Month: August 2008

MEDVEDEV ORDERS HALT TO FIGHTING
By Nabi Abdullaev

The Moscow Times
13 August 2008
Russia

People helping a wounded man after a bombing in central Gori, Georgia,
on Tuesday. Explosions killed at least five civilians, including a
Dutch journalist.

MOSCOW / TBILISI, Georgia –President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt
to the Russian military operation in Georgia on Tuesday, saying troops
had accomplished their mission of restoring safety to civilians and
its peacekeeping forces in Georgia’s breakaway republics of South
Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Abkhaz separatists announced that they had taken the Kodor Gorge,
the only district of Abkhazia under Georgian control.

In Tbilisi, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili painted the setbacks
as a victory and told tens of thousands of rallying supporters that
Georgia would leave the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Also, Georgia filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International
Court of Justice for ethnic cleansing, and the prosecutor for the
International Criminal Court said he was considering an investigation
into the South Ossetia conflict.

Medvedev ordered Russian troops to step down just before a meeting
with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who flew to Moscow to mediate
peace talks.

"I have decided to cease the operation to force Georgian authorities
toward peace," Medvedev told Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and
the head of the armed forces’ General Staff, Nikolai Makarov. "The
safety of our peacekeeping forces and of the civilian population has
been restored," Medvedev said.

Medvedev said Georgian military had suffered "very considerable losses"
and "were disorganized." But he added that the Russian military would
destroy any Georgian pockets of resistance in South Ossetia and act
to undercut "other aggressive ambitions."

Georgia said Russian fighter jets carried out airstrikes against two
Georgian villages outside South Ossetia after Medvedev ordered the
attacks to stop, a charge denied by Moscow.

The Russian military, which moved into South Ossetia and Abkhazia
after Tbilisi attempted to reclaim South Ossetia by force, had been
fighting Georgian troops and destroying military infrastructure in
Georgia proper for five days.

Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy head of the armed forces’ General Staff,
told reporters in Moscow that the Russian troops had sought to "cut
the military capacity of the aggressor to a level that would not
allow it to even think of repeating an attempt to attack this or that
territory again."

"This is international practice. Probably, in this case, it is
essential in regard to Georgia," Nogovitsyn said. "This is my opinion
as a military man."

He said Georgia’s military actions in South Ossetia had been well
planned, adding that some of Georgia’s experience had been gleaned
from joint exercises with the U.S. military. He said, however, that
he had no information about the U.S. military participating in the
South Ossetia conflict.

Units from the 58th Army will leave South Ossetia after both sides
reach a truce, Nogovitsyn said.

Earlier Tuesday, Russian warplanes bombed Gori, where the Georgian
military is entrenched. At least five civilians were killed, including
Dutch cameraman Stan Storimans.

Russian forces also led Abkhaz forces on a military offensive against
Georgian troops in the Kodor Gorge, which Georgia brought under its
control in 2006.

David Mdzinarishvili / Reuters Saakashvili speaking to cheering
Georgians at a rally in Tbilisi on Tuesday.

Abkhaz separatists said late Tuesday that they had squeezed the last
Georgian units out of the gorge. They promised not to cross over into
Georgia proper.

Late Monday, Russian troops returned to Abkhazia from the Georgian
military base in Senaki, which they seized earlier in the day.

Saakashvili told a roaring crowd of more than 30,000 people outside
the parliament building on Tbilisi’s Rustaveli Avenue that Georgia
would withdraw from the CIS, a largely toothless body of 12 former
Soviet republics founded in late 1991.

"Georgia will never kneel down before Russia, therefore we made the
decision to leave the commonwealth in order to finally bid farewell
to our Soviet past," he told the cheering crowd.

Since Saakashvili rose to power in 2003, he has repeatedly threatened
to quit the CIS. He said Tuesday that he had issued the relevant
decree.

The withdrawal could affect the status of Russian peacekeepers in
Abkhazia, who have been stationed there since 1994 under a CIS mandate
known as the Moscow Treaty. Georgia agreed at the time to pull its
troops out of Abkhazia in favor of a CIS peacekeeping force.

Georgia’s withdrawal from the CIS does not mean the simultaneous
denunciation of the Moscow Treaty, but it will strongly undercut
the legitimacy of the presence of the CIS peacekeepers in Abkhazia,
said Nikolai Silayev, an analyst with the Center of Caucasus Studies
at the Moscow State Institute of Foreign Relations. "But this isn’t
bothering Moscow at the moment," he said.

Georgian Security Council chief Kakha Lomaia said Georgia filed
a lawsuit against Russia on Tuesday to the International Court of
Justice "because of ethnic cleansing conducted in Georgia by Russia
in 1993 to 2008," Reuters reported. The court, based at The Hague,
rules on nation versus nation disputes.

Also, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis
Moreno-Ocampo, said he was considering requests to investigate the
South Ossetia conflict, Reuters reported.

Saakashvili also said in his speech that Tbilisi would redefine
Georgia’s separatist provinces as occupied territories. "We will
declare South Ossetia and Abkhazia as territories occupied by the
Russian armed forces," he said.

Many participants of the rally, which happened to coincide with the
Didgori anniversary, a patriotic remembrance of a medieval Georgian
victorious battle against the Seljuk Turks, had tears in their
eyes. Most were unanimous in their opinion that Moscow was to blame
for the war.

"Today is a feast day because we have won back our freedom," said
Gena Miminoshvili, 52, a factory worker from the western town of
Abasha. Asked about the years of tensions in South Ossetia, he said
it was merely a dispute between "brothers."

"The real enemy is Russia," he said.

"[Moscow] programmed everything and carefully planned provocations,"
said a woman, who would only give her first name, Ia. "Why did the
West not come to help us? Because the Russians never obey the law
and always do what they want. They are afraid of that."

"Russia wants a Georgia without Georgians," added Leri Kavteladze, an
elderly man who said he fought in the civil war against the country’s
first elected president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia.

