Russia is trying to “legalize” ethnic cleansing
Friday, September 5
Russia set its propaganda machine at full capacity to try and convince the international community that Tbilisi committed genocide of the Abkhaz and South Ossetian people. This lie did not work. Nevertheless Moscow keeps pumping out this nonsense, though mostly for domestic consumption as nobody elsewhere in the world trusts the Kremlin any more.
By doing this Russia is trying to avoid going into detail about the atrocities and ethnic cleansing carried out by its occupation forces against the Georgian population in Upper Abkhazia/Kodori Gorge and in the conflict zone around Tskhinvali. The entire Georgian population was forced out of Kodori on the grounds that Tbilisi planned to attack Sokhumi. No such plan whatsoever existed and why should anybody trust Russian warlords nobody knows.
The situation is much more dramatic and tragic in the Georgian villages around Tskhinvali.
Russian-led Ossetians, Cossacks and mercenaries from all over carried out an ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population, robbing, looting, intimidating and killing those who dared to oppose them even slightly. Houses were burnt and demolished . Entire Georgian villages have disappeared from the face of the earth. Russian troops, by creating so-called buffer zones, are not allowing Georgian police to stop the anarchy.
The so-called President of South Ossetia, Kokoity, openly declared that there would be no Georgian left in “his” country by the time he had finished. Later however, probably under instruction from Moscow, he suggested that everybody return to the places of their former residence. If there is anything left of them, or of the Georgian population that once lived there, we will see.
The Russians are trying to prolong their stay in so-called buffer zones as long as possible. They just won’t abide by the terms of the Sarkozy six point plan and are not returning to the places of their deployment prior to August 7. They go on destroying the resources of the Georgian population, and thus reducing peoples’ desire to return home. Russia threatens their lives but then patronizingly invites them to return to their villages. They want the Georgians to refuse to return, thus “legalizing” their ethnic cleansing.
Real relief for these people might come if the West increases its pressure and Russian troops are forced to obey the six point plan in all its clauses. The West should not be cheated again. Russians cannot be allowed to be “peacekeepers” now they have taken sides in the conflict and continue to do so. This mandate should be withdrawn from them immediately. They are aggressors and invaders, not just the interested party they have always been seen to be until now.
By doing this Russia is trying to avoid going into detail about the atrocities and ethnic cleansing carried out by its occupation forces against the Georgian population in Upper Abkhazia/Kodori Gorge and in the conflict zone around Tskhinvali. The entire Georgian population was forced out of Kodori on the grounds that Tbilisi planned to attack Sokhumi. No such plan whatsoever existed and why should anybody trust Russian warlords nobody knows.
The situation is much more dramatic and tragic in the Georgian villages around Tskhinvali.
Russian-led Ossetians, Cossacks and mercenaries from all over carried out an ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population, robbing, looting, intimidating and killing those who dared to oppose them even slightly. Houses were burnt and demolished . Entire Georgian villages have disappeared from the face of the earth. Russian troops, by creating so-called buffer zones, are not allowing Georgian police to stop the anarchy.
The so-called President of South Ossetia, Kokoity, openly declared that there would be no Georgian left in “his” country by the time he had finished. Later however, probably under instruction from Moscow, he suggested that everybody return to the places of their former residence. If there is anything left of them, or of the Georgian population that once lived there, we will see.
The Russians are trying to prolong their stay in so-called buffer zones as long as possible. They just won’t abide by the terms of the Sarkozy six point plan and are not returning to the places of their deployment prior to August 7. They go on destroying the resources of the Georgian population, and thus reducing peoples’ desire to return home. Russia threatens their lives but then patronizingly invites them to return to their villages. They want the Georgians to refuse to return, thus “legalizing” their ethnic cleansing.
Real relief for these people might come if the West increases its pressure and Russian troops are forced to obey the six point plan in all its clauses. The West should not be cheated again. Russians cannot be allowed to be “peacekeepers” now they have taken sides in the conflict and continue to do so. This mandate should be withdrawn from them immediately. They are aggressors and invaders, not just the interested party they have always been seen to be until now.