Leave Or Be Killed
Must have missed something there. Who is it now that's engaged in ethnic cleansing? Oh yes, the government of Georgia. We have it on good authority. Moscow tells us that, so it must be so. No, really. None other than Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin himself has spoken of Georgian troops committing such unspeakable atrocities as genocide, purposefully running their tanks over South Ossentian children.Which more than adequately explains Russia's outrage over Georgian President Saakashvili's decision to march on South Ossetia, to Tskhinvali, to reclaim the region as part of Georgia, when everyone knows the truth, that they are all Russian citizens. Their passports, surreptitiously handed out in the last few months, speak the truth. Russia had no option but to arouse itself to act for humanitarian purposes.
Yet, peculiarly, it would appear that foreign reporters claim the damage sustained in Tskhinvali was the result of the five-day barrage of missiles relating to Russian troops and Ossetians battling the Georgian forces. As for the unspeakable deaths of South Ossetians, numbering 2,000 unfortunate souls, the Tskhinvali Regional Hospital could officially confirm a count of 40 deaths.
The flattening of the town's entire civil infrastructure, its residential areas, as claimed by Russian official sources appears to have been the figment of someone's feverish imagination. If memory serves, that's old-fashioned inflated, inflammatory, bombastic, war-mongering hyper-propaganda. Fact is, however, the Kremlin knows the truth, when they speak of genocide and thousands of corpses littering the landscape.
The brutality of the Georgian government in dispatching its ill-disciplined, terror inspiring troops upon a helpless population cannot be over-emphasized. After all, that was the impetus that sent Russian troops to the rescue. That unleashed its bombing campaign, that forced Russia to seize Georgian territory outside the two breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Which also explains why Russian troops are still stationed in Gori. Why should they decamp, and leave Georgian citizens feeling complacent and supportive about their criminal government? Occupation of Gori, informing its people that they must exert pressure on Tbilisi to force a new election and make President Saakashvili step down in an expression of the peoples' power, must conclude the impasse.
Otherwise, folks, get used to the hostile uniforms surrounding you. Oh yes, the pull-back, it's taking place, right now, even as the world looks on uncomprehendingly. The country's east-west highway where Russian troops are stationed has split the country most effectively. Nothing moves. "We were the first in, so we'll be the last out", said Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov.
For an army preparing to leave, Russian soldiers, weaving through Gori in armoured personnel carriers, Kalashnikovs held aloft while their compatriots dig fortified positions east and west of the city, trucking in radio equipment to broadcast events back home, the stated intent to depart seems rather opaque in nature. But of course they need the broadcast equipment, having destroyed Georgia's.
The trouble is, Russians cannot trust the Georgians. They know there's a dark plot afoot to make them look bad; Georgia is giving Russian uniforms to roaming mercenaries, encouraging them to loot and pillage. How can one trust such people! Of course the mendacious Georgians claim this little ploy is a device to ensure Russian military units remain on site.
Yet, how puzzling; a UN aid convoy reported evidence of large-scale looting in Gori: "While the buildings did not appear to be very damaged, there are clear signs of massive looting of both shops and private accommodations", according to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
It's not only the Tbilisi administrative elite who play so promiscuously with the truth, but the Georgian population itself. Who claim to have been ordered to leave or be killed. "They said, 'Putin has given us an order that everyone must be either shot or forced to leave'. They told us we should ask the Americans for help now because they would kill us if we stayed."
The internal refugee population has now swelled to 158,000 ousted from towns and villages, their possessions what they wear on their backs. Who claim Ossentian militias had returned after shooting some of their neighbours, to torch houses, and to threaten to slit the throats of any remaining residents. These were the pathetic and patently untrue stories told by people huddling in Gori, far from their homes.
Where refugees scramble anxiously each time they are informed that distribution of food will take place, to patiently stand in line and wait until the trucks arrive.
Labels: Political Realities, Troublespots, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Monday, August 18, 2008
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