But dissent was strong among people who did not attend Saakashvili’s
speech. Nino Dzandzava, 24, a film critic, said she did not believe
that Russia was to blame. "This is a tragedy for Georgia, and I
blame the government because it should have known that this attack
would have dire consequences," she said, referring to the Georgian
onslaught on Tskhinvali late last week. "It is totally senseless to
fight the Ossetians. They are being used by the Russians."

Yet Tbilisi appeared joyous and calm Monday evening, and residents
said the high tension that threatened to turn into panic over the
weekend had all but vanished.

Government supporters of all ages were milling around the city center,
many of them draped in the country’s red-crossed flag, introduced by
Saakashvili after he assumed power in the 2003 Rose Revolution.

Many expatriates who had been advised by their embassies to leave the
country were rethinking their plans. Some even decided to head back
after arriving at the border with Armenia early afternoon, when the
news of Medvedev endorsing the cease-fire reached them via cell phone.

Leaders of Ukraine, Poland and the three Baltic republics were
on their way to Tbilisi to show support for Saakashvili, Interfax
reported late Tuesday. The five leaders flew to an Azeri town and
then drove in a motorcade across the border into Georgia, it said.

Russia cannot wage an all-out war in Georgia after achieving
its immediate goals in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, said Alexander
Khramchikhin, a senior researcher at the Institute of Political and
Military Analysis.

"Russian troops risk facing fierce guerrilla resistance if they remain
in Georgia proper, and the diplomatic cost of waging war there will
grow for Russia tremendously with every passing hour," he said.

Medvedev’s decision to announce the halt of the military operation
before his meeting with Sarkozy was an attempt to save face under
increasing criticism from the West, Khramchikhin added.

"Agreeing to stop the military actions after the talks would look
like Medvedev bent under pressure from Europe," he said.

The United Nations’ refugee agency said Tuesday that 100,000 people
— divided nearly equally between Georgians and South Ossetians —
have been driven from their homes by the fighting in Georgia over
the past five days.

Staff Writer Nabi Abdullaev reported from Moscow, and Staff Writer
Nikolaus von Twickel reported from Tbilisi, Georgia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GEORGIA CAUSED THIS WAR
By Vadim Mukhanov

The Moscow Times
13 August 2008
Russia

The war in South Ossetia must be understood for what it really is
— Georgia’s one-sided escalation of the conflict. This places full
responsibility for the bloodshed on Georgia’s side. Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili’s decision to send in heavy equipment and artillery
late Thursday led to large civilian casualties in South Ossetia.

In all likelihood, the opportunistic Saakashvili saw the opening
day of the Olympics in Beijing on Friday as his best chance for a
successful blitzkrieg against recalcitrant South Ossetia. He also
wagered that Russia’s reaction would not be fast or powerful enough to
stop Georgian divisions from seizing a large part of the unrecognized
republic under their control, or from forcing the civilian population
to flee through the Roki Tunnel into neighboring North Ossetia.

Russia’s response turned out to be timely and effective. It brought
to a halt Georgia’s wanton murder of civilians in South Ossetia and
the bombing of its villages. The Georgian forces that had savagely
destroyed Tskhinvali and surrounding towns were routed.

The main goal of Georgia’s leadership is to join NATO and to become
integrated into European political and economic organizations. Toward
that end, Tbilisi regularly complained about the incompetence of
Russian peacekeeping forces in the conflict zones between Georgia and
its breakaway republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, requesting that
those forces be replaced with international peacekeepers. Saakashvili
probably thought that the departure of Russia’s peacekeepers would
enable him to make the leaders of the unrecognized republics more
compliant and to bring Abkhazia and South Ossetia under Georgia’s
control.

Since he was unable to replace the Russian peacekeepers, Saakashvili
opted to resolve the conflict by the simplest of means — by
force. Georgia’s position is undeniably advantageous. Should it
emerge victorious, Georgia would earn the honor and respect of the
United States and the other NATO members. Should it lose and suffer
a retaliatory strike by Russia, NATO will have great sympathy for
Tbilisi. Thus, a tactical defeat could turn into a strategic victory
if NATO decides at its December summit to grant Georgia membership. On
the other hand, Georgia’s recklessness may strengthen the position
of NATO members, such as Germany, who are opposed to granting Tbilisi
membership.

It was inevitable that this conflict, which had been simmering for
years, would eventually erupt into open warfare. Moreover, since South
Ossetia and Abkhazia, the other breakaway republic, are allies, the
Abkhaz leadership understood clearly that if Georgia was successful
in Tskhinvali, it would turn its war machine toward Sukhumi.

Georgia’s disagreements with South Ossetia and Abkhazia escalated
into open warfare, and this will mean an end to the peace initiatives
for the breakaway republics that were proposed by Russia and the
European Union. Incidentally, Russia’s quick and decisive repelling
of Georgia’s aggression sent a clear signal to Azerbaijan, which —
not unlike Georgia — has also considered using military force to
resolve its Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In the post-Soviet period, the
key to subduing and managing such conflicts in the Caucasus has been
for Russia to threaten the use of force against the side exhibiting
excessive aggression.

Obviously, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin correctly stated Saturday,
there is now no chance of South Ossetia or Abkhazia ever being
incorporated into Georgia. Thus, the likelihood of these regions
receiving a Kosovo-like independence is greater than ever.

The past week’s events have shown that Georgia, with its current
leadership, is incapable of behaving responsibly, either domestically
or in the international arena. With its $2 billion in foreign debt,
Georgia is on the verge of bankruptcy. But instead of developing its
domestic political and economic programs, Saakashvili’s administration
continues to send shock waves throughout the Caucasus.

It seems that relations between Moscow and Tbilisi will be strained for
the foreseeable future, and they could become openly adversarial should
Georgia gain NATO membership. The Russia-Georgia war has already put
a strain on relations with the West and particularly with the United
States. Some of the sharpest statements against Russia have come
from the White House as well as presidential candidate John McCain,
and Russia’s relations with the West will only worsen if a peaceful
solution to the conflict is not found.

