Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

On threshold of war


Calm before the storm. This is how many observers are defining the situation in the region today. At the same time both Georgian and Russian (Ossetian) sides keep concealing the real state of affairs.

But it’s not too clear who needs that silencing and why countless international organizations have been quiet about it, while they have all of the reliable information not only about the situation in South Ossetia, but about the situation in Pankisi (Northern Georgia) and Javakhetia (Southern Georgia) as well. However, many are linking this silence to the forthcoming presidential elections in the US. Like, this is why the hot stage of the conflict must be postponed for as long as possible.

Russian side has its own reasons for that, and this is why Russia is acting aggressively and knows that Georgia’s protectors have no time for Georgia right at this moment.

Just one touch to what was said above. On August 18 at 5 AM Georgian armed forces conducted a successful operation on taking the commanding heights near South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali. According to the official version, the total casualties in the battles were no more than 25 killed. About 20 of them were Ossetians. In reality, according to the real figures that Kavkaz Center has, the total number of casualties was 59 killed and 13 wounded. Including 12 Georgian servicemen dead and 6 wounded. On the Russian side 47 were killed, 4 of them were Ossetians and everybody else was so-called 'Russian peacekeepers', and 24 were wounded.

At the present time both sides are intensely getting ready for war. According to the information that came on August 27, the newest Russian military vehicles have already been dispatched to Tskhinvali (eyewitnesses claim these are totally new models). Formations of so-called 'peacekeepers' from Russia keep coming. Provocateurs from all kinds of secret services are working to the max. And provocateurs from among the cons from Russian prisons have been placed to the frontlines. They are the ones who get drunk and constantly perpetrate provocations on the contact line and organize psychological attacks. The military vehicles that they drive are running into Georgian checkpoints. Russians have already taken all commanding heights at the potential seat of war, and the Georgians gave up these positions so easily.

Georgia is still under the delusion that it can come to some kind of an agreement with the northern monster. And this is where its bashful silence comes from, and this is why Georgia is avoiding any direct accusations against Russia or Putin personally in provoking a new war. Plus all kinds of stories that Russian government still has some forces that act against Putin’s orders, and all sorts of other bologna.

Russia's war against the Caucasus, which is predatory and colonial war in its essence, has virtually never stopped. Today’s confrontation is only a sequel of the many centuries of Russia's aggressive policies. And Georgia is only one of Moscow’s targets.

In this situation Georgian president Saakashvili cannot come up with anything better than state his support for Putin’s bloody anti-Chechen policies and state about his respect for Russia's territorial integrity. It seems like reaction of President Maskhadov to these statements would have been appropriate had he said that he «supports Russia's tendency to defend the interests of its citizens in Ossetia, where 90 percent of the population are citizens of Russia».

But the Chechen leader is showing patience and wisdom, while gently pointing out that Russia is not the partner who understands the language of diplomacy. Moreover, the Chechen side has stated on many occasions that it is ready to help Georgia in case Russia commits an aggression.

But weak threats that the Georgian political elite has been making to Moscow -- that Georgia may start having closer relations with Chechnya in revenge for Ossetia -- should not be taken seriously for the simple fact that the decisions on this particular issue are made in Washington, but not in Saakashvili’s office. So far the US is considering Chechens as potential adversaries, who pose a threat of so-called 'Islamization' of the Caucasus. Washington is not making its hostile attitude towards the Chechen Resistance a secret, and it stresses it any time it gets a chance to. This is why Saakashvili will never allow any real cooperation with Chechens unless Washington issues proper instructions.

But whatever the case is, the reality can make its own corrections to the situation. This is the reality that Georgian leadership must be ready for. So far the Georgian government keeps playing anti-Chechen games and Western organizations are helping it doing that, like United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) is for example.

The actions of that organization are striking in their cynicism and falsehood. Right now the UNHCR is making unbelievable efforts to make Georgian human rights activists and victims of the punitive raid, which the Georgian military conducted on August 3 in Pankisi, stop compiling the materials about these events. Everybody was promised entry to other states.

What is it? Whose interests are they defending and whose tyranny are they covering up? There is no doubt that Russia was the one behind the crimes committed by Georgian power structures on August 3, and the sanction to the Georgian authorities was issued by the US, which is playing backstage games with its partner in anti-Islamic coalition, Russia.

In spite of aspiration of Chechen and Georgian people towards mutual understanding, good-neighborly relations and support, the authorities are bringing strife and enmity in these relations. For what?

Neither Russia nor the US need desolate and depopulated Pankisi. Human material is what is needed here: those who were sent there to pose as a 'militant' or as an 'Arab'.

A few days before Georgian troops attacked Chechen women and children in Pankisi on August 3 some strange individuals were walking across the villages of the Pankisi Gorge. They were looking for six volunteers who had to be bearded and one of them had to speak Arabic.

They were offering $ 100 US dollars to everybody just for posing in front of a camcorder. And they were offering a much larger amount of money for attacking a checkpoint of Georgian troops. But no such volunteers were found. And the notorious punitive raid was conducted shortly after.

Apparently, it is not the first or the last provocation of this kind. The question is why it is being done.

Data Tutashkhia, Tbilisi, Georgia.

For Kavkaz-Center

2004-08-29 12:16:35

http://kavkazcenter.com/eng/article.php?id=3133