MORE ON GEORGIA’S ETHNIC CLEANSING LAWSUIT, ETHNIC CLEANSING OF GEORGIANS IN ABKHAZIA, & RELATED ISSUES
By Damozel

The Moderate Voice
August 13th, 2008

I wrote yesterday about the conflicting ambitions and hatreds in play
here (which Russia is manipulating to further its own ambitions). The
situation is an immense tangle of conflicting ambitions–in the form
of the desire for land and resources– and furious ethnic hatred.

As I noted yesterday, Georgia is now bringing a lawsuit against Russia
for ethnic cleansing:

"Today, the Georgian ambassador to the Netherlands filed a law suit
to the International Court of Justice called ‘The state of Georgia
against the state of Russia’ because of ethnic cleansing conducted
in Georgia by Russia in 1993 to 2008," Lomaia told Reuters.

The ICJ confirmed Georgia’s filing, in which the country accused
Russia of violating an anti-discrimination convention during three
interventions in South Ossetia and Abkhazia from 1990 to August
2008. Georgia requested the court to order Russia to comply with
the convention, cease all military activities in Georgia, including
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and withdraw its troops, Georgia said in
a filing released by the ICJ.

The Russians have allegedly assisted citizens of Georgia’s separatist
enclaves in driving out Georgians in the past.

The Georgians can live here no longer, in Abkhazia they can only die"

According to Wikipedia–and read this with whatever caveats apply,
of course–:

The Ethnic Cleansing of Georgians in Abkhazia, also known as Genocide
of Georgians in Abkhazia (according to the Georgian side and by number
of western scholars)…. or the Massacres of Georgians in Abkhazia
— refers to ethnic cleansing massacres and forced mass expulsion of
thousands of ethnic Georgians living in Abkhazia (de jure Autonomous
Republic of Georgia) during the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict of 1991-1993
and 1998.

Between 10,000 to 30,000 Georgians were killed by the Abkhaz
separatists, foreign mercenaries, and, allegedly, by Russian Federation
forces. Local Armenians, Greeks, Russians and moderate Abkhaz were
also killed.

The International Criminal Court is currently investigating allegations
of genocide and crimes against humanity in Abkhazia. The ICC was
provided with the documents selected from the 300 volumes of evidence
about the genocide of Georgians in Abkhazia. These materials were
collected by the Georgian Prosecutors’ Office beginning in 1993 and
allegedly contain horrific accounts of atrocities committed by the
Abkhaz fighters and mercenaries from Russia. The reports included a
detailed description of how the separatists played soccer with the
heads of dead Georgians on the field after the executions in Gagra.

The Russians have aided the separatists in both Georgian enclaves
financially and probably also militarily. (BBC News, Steven Eke)
On August 8, the BBC’s Russian affairs analyst wrote:

[Russia] has supported the separatist regime financially and
militarily, and reportedly has a considerable number of security and
intelligence operatives there.

Georgia also claims that Russian mercenaries are active in South
Ossetia….

The "frozen" nature of the South Ossetian conflict – as well as that in
the other, separatist Georgian region, Abkhazia – has allowed Russia
to preserve a vital lever of influence over its southern neighbour,
a country it now views as wayward, if not hostile….

Russia has issued most South Ossetians with Russian passports,
potentially justifying direct intervention (on the grounds of
protecting "its own" citizens).

Recent heightened military tension had effectively given Russia a
more solid pretext for intervention.

With respect to the South Ossetian/Georgia conflict:

There are also clear fault lines between Russia and the West in
dealing with the immediate tensions.

A Russian-drafted UN Security Council statement calling on both
Georgia and South Ossetia to renounce the use of force failed to
secure British and US backing. (BBC News)

On the other hand, there are currently allegations that the Georgians
have engaged in ethnic cleansing in South Ossetia. The Washington
Post reported:

Despite Western governments’ public statements of support for
Saakashvili, some Western diplomats now privately say that the Georgian
leadership or military made a serious and possibly criminal mistake
last week by launching a massive barrage against the South Ossetian
capital of Tskhinvali, which inevitably led to major civilian deaths
and casualties.

Russian officials have said 2,000 people were killed in the Georgian
offensive, a figure that has not been confirmed independently. But
it is indisputable that large numbers of civilians were killed in
and around Tskhinvali.

Reports are still coming in concerning deaths in South Ossetia
resulting from Georgia’s attack last week:

Russia says 1,600 South Ossetian civilians have been killed,
while Georgia has reported close to 200 killed and hundreds of
wounded. Neither set of figures has been independently verified.

The United Nations said on Tuesday that nearly 100,000 people had
been driven from their homes.

"We have started to receive communications on this," the ICC’s
Moreno-Ocampo told Reuters by telephone from The Hague.

Asked if he would be launching a preliminary investigation, he said:
"It is a possibility." He gave no further details.

As I wrote yesterday, I’m not clear whether either party has any
moral high ground on this score, particularly at this stage. I’m
still not. On the other hand, Russia’s alleged continued bombing of
the city of Gori raises questions about their own intentions toward
the Georgians. And with respect to the South Ossetians, there’s this:

Georgian officials and U.S. officials said Tuesday night that
Ossetian paramilitary forces were killing remaining civilians in
Georgian villages near the South Ossetian-Georgian frontier and that
Russian forces were failing to stop them despite entreaties from the
authorities in Tbilisi. "It’s bloodcurdling," one Western diplomat
said. (WaPo)

It is painful to watch such tragedies unfold again and again.

Reflecting on them, it’s very hard not to conclude that the notions
that human life is cheap, that individual lives are of less value
than access to real estate and that some lives are of less value than
others, really are ineradicably encoded in the human brain. It’s a
specialized form of sociopathy that we see in controlled and diluted
form in our own culture. Spectacles such as these make one wonder
whether this sort of conflict and reflexive hatred is the norm and
western civilization, with its emphasis on multiculturalism and
celebrating our differences, the anomaly. Under sufficient pressure,
would we always revert to a Golding sort of world? I don’t want to
believe it, but sometimes it’s very hard not to.

In the meantime, Russia is apparently doing its all to work these
hatreds to its own advantage while trying to position itself as
intervening out of a disinterested wish to keep the peace. I do not
believe them.

On a related topic, see Joe Windish’s piece on the current cyberwar
in Georgia and the surrounding questions.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 7:05 am and
is filed under BBC, Foreign Policy, Hypocrisy, Totalitarianism, News
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