Vadim Mukhanov is a senior researcher at the Foreign Ministry’s
Caucasus Research Center at the Moscow State Institute for
International Relations.

TUESDAY MAP: GEORGIA’S GOOGLE VANISHING ACT

Foreign Policy Passport
Tue, 08/12/2008 – 6:12pm

As if Georgia didn’t have enough to deal with, yesterday the country’s
cities and transportation routes completely disappeared from Google
Maps. Reportedly wanting to keep its cyber territory conflict-neutral,
Google removed all of Georgia’s details from its maps, making the
war-torn nation look like a ghostly white blob flanked by Russia
and Turkey. Georgia, though, isn’t the only country going blank on
Google: neighboring Armenia and Azerbaijan–who have their own ongoing
terrorital dispute over the Nagorno-Karabakh region–are coming up
empty too.

Some online commenters speculate that the allegiances of Google’s
Russian-born co-founder Sergey Brin might have something to do with
Georgia’s disappearance. That’s pretty doubtful, but it’s possible
that Google doesn’t want their software used for military purposes.

But Google has helped out Georgia in one major way, providing (albeit
"involuntarily") Georgian sites with a "cyber-refuge" from Russian
hackers. News service Civil Georgia as well as the country’s Ministry
of Foreign Affairs have started using the Google-owned site Blogger
to post updates and press releases on the conflict.

Update: Google denies that it has made any changes to the map:

"We do not have local data for those countries and that is why local
details such as landmarks and cities do not appear."

Looks like we may have gotten a bit ahead of ourselves, though as
NYT’s Miguel Helf notes, Google does seem to have plenty of "local
data" about Georgia in its Google Earth program.

GEORGIAN PRESIDENT’S SPEECH AT RALLY OUTSIDE PARLIAMENT

RedOrbit
12 August 2008, 15:00 CDT
TX

The following is an excerpt from a speech by Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili at a rally outside the parliament building in
central Tbilisi on 12 August, which was broadcast live by state-
funded Georgian Public Television Channel 1. Earlier on 12 August
BBCM processed parts of the speech in which Saakashvili talked about
Georgia leaving the Commonwealth of Independent States and "Russian
invaders" continuing "ruthless, heartless destruction" of Georgians.

[Saakashvili] My dears, my compatriots, the whole world is watching
us today. I would be glad to see the world interested in our affairs
for a much better reason. Now, as I am speaking, the invader who
came from Russia is continuing the ruthless and cruel destruction of
my compatriots, our multiethnic citizens, representatives of various
ethnic groups. As a president of our country, I am in a very difficult
situation today. I was travelling on the [main] highway when they
started entering Zugdidi. I arrived in Zugdidi, turned back, and I
was watching how aircraft were flying down and bombing us, and how
every one of us was targeted by this ruthless, cruel and sadistic
force, but I could do nothing to protect my compatriots. I will never
forget that. But I want to tell you one thing: Together with you,
I will make these rascals pay dear. We shall be victorious without
fail. [Passage omitted: asks the rally to observe a minute’s silence
for the people killed in the conflict]

What did Russia want from Georgia? Does not Russia have
territories? Does not Russia have towns and villages? Does not Russia
have sufficient oil, gas, and everything else? What does Russia
want in tiny Georgia? What did Russia want in the small, beautiful
mountainous town of Tskhinvali, which it destroyed and turned into
another Groznyy over the last few days? Have these people learned
nothing from civilization? Have they learned absolutely nothing
since the Mongol [invasion]? Are they, like those Mongols, going
to continue confronting the civilized world? What they want is not
Abkhazia. What they want is not Tskhinvali. What they want is not
even Georgia itself. They do not want freedom, and that is why they
want to step on Georgia.

I want to tell you that there is no confrontation between us. We did
not want to start shooting at anyone. What could be worse than one
human being killed by another human being? In Kekhvi and Tamarasheni
[Georgian-populated villages in South Ossetia], where they are gunning
down my compatriots, where they are setting up concentration camps,
where Russian troops, who are not allowing European observers there,
are creating a new Srebrenica on the instructions of Vladimir Putin,
in the same towns and villages where we built kindergartens, schools, a
hospital, houses and roads over the last few months. They were closing
roads, and we were building roads. They were destroying our houses,
and we were building better houses for people. They closed a road to
a hospital, and we built a new hospital. They banned young people’s
movement, and we built sports grounds and swimming pools. They were
shooting from automatic rifles while we brought ensembles to entertain
people and make their lives better. And then Putin and his group could
not bear it any more, and they said: From now on, the only thing this
place will see will be Russian bombs and Russian cluster munitions
banned by an international convention.

What did Russian troops want in the Kodori Gorge and Upper
Abkhazia? You know that since we restored order there, there has been
nothing but peace and development in Kodori. [Passage omitted: says
that Georgia build social infrastructure and restored law and order in
the upper Kodori Gorge after 15 years of lawlessness; accuses Russia
of bombing a children’s skiing school in the gorge]

The next time Putin goes skiing to Switzerland, I want him to be
reminded that he bombed a skiing resort for children and killed our
children and our citizens there. I do not want the world to ever
forget about this. The world should always remind these people,
who committed these military crimes, about this. [Passage omitted:
says that Georgians have nothing against ethnic Ossetians and Abkhaz;
accuses Russia of heavily bombing Tskhinvali for four days since
Georgian troops left the town; talks about economic embargoes and
other problems that Georgia faced over the last few years]

We were building new roads, new schools, new hospitals. I want
to tell you that the new world-standard hospital in Gori, which I
viewed as my personal achievement, the new hospital in Gori in which
our doctors heroically worked for four days to help injured ethnic
Ossetians, Georgians, Russians, Ukrainians and everyone else, two
hours ago, on the orders of the Russian military, was hit by the most
precision-guided tactical weapon. They blew up this hospital. There
are injured and dead. Their targets are not the military. They are
targeting doctors. They are targeting clergy. [Passage omitted: says
that a religious building and a school were bombed] Their targets
are not the Georgian military. Because casualties among the Georgian
military after their bombings were minimal. These days, their targets
are humanity and justice. Their target is the people’s independence
and spirit. Their target is your existence and your spirit, my dears
and my compatriots.

