Ossetian Perspective: witness account

A witness account of Georgian aggression in Tskhinvali, August 7th. Light on the direct facts and figures, it is nontheless a heart-wrenching personal account from an Ossetian civilian in the middle of the conflict, a voice that has been underrepresented in the English speaking media.



The following op-ed is online and will be published in the Oct. 8th edition of the Christian Science Monitor.

OPINION
I survived the Georgian war. Here's what I saw.
Lira Tskhovrebova
872 words
8 October 2008
The Christian Science Monitor
ALL
9
English
© 2008 Christian Science Monitor. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved.

In a speech before the United Nations last month, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili implored world leaders to set up an international investigation to find out the truth about the war in South Ossetia.

I couldn't agree more. But I think the results of an honest investigation would reveal a very different "truth" than what President Saakashvili claims.

I know this because I was in Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, on Aug. 7 when Georgian troops marched into the city and killed my friends and neighbors. I huddled with my family in terror for three nights while Saakashvili's tanks and rockets destroyed hundreds of our homes, desecrated cemeteries, gutted schools and hospitals.

I also have good reason not to trust what Saakashvili says. For three days before the attack I had been getting calls from many Georgian friends warning me to get out. They said Saakashvili was planning an attack. Most of the Georgians living in South Ossetia left because they knew what was coming.

On the night of Aug. 7, Saakashvili went on television and assured the frightened civilian population of South Ossetia that he would not attack us. This was long after the time Saakashvili now claims Russians had begun "invading" Georgia.

Ossetians went to bed relieved and thankful for a peaceful night.

Less than two hours later, according to credible international accounts, his artillery, bombers, and three brigades of ground troops unleashed what I can only describe as a fierce hell on our city. In the moment, we knew only our fear as we hid. Afterward I spoke with hundreds of Ossetians to find out what was done to us.

My friend's elderly father tried to douse the flames set by Georgian fire on the home he had built with his hands. His leg was severed by shrapnel from Georgian weapons. He bled to death while his disabled wife crawled from their burning home.

Ossetians saw Georgian tanks firing into basements where women and children hid for safety They saw fleeing families shot down by Georgian snipers. We learned that the Georgian military had used Grad rocket systems and cluster bombs against Tskhinvali.

Yes, I would very much like to see an international commission investigate the truth of what happened.

When I came out from hiding, thanking God that the Russians had saved our lives, I was dismayed by the reaction of the international media to what had happened. There was nothing about Ossetian deaths and the unprovoked horrors inflicted by Saakashvili's military. It made my heart sick.

The truth has been crushed by Georgia's powerful public relations machine as mercilessly as Georgian tanks rolled over the defenseless civilians of Tskhinvali.

I know that Americans are a generous and fair people. But Americans haven't been told the truth about what happened to us. Americans don't understand that Ossetians are an independent, Christian Orthodox people with a deep history in our land. The world talks only about Georgian freedom. What of freedom for my people? Does our suffering, do our voices, mean nothing?

I don't blame the Georgian people for what happened to us. The vast number of Ossetians and Georgians want to live in peace. I blame Georgia's leaders.

Saakashvili has persuaded the world that he is a "beacon" of democracy and openness. But he won't even tell his own people the truth. My Georgian friends weren't allowed to see any Russian news sites during the conflict because all of those sites were blocked by Saakashvili's government.

I know we are a small people, and I make no claim to understanding the experts in geopolitics with their theories and pronouncements about the great powers. But I have fought for women's rights in Ossetia for 12 years and I believe in the truth.

In a recent article, Saakashvili cynically dismissed Ossetian suffering and deaths because, he said, Russia had "lied" about how many of my people were killed by the Georgian military.

It breaks my heart to even engage in this discussion. No one - including Saakashvili - knows how many Ossetians were killed by his Army. I have friends who buried loved ones in their backyards because there were no alternatives. Many people are still missing.

Does Saakashvili believe his vicious attack on a civilian city was justified if he only killed a few hundred rather than a few thousand? Do Americans realize that a military trained and equipped by the US government attacked a civilian population as they slept in their beds? Can they justify sending another billion dollars to Georgia and nothing for those Georgia attacked?

I have made an urgent appeal to the world for humanitarian relief for our people at the website helpossetianow.org. I beg the United States and the world to find out the truth. Please hear our voices.

