surprise to many of you. In accordance with international agreements, including the agreement of 1999 between Georgia and South Ossetia's separatists, Russia does not only execute peacemaking functions, but is obliged, in case one party breaks the cease-fire agreement, to defend the other party, which is exactly what we are doing in case with South Ossetia. What I find really striking is that this piece of information gets censored in Western 'free' media and is never reported.
Another point I would like to make is about the right of some nations such as Georgia to exert their right to be independent but others like Ossetia to be deprived of it. In the former USSR, some nations had the status of 'republics' and in legal terms were equal to Russia (e.g. Georgia, Ukraine, etc.). However, others such as North Ossetia and South Ossetia were autonomous republics within Russia and Georgia respectively. It was a system created by Joseph Stalin in the 1920s and persisted until the breakup of the Soviet Union. What bewilders me is that all the freedom and democracy loving Canadians who probably abhor Stalin use Stalin's criterion of determining which nations have a right to form independent counties and which other do not.
By the way, why are democratic leaders in North America and Western Europe covering up for crimes against humanity and possibly genocide committed by the Georgian government? Does anyone realize that in a single day about 1,400 people have died, a number that constitutes 2 % of its entire population and about 30,000 since Thursday have fled South Ossetia (roughly 45 % of the population)? "
source: georgi81
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