I want us to understand why they carried out this exemplary
punishment of Georgia and what Georgia means for the rest of the
world today. Georgia represents a boundary between good and evil,
between civilization and brutality, a society respecting human
rights and a society that ignores human rights and is irritated
by human dignity. [Passage omitted: says that the world views the
Georgian-Russian conflict as a David and Goliath struggle] [The crowd
chants: "Misha, Misha", and "Georgia, Georgia"]

But I would like to tell you my dear that Russian tanks crushed
our defenceless women and children gathered here, in this square,
19 years ago [in April 1989]. I was much younger then, but I learned
a bitter lesson, and I said that they would not be able to operate
with impunity on Georgian territory.

And I would like to tell you that over the last five days the Russian
army, the Russian Armed Forces suffered a greater loss over a short
period of time than in any bilateral conflict since Russia’s attack
on Finland in 1939. And I want to thank our troops who achieved this.

I would like to tell you that we are a small nation, we have a small
professional army, we are not a militarized society, we cannot –
people, they came in. If anyone had doubts, they brought 1,200 tanks
into Georgia in one hour, 1,200 tanks, more than they brought into
Afghanistan in the first days [of the operation], more than they
brought into Hungary, more than they brought into Czechoslovakia in
1968. Georgia, Tbilisi of 2008 is a Prague of 1968, is a Budapest of
1956, is a Finland and Karelia of 1939. Georgia is a European nation,
a small European nation which has said that it will not put up with
violence, which has said that it will never give up its independence.

Georgians have shot down 21 flying apparatus with essentially most
simple of means. [Applause] Over 400 invaders have been destroyed. I
would like to tell you that this does not make me happy at all. It
does not make me happy at all that the Russian pilot whom we shot
down had a trolley bus pass for the city of Moscow. People, what
did the man had to do – A retired pilot was put in a plane, sent
to punish and destroy another country, instead of letting the man
to have normal life in his country, with his family, his children
and grandchildren. Is it not a huge crime to even send such a man to
certain death in a foreign country which has never had anything against
Russia, and we do not have anything against the Russian people either.

I would like to tell them that we are very sorry about every
death. But I would also like to say that 90 per cent of the most
elite special-purpose unit of the GRU [Russia’s Main Intelligence
Directorate], Vympel, 78 people, dropped on the Tliaqana hill, in
the heart of Georgia, in one go, were completely destroyed by our 20
fighters who were there, who did not go away and remained there till
the end. [Applause]

I would like to say that we have also destroyed more than 50 tanks
and other armoured hardware of the opponent; we have destroyed scores
of other firing points; we have destroyed a very large number of
weapons. They are now saying that we had Americans in the army, that
we had French. Russian TV is telling me that we had Ukrainians in our
tanks. I want to tell you that there was not a single Ukrainian or
American in our tanks, or in our armed forces. But we had citizens of
our country; we had ethnic Ossetians, ethnic Georgians, ethnic Abkhaz,
ethnic Russians and ethnic Ukrainians who defended their homeland,
Georgia, and will always defend it whenever we need it. [Applause]

I would like to tell everyone, friends, I would like to tell everyone
that our path is a path of freedom. A classic plan for eradicating
freedom is being implemented against Georgia today. Democracy was
destroyed in Russia. People who destroyed the Chechen people, for
example, took over Russia. More than 80,000 people have died in the
town of Groznyy alone. And today it is they who are lecturing us. It
is these people who are repeating the tragedy of Groznyy in Tskhinvali.

And then Russia, which has made huge money, decided that it was time to
reclaim lost territories. As always, Georgia has again turned out to be
the most desirable diamond for the Russian imperial crown. If Georgia
falls, Ukraine will have problems; if Georgia falls, Lithuania, Latvia
and Estonia will have problems; if Georgia falls, the entire civilized
world will have problems. This is our fate – the frontline of defence
of the entire civilized world and democracy passes through Georgia.

I would wish – I would not spill a single drop of blood of our
citizens for anything. But you should know one thing. This was a
conscious choice of our citizens. This was the choice of our boys
who went to defend their country. This was the choice of the doctors
who have worked day and night at our hospitals. This is the choice
of our society.

I would like to tell everyone that in 1921 Rustaveli [Tbilisi’s main
avenue] was empty. We all were in conflict with each other. Georgia was
divided. There was no desire to put up resistance and Russia’s 11th
Army, commanded by Georgian representatives Stalin and Orjonikidze,
entered Georgia and took the fragmented, divided Georgia in just a
couple of days. This is a repeat of that plan.

We are having a day of mourning today but I nevertheless asked you
to gather here because they must see that Rustaveli is no longer
empty. This is not 1921. We are in the 21st century and Georgia stands
united. [Applause]

[Passage omitted: Saakashvili thanked opposition leaders and MPs for
their support; said exiled former Defence Minister Irakli Okruashvili
(a native of South Ossetia) rang him the previous night to say that
he wanted to return to Georgia and join the reservists. He said
he was ready to forget every offence when it came to Georgia and
its statehood. He said it was time to forgive and extend a hand of
friendship. His remarks were greeted with applause and chants "Misha,
Misha" and "Georgia, Georgia"]

I would like to tell you one thing. Over these days we have suffered
a massive strike. People have died. But the nation is not dead,
and what does not kill a nation makes it stronger. Therefore, as
a result of this blow we shall be twice as strong as we have been,
to spite them. [Applause; chants "Georgia, Georgia"]

I would like to say thank-you to the entire international
community. This morning in Gori they used a bomb banned by
international conventions to kill a Dutch journalist who wanted to
report the truth about what is happening in Georgia. When I went
to the frontline to bring back with me the lads from Tskhinvali,
a Russian journalist approached me and asked us to let him through
to Tskhinvali. Our lads asked him not to go because the Russians,
their compatriots, were shooting there. He pleaded with us that he
should be allowed to go at his own risk. He also asked if he could
take a few pictures of us, with me in military uniform, which I
did. So he went there, but was killed half an hour later by snipers
on the Russian army’s side.