* Lira Tskhovrebova is the founder of the Association of South Ossetian Women for Democracy and Human Rights and has worked for more than a decade to improve relations between people of Georgian and Ossetian descent in the Caucasus.(c) Copyright 2008. The Christian Science Monitor

Russia increases army, starts rebuilding bases

Take a look at this sober report on Russia's intentions in Abkhazia and South Ossetia... and the ongoing Georgian Parliamentary investigation into the causes of the war.


The Jamestown Foundation
Eurasia Daily Monitor

October 30, 2008 — Volume 5, Issue 208
GEORGIAN OFFICIALS ADMIT THEY MISREAD RUSSIAN INTENTIONS

The State Duma unanimously ratified treaties with the Georgian breakaway regions
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia that will formalize military, diplomatic, and
economic ties and allow Moscow to deploy thousands of troops there. Russian
officials say that Abkhazia and South Ossetia may soon join the Union State of
Russia and Belarus, while Russian military bases in the separatist regions will
become an integral part of Russian defense organization (Interfax, October 29).

During the ratification procedures in the Duma, Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory
Karasin announced that Russia would deploy two army brigades "of approximately
3,800 men each" in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. According to Karasin, the
situation in the region continues to be tense, "with Georgian special forces
deploying close to Abkhazia and South Ossetia" (RIA-Novosti, October 29).
Abkhaz “foreign minister” Sergei Shamba has stated that the number of Russian
solders may in fact be bigger—"as much as is needed." Shamba confirmed that
Russian border guards would be stationed on the separation line with Georgia
and that the Abkhaz military would be integrated with the Russian armed forces.
Russia would provide training, weapons, and commanding officers (Nezavisimaya
Gazeta, October 30).

Additional Air Force and Naval units will be permanently stationed in Abkhazia
and South Ossetia. The Russian border guards, while being an armed force with
its own air force and navy, belong to the FSB security service; and their
deployment will be in excess of the announced 7,600-strong Russian army
contingent. The overall strength of Russian troops and Russian-lead local
separatist forces in Abkhazia and South Ossetia is estimated at over 30,000,
with hundreds of tanks and other armor, heavy guns, ships, and military
aircraft. Massive reinforcements may be sent in anytime from the north by
Moscow. These forces grossly outnumber and outgun the Georgian regular
military, but precise figures are unavailable, because of the typical Russian
obsession with secrecy and because foreign observers are not allowed unimpeded
access to inspect Abkhazia or South Ossetia.

While Russia is consolidating its control, a parliamentary commission in Tbilisi
began investigating the war with Russia in August. Georgian ministers and
military and security officials have testified, with part of the hearings
public and others behind closed doors for security reasons. There are no plans
to have any hearings in the Russian parliament or any other official public
investigation there of the events that led to war with Georgia in August.

The secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, Alexander Lomaia,
testified that Russia had used about a third of its combat-capable land forces
in the operation against Georgia, and "neither we nor any foreign intelligence
service had any information about Russia's expected full-scale invasion and
occupation of a large part of our territory; it was a shock and a surprise."
According to Lomaia, it was known that several thousand Russian troops were on
the border of South Ossetia during the Kavkaz-2008 military exercises and had
apparently begun moving in on August 7; but the Georgian leaders believed they
had enough troops to deal with such a force (Civil Georgia, October 28).
Apparently, the Georgians did not notice a statement by General Yuri Netkachev
that the number of troops involved in Kavkaz-2008 exercises (8,000) "was
officially underestimated" (Nezavisimaya Gazeta, July 18).

Georgian foreign intelligence service chief Gela Bezhuashvili testified, "We
were expecting that Russia would escalate tension in September, October, or in
November 2008." There was no information that Russia was planning an attack out
of Abkhazia to occupy Western Georgia (Civil Georgia, October 25). Apparently,
the Georgians did not take a statement by Shamba seriously—"It will take us two
days to go on the offensive into Western Georgia and create a security buffer
zone" (Kommersant, May 5).

Minister for Reintegration Temur Iakobashvili testified that on August 7 in
Tskhinvali the commander of the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia General
Marat Kulakhmetov had told him that they could not control the Ossetian forces;
they had deployed guns near his headquarters (Kommersant, October 28). Indeed
Kulakhmetov told Russian journalists that he needed more troops to control the
situation (RIA-Novosti, August 7). For the Russians this was a signal to begin
the invasion, while the Georgians may have considered this a tacit endorsement
of a limited operation against the "uncontrollable Ossetians."

