Georgia: Human Rights Concerns

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting (IWPR) has an article by its Caucasus Editor on the continuing crisis in Georgia. In the piece, Tom de Waal looks at claims and counter-claims from Georgia and Russia alleging human rights abuses by the other. It also notes that Human Rights Watch have urged caution when considering [Russian] claims of thousands dead.

Russian officials are adopting a tone of moral outrage. Talking to the BBC on August 11, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov countered criticism from US vice-president Dick Cheney, saying, “We deeply regret that Mr Cheney never reacted in such a harsh way when the Georgian military was killing women and children in South Ossetia.”

Few believe this is the actual motivation for Russia’s actions. Attacking the port of Poti on the Black Sea or the town of Senaki, 230 kilometres from South Ossetia, can hardly be justified as actions performed to protect Ossetian civilians.

A struggle for regional strategic control seems to be the real reason behind the Russian assault. […]

[…]

Over the past 24 hours, attention has now turned to the plight of ethnic Georgians in South Ossetia.

Human Rights Watch researchers in South Ossetia on August 12 said they saw ethnic Georgian villages still burning from fires set by South Ossetian militias, witnessed looting by the militias and learned firsthand of the plight of ethnic Ossetian villagers who had fled Georgian soldiers.

[…]

It is hard to assess the level of civilian casualties that resulted from the attack on Tskhinvali. The Russian authorities’ claim of 2,000 dead has not been independently verified. Human Rights Watch is urging caution, saying it has seen only dozens of wounded in hospitals in North Ossetia.

But we do know that many civilians died – and if more did not, it was thanks to the thick cellars of Tskhinvali, not Georgian restraint. Ossetians talk of a continuous bombardment for 14 hours of both the city and the road north to the mountains.

[…]

The government also said it is filing a law suit against Russia at the International Court of Justice, ICJ, accusing Moscow of ethnic cleansing in Georgia from 1993 to 2008.

[…]

[…] The Russians are not party to the statute but have said that they may file complaints. Potentially, the court could prove an arena where the facts of this bitter conflict are properly investigated – but only if both sides cooperate with an enquiry that could potentially uncover terrible evidence of human rights abuses.