I would like to tell everyone, members of the families of the
journalists who were killed, the doctors who were killed and those
were wounded and maimed that the Georgian nation will never forget the
fact that you have started to report the truth. In 1956 in Budapest,
there were no journalists or TV channels. Very little was reported
from Prague in 1958. Live TV reports still did not exist in 1979 in
Afghanistan. Now the whole world watched the tragedy of Georgia live
on TV. The world order will never be the same again.

I would like to thank representatives of all our ethnic groups. People,
Georgia belongs to all of you, Georgia belongs to Ossetians, Georgia
belongs to Abkhaz, Georgia belongs to Georgians, Georgia belongs
to Georgia’s regions, Georgian Armenians, Georgian Azerbaijanis,
Georgian Russians, Georgian Ukrainians. We are not against anyone. We
are certainly not against the Russian nation. I know full well that
the Russians are not just Putin. Russia’s policy is currently Putin
alone. But in the future we will certainly find each other again
because something that has been built over the centuries cannot be
destroyed like this by one maniacal megalomaniac.

Georgia has never been freer than today. Today Georgia has been harmed
but is also more proud than ever before. I want to tell the whole world
this. They can try to bomb us, destroy us, attack us and deploy 2,000
more tanks – although tanks are nothing on Georgian soil – they can
threaten us, but there is one thing that is as clear as day to me:
Georgia will never be brought down to its knees and Georgian will
never surrender. [Applause] [Passage omitted: more on importance of
freedom and unity]

I would like to inform you about our decisions. We have made the
decision, after consultation with the chairman of parliament, to
announce that Georgia is leaving the Commonwealth of Independent
States, the CIS. [Applause] We are saying a final farewell to the
Soviet Union. The Soviet Union will never return here. [Applause] We
call on Ukraine and other CIS member states to leave this organization
administered by Russia, which does not listen to anyone in doing
so. [Applause]

We have made the decision that, together with withdrawing recognition
for the Russian peacekeeping mission in Abkhazia – I told the American
president and other world leaders about this yesterday – we have made
the decision to declare the Russian army in Abkhazia an occupying army
and declare Abkhazia and South Ossetia occupied territories. [Applause]

I want to tell you that until the last occupier leaves Georgian soil,
there will be no peace for any Georgian and there will be no peace
for any occupier. It will never be easy for them to find a peaceful
place on this soil.

[Passage omitted: praises Georgians for fighting for freedom]

The Georgian army is a tenth of the number of people who have gathered
here. But the real Georgian army, the full Georgian army is you. You
are the most courageous army in the world. That is why neither the 58th
[Russian] Army nor the Pskov division can defeat such an army. They
sent the same units here that took Budapest in 1956 – the Pskov
division. They deployed the same tanks here that entered Prague in
1968. We were bombed by the same pilots who bombed Afghanistan. But
just as they failed to defeat Czechoslovakia, just as they failed to
defeat Hungary, just as Afghanistan where the debris of Russian tanks
are lying around as they are on the road to Gori – [changes tack]
We will be as free as all the nations I have listed and will be very
successful and very happy. [Applause, chants of Misha, Misha]

[Passage omitted: thanks the Lithuanian foreign minister for
solidarity; thanks the presidents of Ukraine, Poland, Latvia,
Lithuania, Estonia and France for deciding to visit Georgia; urges
demonstrators to accompany him to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in
Tbilisi after the rally where they would "pray for peace in Georgia"
and then return to the area outside parliament at 1600 gmt to greet
the "six presidents"; Saakashvili and demonstrators sign the Georgian
national anthem at the end of his speech]

Originally published by Channel 1, Tbilisi, in Georgian 1210 12 Aug 08.

(c) 2008 BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union. Provided by ProQuest
Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

UAE’S SWIMMER AL JASMI SETS NEW NATIONAL RECORD
By Sayed Ali, Senior Reporter

GulfNews
August 13, 2008, 00:00
United Arab Emirates

Al Jasmi succeed in achieving a new record for the UAE and himself.

Dubai: The UAE suffered a double disappointment in Beijing yesterday.

Shaikh Ahmad Mohammad Hasher Al Maktoum’s loss in the double trap
shooting was followed by swimmer Obaid Al Jasmi, who finished last
place in his 100m freestyle heat.

Al Jasmi came sixth and last in what was a weak field in the heat,
which includes swimmers from Aruba, Mauritius, Armenia, Bermuda
and Fiji.

But he did succeed in achieving a new record for the UAE and himself.

He finished in 53.29 seconds, beating his old record of 54.82. The
winner of the heat Jan Roodzant, of Aruba, clocked 51.69.

However the winner’s time will not be enough to make the quarters due
to the difference between his time and that of top man Eamon Sullivan,
of Australia, world record time of 47.24.

Al Jasmi said: "The preparation which we got for the Olympic Games
was not sufficient.

"We prepared for a couple of months while other swimmers prepared
for years.

"Some of them began preparation from the time the Athens Games was
finished in 2004."

Official bodies

The UAE swimmer said the swimming associations and the UAE National
Olympic Committee (NOC) had to devote more time and energy to preparing
athletes for the coming Olympics London 2012.

"There are several talents in the UAE with a promising future, but
need more care by the association and the NOC.

"They have to be prepared for long times (years and not months)
and have to gain experience by competing against swimmers from top
countries," he said.

UAE swimmers first took part in the Olympic Games in Seoul 1988 with
six swimmers.

They continued in the Olympics with five swimmers in 1992 Barcelona. In
the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney, 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing one
swimmer represented UAE.