The chief of staff of the Georgian armed forces Zaza Gogava testified that on
August 7 he was ordered by President Mikheil Saakashvili "to stop all types of
military forces coming into Georgia from Russia" and to suppress the firing
positions of the Ossetian separatists (Civil Georgia, October 28). The Georgian
forces moved in and only by August 10 understood the scope of the Russian
invasion. An overall retreat was ordered.

The massive invasion indeed caught the Georgians off guard and unprepared.
Russia, lead by former KGB spy Vladimir Putin, managed to cover its
preparations and intentions not only from the Georgians, but also from Western
governments and intelligence services.

—Pavel Felgenhauer

The Eurasia Daily Monitor is a publication of the Jamestown Foundation. The
opinions expressed in it are those of the individual authors and do not
necessarily represent those of the Jamestown Foundation. If you have any
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Burjanadze the Hammer!

In an open letter to the Georgian government and people, former Parliamentary speaker and twice interim president, Nino Burjanadze, has brought down the hammer.

Here she is on the freedom of media crisis (full article here):

"The situation, in which the Georgian TV stations are today, is unacceptable for the Georgian society; such situation indicates that the authorities are politically incapable and are scared of the truth. It is a shame that we have to speak about freedom of media on the fifth anniversary of the Rose Revolution and by that you have betrayed the hundreds of thousands of people, who stood beside you in November [2003] to protect that very same value.

Control of media outlets should be over unconditionally!

It needs a concrete decision rather than your words!"

Civil.ge "40,000 IDPs Can Return Home"

Georgian IDPs returning home... article here:

Around 40,000 people can return to their homes in the areas adjacent to breakaway South Ossetia following the Russian withdrawal, a senior Georgian official in charge of issues related with internally displaced persons, said on October 9.

MP Koba Subeliani from the ruling party, who is a former state minister for refugees and accommodation, said “only a few percent of houses are totally destroyed.”

“There are many houses that need repair and we will do that; it is not a very difficult task,” he told Tbilisi-based radio station Ucnobi FM by phone from the region.

“The damage [to houses] is less than we expected; we expected much more damage,” MP Subeliani added.

He also said that Georgian police were now responsible for security in the area, adding that it was now safe to return.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Refugees and Accommodation released a list of 52 villages where it said it was possible to return at this stage. It also said that the Tbilisi municipality had provided buses to ferry displaced persons to those villages.

People forced to flee Georgian villages inside the breakaway region will be provided with houses, which are currently under construction mainly in the Shida Kartli region sometime in December, MP Subeliani said.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said last month that about 22,000 internally displaced people from the Georgian villages inside South Ossetia and about 1,000 people who fled from upper Kodori Gorge in breakaway Abkhazia would be unable to return to their homes in “the foreseeable future.”

Scathing Remarks from the Public Defender

For a strong critique of the Saakashvili government from the Georgian Public Defender, Sozar Subari, take a look at this article.

Here is the beginning:

Actual Situation

As a result of Russian barbarian aggression, the situation in Georgia today has become extremely difficult. Many civilians and soldiers have been killed during the war in August and thousands of our fellow citizens have become victims of ethnic cleansing and have been forced to flee their homes, their property has been destroyed.

Notwithstanding optimistic statements made by the government, the severe reality is, that nobody knows, when they will be able to return to their homes. The population of nearby villages of the conflict zone is unprotected and is under constant threat to be killed, robbed and their homes burned down – numerous evidences of this are in place. Russian occupants have set up control posts in Abkhazia, Shida Kartli, Imereti and Samegrelo, where Georgian citizens are stopped and are restricted to travel, their documents are being checked, they are being searched and humiliated.

Notwithstanding the promise of Georgia’s President, that he would dedicate his presidency to the unification of Georgia, Ksani gorge – Akhalgori district, Kodori gorge – so called Zemo Apkhazeti, Didi and Patara Liakhvi gorges and Prone gorge have now been added to the list of already lost territories – in total around 100 Georgian villages.

The Georgian population of Akhalgori is forced to either accept South Ossetian or Russian citizenship or leave their homes. Cities have been bombed, people have been killed and the population has received terrible psychological trauma.

Speaking out the truth has become extremely important and vital especially today, when significant part of Georgian territory is occupied by Russia, as facing the truth can be the only solution for overcoming the crisis

Georgia’s defeat has been stipulated by the authoritarian rule in the country;