Tag: georgien

Uskyldigt lille land overfaldet af store, væmmelige Rusland

… det er i hvert fald det indtryk, man kan få efter at have læst de danske aviser.

The Guardian fortæller som en slags modvægt om, hvordan det ser ud for øjenvidner i den syd-ossetiske hovedstad:

“The Georgians could not get tanks through these narrow streets. So first they turned it to ruins with a Grad attack and tried to punch through here to the centre of the city. There was heavy fighting in the streets. I think more than 500 bodies were pulled out of this part of town.”

Asked if there had been atrocities against civilians the Colonel replied: “I personally saw one man beheaded lying in the street and others say they witnessed civilians who had been finished off with a shot to the back of the head.”

Hvis man har så travlt med at holde orden i sit “eget land” – hvorfor så en sådan brutalitet overfor civile?

Georgiens “demokratisk valgte” præsident (som i virkeligheden kom til magten ved et kup, hvorefter hans styre blev blåstemplet ved et valg, hvor han fik 96% af stemmerne – lyder mere bekendt, end godt er) er nu i øvrigt i selvsving over, at USA ifølge ham vil overtage landets lufthavne og havne og tage sig kærligt af russerne derfra.

Noget tyder dog på, at det ikke kommer til at ske sådan foreløbig (man har da altid lov at håbe).

Mere Georgien

Gary Brecher har et tankevækkende lille stykke om krigen i Georgien/Grusien på Exiled Online:

Hard people on every side in that part of the world. No quarter asked or given. No good guys. Especially not the Georgians. They have a rep as good people, one-on-one, but you don’t want to mess with them and you especially don’t want to try to take land from them.

The Georgians bided their time, then went on the offensive, Caucasian style, by pretending to make peace and all the time planning a sneak attack on South Ossetia. They just signed a treaty granting autonomy to South Ossetia this week, and then they attacked, Corleone style. Georgian MLRS units barraged Tskhinvali, the capital city of South Ossetia; Georgian troops swarmed over Ossetian roadblocks; and all in all, it was a great, whiz-bang start, but like Petraeus asked about Iraq way back in 2003, what’s the ending to this story? As in: how do you invade territory that the Russians have staked out for protection without thinking about how they’ll react?

Exiled Online er russisk-baseret og gør sædvanligvis en del ud af at forklare, hvorfor Rusland ikke nødvendigvis er så slem, som koldkrigere ynder at gøre det, blandet med betydelige mængder af sarkasme og kynisme. Deres syn på konflikten i Kaukasus kan ikke undgå at være interessant.

Link.

SOS fra Tbilisi

Rami bringer nogle interessante observationer fra den georgiske journalist Nino Zhizhilashvili, som naturligt nok er on-site i Tbilisi:

South Ossetian autonomous republic was established by the USSR on the territory of Georgia in 1921. Georgians and Ossetians lived there together but Georgians were in absolute majority there. When the USSR collapsed the government of the South Ossetia declared the Independence and stated its desire to join Russia but of course, Georgian population and the government of the country refused. The wide escalation started then and it was the severe war there in early 90th.

But Georgia loose the war as Russian military forces went to the country and supported minority. We had a lot of Georgian refugees from the region which gained the status quo but stayed as a non-recognized republic until now. There never been the peace in the region during the years but the situation tensed last weeks when the massive shootings from both sides took place, because city Tskinvali – the center of the region, was circled by Georgian villages.

Do not ask me now, who started.

Status ser ret mørk ud – Nino Zhizhilashvili håber af gode grunde ikke på hjælp fra USA eller Vesten i det hele taget, men omvendt betyder det også, at den georgiske regering og befolkning ikke har en chance mod Rusland:

We are really in serious troubles. The Russian tanks are coming to the whole territory of Georgia – from all sides… there were a lot of air attacks during the two last days also. No idea what will be the future of my country. Even if the USA will decide to help Georgia by its military forces there would be the end of the country – it could become the land of the war of two empires…

Russian tanks blocked the autobahn connected the Western and Eastern parts of Georgia and wide intervention has started. They are attacking the country from the western and northern boarders. Troops are already at the capital Tbilisi. Nobody knows what are they aiming. The ultimatum was fulfilled by the Georgian government but they are going ahead – the international society is helpless to stop them. SAD! We are expecting the turning off the Internet so I don’t know whether I would be able to contact you soon.

Som Rami siger, lad os håbe det bedste, for Ramis veninde såvel som for området i almindelighed. Som andre har gjort opmærksom på, ser det ud til, at Georgiens populistiske præsident begik en uhyggelig fejltagelse, da han lod sine tropper bombe Syd-Ossetien.

(og så en parantes, med spørgsmål til kommentarfolket: Plejede “Georgien” ikke at hedde “Grusien” på dansk? Er brugen af “Georgien” endnu et eksempel på analfabetiske journalisters afskrift af engelske bulletiner, eller er der et argument for navneskiftet?)