Al Jasmi came sixth and last in what was a weak field in the heat,
which includes swimmers from Aruba, Mauritius, Armenia, Bermuda
and Fiji.

KEY NUMBERS FROM THE GEORGIA-RUSSIA CONFLICT
By The Associated Press

The Associated Press
Aug. 12, 2008

LENGTH OF WAR: Six days of fighting in Georgia and two separatist
regions, South Ossetia and Abhkazia, from Aug. 7 through Aug. 12
before a cease-fire was declared by Russia.

MILITARY: Russia has 1.1 million soldiers, Georgia has 37,000. The
Russian armed forces have about 6,000 tanks and some 1,700 combat
aircraft. Georgia has 230 tanks and 12 combat aircraft.

_ Russia sent 20,000 troops and 500 tanks into Georgia, according to
the Georgian president. In Abhkazia alone, Russia estimated it had
at least 9,000 troops and 350 armored vehicles.

_ The U.S. helped Georgia bring about 2,000 Georgian troops from Iraq
during the fighting.

DEATH TOLL: About 2,000 people, most of them with Russian passports,
were killed in South Ossetia as of Aug. 12, according to Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Georgia’s Reintegration Minister Temur
Yakobashvili said more than 100 Georgians died, including civilians
and soldiers.

DISPLACED: The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates almost 100,000 people were
displaced, according to figures provided by both governments. Georgian
officials say a few thousand fled south into Georgia proper from South
Ossetia, and up to 12,000 were estimated to be displaced within South
Ossetia. Russian officials in North Ossetia suggest 30,000 people
from South Ossetia remain in Russia.

OIL: Two pipelines were shut down. British energy group BP said Aug. 12
that it closed a pipeline in Georgia carrying "a limited amount"
of gas and oil because of the conflict. Another pipeline operated
by the London-based oil company in Georgia was out of action after
a fire last week in Turkey.

MILITARY BASES: Russia seized a Georgian military base in the town
of Senaki. At least four other Georgian air bases were bombed,
including a base on the outskirts of Gori, the Vaziani military base
on the outskirts of Tbilisi, the Marneuli air base, and another base
in Bolnisi.

TOWNS HIT: Tskhinvali, Zugdidi, Senaki.

AMERICANS EVACUATED: More than 170 American citizens evacuated from
Georgia to Armenia by the U.S. State Department.

JOURNALISTS KILLED: Three. Dutch TV correspondent Stan Storimans, and
photojournalists Alexander Klimchuk and Grigol Chikhladze of Caucasus
Images, according to The Committee to Protect Journalists. The group
reported at least eight journalists were injured and two were missing.

WAR PRISONERS: The International Committee of the Red Cross said they
visited two wounded Russian pilots detained by Georgian authorities.

___

Sources: AP reporting and UNHCR –

THE GEORGIAN-RUSSIAN CONFLICT THROUGH THE EYES OF BAKU
By Fariz Ismailzade

Eurasia Daily Monitor
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
DC

The escalating conflict in Georgia–with its unexpected military
developments and great humanitarian losses–seems to have caught
Azerbaijani officials and the public off guard. Azerbaijanis are not
new to the world of Russian political games in the Caucasus. Baku
itself suffered greatly from Russian intervention in 1990 and after
that from the military conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Yet, the rapid
and aggressive style of Russian intervention in Georgia in the past
few days has created far greater security and economic dilemmas for
Azerbaijan than even the most pessimistic analysts in the country
could have predicted only a week ago.

Russian jet fighters have bombed both civilians and military airports
in Georgia, forcing all airlines, including Azerbaijani Airlines
(AZAL), to stop flights. Moreover, for several days in a row the
Russians bombed the Black Sea port of Poti, which serves as the main
terminal for the export of Azerbaijani energy products as well as
other cargo. With the explosions on the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
last week, Azerbaijan was looking for Georgian railways, ports and
pipelines as an important alternative for the export of Caspian energy
supplies to Western markets. All of this has stopped, putting both
Georgia and Azerbaijan in economic difficulties. Nonetheless, there
is little fear in official circles in Baku that Russia will bomb the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and other energy-related infrastructures
to destroy the successful East-West transport and energy corridor
between Azerbaijan and Georgia.

Azerbaijan is Georgia’s strategic ally. Both countries are united
not only by geopolitical interests and world-class pipelines, but
also by the regional security organization GUAM. GUAM, although
passive for most of the decade, has lately been re-energized and
even played with the idea of establishing its own peacekeeping and
security forces. Under such a situation, it seems like GUAM would be a
convenient venue to express support and solidarity with the Georgians.

Azerbaijan, however, finds itself in a very difficult situation. On
the one hand, there is enormous public support for Georgia
throughout Azerbaijan. In private conversations, almost all
Azerbaijanis blame Russia for aggression and express frustration
with the imperialist policies of the Kremlin in the South
Caucasus. A group of intelligentsia went to the Russian embassy
on August 10 to protest against the military actions in Georgia
(). This was repeated by members
of youth organizations (, August 11). The main opposition
party Musavat issued a statement on August 11, calling for "respect
of the territorial integrity of Georgia and an immediate stop to the
aggressive policy of Russia" (Musavat party press release). The party
called on the Azerbaijani government to show a "principled position"
on the conflict. A similar statement came from the Democratic Party
of Azerbaijan.

For its pro-Georgian coverage of the events, the most popular
Azerbaijani news website was attacked by Russian special
forces on August 11 and had to cease its activities temporarily
( press release, August 11). Elnur Baimov, the editor in
chief of said on August 11 that "we all saw the diplomatic
loss of Russia."

Government officials have been relatively calm about the situation,
considering the fragile relations between Moscow and Baku and the
desire of the latter not to ruin bilateral relations between the two
countries. The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khazar
Ibrahim told journalists on August 8, however, that "Azerbaijan favors
the solution of the South Ossetia conflict based on the territorial
integrity of Georgia and Georgian adherence to international law"
().

On August 11, ANS TV reported that 50 Azerbaijanis had gathered in
Georgia’s Azerbaijani-populated provinces to go to the war for the
defense of their country. It is noteworthy that Russians have bombed
Azerbaijani populated areas of Georgia for three days in a row, killing
four and wounding dozens. The possibility is not excluded that this
was done in hopes of fomenting strife between Azeris and Georgians.

The present situation in Georgia presents huge security concerns for
official Baku. If Russia manages to squeeze Georgia, then it would
put an end to the economic independence of Azerbaijan as well. Many
analysts in Baku believe that the real purpose of the pressure on
Georgia is the Kremlin’s desire to control Azerbaijan.

Thus, it is vital for Azerbaijan to provide all necessary assistance
to its strategic ally. Considering the political realities between
Baku and Moscow, it is unlikely that the Azerbaijani government will
provide any military assistance to Georgia. Economic and humanitarian
assistance, however, is definitely an option. Azerbaijan remains the
only viable international outlet for Georgia, and many Georgians have
already started using the territory of Azerbaijan to travel abroad.

Azerbaijani political analysts believe that the war in Georgia is a
long-term loss for the Kremlin. By showing its neo-imperialist face,
Russia may have lost the Caucasus forever. The political analyst
Ilgar Mammadov says that "If Georgia stays strong for few more days,
we will all see the defeat of Russia from the Caucasus." Another
analyst Vugar Seidov says "The departure of Russia from Abkhazia and
South Ossetia is historically inevitable" (Regnum, August 10).

RUSSIAN TELCO ALTIMO’S PAST TO HAUNT INDIA PLANS

TMCnet
August 12, 2008

(Ecomonic Times, The (India) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge)
Aug. 12–NEW DELHI — In a development that could jeopardise Russian
telco Altimo’s plans of entering India, the home ministry (MHA) has
said the company is embroiled in lawsuits and faces allegations of
fraud, corruption and bribery.

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It has also said its parent company, the Alpha Group, is under
investigation by European anti-money laundering agencies, in
addition to being named in the Volcker Report in connection with the
oil-for-food scandal. These observations were made by the ministry
while rejecting the foreign investment proposal of a company with
which the Alpha Group jointly owns a bank.

Altimo owns a 44 percent stake in VimpelCom and 25 percent in
Megafon, which together control more than 80 percent of the Russian
communications market. It has been looking to establish a toehold
in India for the past two years, and is reported to have been in
talks with realty major Unitech to pick up a 26 percent stake in its
telecom arm.

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The telecom firm, in the past, has been linked to several other
companies which were awarded telecom licences recently. Last year,
Altimo was among the five bidders to acquire a controlling stake
in Hutchison Essar, but the deal eventually went to British giant
Vodafone. Following its failure, Altimo, in a statement, had said
it had borrowed $1.5 billion from Deutsche Bank to expand in a
fast-growing market like India.

However, the home ministry’s observations that Altimo and its parent
company, Alpha, have a "tainted background" could become a stumbling
block for their India plans.

The Alpha Group, controlled by Russian oligarch Mikhail Friedman,
is one of the largest conglomerates in the world with interests in
oil and gas, commercial and investment banking, asset management,
insurance, retail trade, telecommunications, technology and media.

The consortium has been entangled in a series of controversies, the
latest being the fight with British Petroleum over control of TNK-BP,
one of Russia’s largest oil and gas companies.

Altimo’s valuation is pegged at over $30 billion and has a customer
base, through all its subsidiaries, of over 150 million. For the
past three years, Altimo has been locked in a legal dispute with
Norwegian telecom major Telenor over VimpelCom in which Telenor
has about 30 percent. VimpelCom, through its different arms, has
operations in Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan,
Georgia and Armenia.

The government’s strong views on Altimo came to light when Meta
Telecom, which has been issued national and international licences by
the Department of Telecom, sought the Foreign Investment Promotion
Board’s (FIPB) nod to permit Cyprus-based Daltotrade to raise its
foreign holding in the company to 74 percent from the current 40
percent.

The home ministry, in its report to FIPB, pointed out that Daltotrade
owned 42.7 percent in Belarus-based Mezhtorgbank, adding that the
Alpha Group also held a 40 percent stake in the bank. The report
added that according to the US Centre for Public Integrity, Alpha
Group president Mikhail Friedman and his colleague Pyotr Aven were
involved in drug trafficking on a global scale.

Another possible reason for FIPB to reject the proposal could be based
on the department of revenue’s report. It said Meta Telecom has only
provided skeletal information about Daltotrade and key details like
the company’s financial credibility and sources of funds had not
been furnished.

To see more of The Economic Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper,
go to

Copyright (c) 2008, The Economic Times, India Distributed by
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985
or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The
Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview,
IL 60025, USA.

–Boundary_(ID_sIAvTCC42YdFqqUtqUkdfg)–

NEVER AGAIN, AGAIN, AGAIN …GENOCIDE: ARMENIA, THE HOLOCAUST, CAMBODIA, (VERSION ANGLAISE SEULEMENT)

Tolerance.ca
August 12, 2008
Canada

Communiqués

Lane H. Montgomery’s haunting and beautiful book NEVER AGAIN, AGAIN,
AGAIN…Genocide: Armenia, The Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Darfur is as educational as it is unnerving. Montgomery
asserts that it’s not that the average reader doesn’t know about
genocide — digital cameras, cell phones, the internet and the
immediacy of the media have taken care of that; most simply are unaware
of the scope of genocide over the last century. More than 70 million
people have been systematically murdered in the past 100 years. Most
of the perpetrators responsible for these horrific killings have
never been, and never will be, brought to justice.

Montgomery is on the advisory board of the Harvard Humanitarian
Initiative and is a member of the Center of the National Cathedral
for Peace and Global Reconciliation in Washington DC. As an author
and photographer, she’s traveled worldwide in such places as Liberia,
Rwanda, Haiti, Kosovo, Bosnia, Ethiopia, the Congo- where, humanitarian
groups such as Americares, the International Rescue Committee (the
IRC) and SIM (a Christian advocacy sponsor for children with AIDS)
have taken her.

In a particularly revealing moment, the characteristically stoic
Montgomery admits that she was unprepared for the horrors of genocide
in Rwanda. Upon entering a church full of clothed skeletons – Christian
worshippers looking for sanctuary, only to be turned in to the Hutu
machetes by their own pastor, Montgomery told her driver, a Tutsi,
"I don’t think I can do this".

Interspersed among Montgomery’s own steely narrative are deeply
disturbing first-hand accounts of survival, reprints of interviews
with war criminals, and editorials by ambassadors, academicians,
human rights activists, and journalists. She has enlisted a handful
of prestigious contributors: Chuck Sudetic, reporter for The New York
Times from 1990 to 1996 on the collapse of Yugoslavia and other Balkan
countries; Terry George, co-producer of the movie "Hotel Rwanda";
Ambassador James Rosenthal, former Director of Vietnam, Laos, and
Cambodia Affairs at the Indochine Desk of the State Department;
Richard G. Hovannisian, American Educational Foundation Professor
of Modern Armenian History at UCLA; Ruth Messinger, president of
American Jewish World Service; and Rabbi Arthur Schneier, President,
Appeal of Conscience Foundation.

As for the photographs, Montgomery took over 40 of them. They range
from archival black-and-whites to beautifully crisp full-color images
worthy of the finest travel magazine. Divided into six sections by
genocide, each includes a dramatic timeline separating fact from
possible denial.

By including such a cross section of contributors and a detailed
photographic and written records of major genocides, Montgomery avoids
making a political statement; she makes a human one, inviting us all
to be affronted by the details of the tyranny and slaughter hidden
from so many.

Never Again, Again, Again…

Genocide: Armenia, The Holocaust, Cambodia,

Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Darfur, 2008.

–Boundary_(ID_ei9xi1FNc+noaH/Op8tFkQ)–

US BLACKLISTS FIVE IRANIAN ENTITIES CITING NUCLEAR, MISSILE TIES

The Post
Agence France Presse
August 12, 2008
Pakistan

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury said Tuesday that it had imposed sanctions
on five Iranian entities for alleged ties to the country’s nuclear
and missile programs.

Washington has already blacklisted Iranian entities and banks for
their apparent links and support of Iran’s nuclear programs. Tehran
has steadfastly denied it is pursuing nuclear arms, and says its
nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

"Responsible financial institutions and businesses worldwide are
taking steps to avoid doing business with Iranian nuclear and missile
entities, as well as with the front companies and cut-outs the Iranian
regime uses to disguise its activities," said Stuart Levey, a senior
Treasury official.

The five entities were identified as the Nuclear Research Center for
Agriculture and Medicine, the Esfahan National Fuel Research and
Production Center, Jabber Ibn Hayan, Safety Equipment Procurement
Company and Joza Industrial Company. "These five nuclear and missile
entities have been used by Iran to hide its illicit conduct and further
its dangerous nuclear ambitions," Levey charged. The sanctions bar
any US citizen from business dealings with the Iranian groups and
also freezes any assets the groups may have under US jurisdiction.

Iran builds new, smart sub: Iranian state radio is quoting the
country’s defense minister as saying Iran’s military capabilities
"increased remarkably" after the construction of a new submarine.

General Mostafa Mohammadnajjar says the submarine is "smart," unmanned
and has radar-evading capabilities. Tuesday’s report did not elaborate
on its size and technical specifics, and did not say whether the
submarine had been tested. Iran occasionally announces production of
advanced weapons. Since 1992, it has been active in producing military
tanks, missiles, torpedoes, as well as guided bombs and airplanes.

But little is known about Iranian submarines, beyond announcements
years ago that Tehran bought some Russian subs and was to produce
its own, smaller-sized ones.

Resistance pays off, says Iran’s Khamenei: Iran’s supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that resistance by nations against
major world powers pays off, state television reported. "People and
their government’s resistance and their demanding their rights will
bear fruit," Khamenei said during a meeting with visiting Algerian
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the report said.

The meeting was held on the last day of a three-day visit by the
Algerian leader to Tehran.

"The Iranian nation and government achieved all the progress they have
despite pressures, sanctions, and threats by the domineering powers,"
Khamenei said. Tehran has been at loggerheads with the West for the
past five years over its controversial nuclear programme. During
Bouteflika’s visit, Tehran and Algiers inked separate agreements
on avoiding double taxation and customs cooperation as well as a
memorandum of understanding for banking cooperation, the television
said. On Monday, Bouteflika met with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who said Tehran would press on with its nuclear programme
despite the risk of fresh sanctions. Iran is facing a possible fourth
round of UN Security Council sanctions over its refusal to halt
enrichment, a process which makes nuclear fuel but also the core of
an atomic bomb.

Turkey awaits Nejad’s visit

ANKARA: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will pay a two-day visit
to Turkey this week for talks expected to focus on bilateral ties and
Tehran’s nuclear programme, a government official said Tuesday. The
trip was planned well in advance of the conflict in Georgia, which
— bordering as it does on Turkey and separated from Iran only
by small landlocked Armenia — is a geopolitical concern for both
nations. Ahmadinejad, who arrives Thursday in Istanbul, will meet in
the metropolis with President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan, said the official, who requested anonymity and gave no
details. Israel last week voiced misgivings over Ahmadinejad’s visit,
saying it was "not the appropriate time" for Turkey, its main regional
ally, to host the Iranian president. "It is not a good idea to give
legitimacy" to a leader who has called for the destruction of Israel
and denies the Holocaust, moreover at a time when Western powers are
mulling fresh sanctions against Iran over its controversial nuclear
programme, an Israeli diplomat based in Ankara said. Ankara, which
had in the past complained of Iranian attempts to undermine Turkey’s
secular order, has in recent years significantly improved relations
with its eastern neighbour. – AFP