Georgia Dispatches: On The Road To Gori

16 August 2008: It was meant to be the day to check the situation of IDPs in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, but a routine call to a government media coordinator changed all of that. Peter Semenby, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus, and Urmas Paet, the Estonian Foreign Minister, were planning to visit Gori, the strategic town occupied by Russian forces 47 miles West of Tbilisi.

With numerous cases of journalists being targeted and even killed in and around Gori, the chance to enter was one that couldn’t be missed. The town had already been hit twice by Russian cluster bombs and most of the population had fled. South Ossetian militia were operating in the area and Georgians as well as international organization staff were most adamant — DO NOT visit Gori.

The International News Safety Institute (INSI) explains why:

Widespread looting is being reported in Gori with reports that some news teams were forced to give up their equipment.

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On Sunday, a BBC team near a Russian checkpoint came under rocket fire from aircraft near Gori. No one was wounded but they had a narrow escape.

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Journalists should still be extremely cautious around Gori and I would caution against going north to any of the villages en route to Tshinvali / Chinvali

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Russian General Viacheslav Borisov refused to assume responsibility for lives of the journalists in Gori.

Georgian journalist of GPB TV Company Tamar Urushadze was shot presumably by sniper in live broadcast near Gori. Journalist was slightly wounded in the hand.

Four Israeli journalists, including Haaretz correspondent Anshel Pfeffer and photographer Nir Kafri, were robbed at gunpoint by Russian soldiers in the Georgian city of Gori.

Russian military attacked operator of Georgian TV Rustavi2 and threatening with gun he prevented journalist to implement his duties near Gori.

Early afternoon. 3 journalists of Canadian CBC TV including head of the Moscow office were robbed of their car, equipment and other belongings by paramilitary presumably of North Caucasian origin near Gori. Accident happened near Russian soldiers who took no efforts to stop the robbery.

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Czech journalists were robbed in the vicinity of the town of Gori last night. Several persons attacked them and took away their car and video and photo cameras. The journalists have said that the assailants were not Russians. They assume that the marauders looked like Chechens. After an hour-long captivity the journalists arrived in Tbilisi on foot although they were unable to reclaim the cameras or other technical means.

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A Georgian journalist covering his country’s conflict with Russia was killed Tuesday when a shell hit their car in Gori city, an AFP photographer at the scene said.

His driver also died in the mid-morning incident, said the photographer, who saw the journalist’s ID card and the stricken vehicle in the main square of Gori alongside a huge statue of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin.

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A Dutch television journalist was killed overnight when Russian warplanes bombed the central Georgian city of Gori.

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The television news station RTL reported on its Web site that its cameraman Stan Storimans, 39, was killed and correspondent Jeroen Akkermans was wounded in the leg in the attack. RTL said, in all, five people died in the Gori bombing.

But, with two high-ranking European officials along for the ride, how could we not?

Be outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a little before 2pm, I was told before relaying the message to Elizabeth Owen, EurasiaNet’s Caucasus Editor, and an Austrian journalist, Florian Lems. In retrospect, I wonder why we even bothered to be there on time. Standing around for over an hour while EU flags were affixed on the roofs of their vehicles, we wondered if they wouldn’t make excellent targets for the Russians. The same was true for the bright yellow on blue EU circle on their t-shirts.

That might have sunk in with the EU guys, I suppose, as they then decided that going to Gori wasn’t such a good idea after all. Paet would go, however, but he didn’t want to take journalists. Great, time well spent when we could have been doing something else. Maybe we could go, we were told, and we should now go to the Marriot Tbilisi to wait some more. The bus that was meant to transport us to Gori drove there, but we were expected to walk. It seemed as though they were trying to get rid of us.

Not a chance…

Photos: Geogian checkpoint, road to Gori, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

We stood our ground and finally, two hours later, we were off. Exiting Tbilisi, the scene was surreal with Georgia’s busiest highway linking East and West Georgia deserted. Gori is the main strategic town and with the Russians controlling it and the road, there was little point for anyone else to travel on it. About Twenty miles out we hit obvious signs of Georgian military positions and two road blocks which once again delayed us on our journey.

Photos: Georgian IDPs, Kaspi-Gori crossroads, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

The bridge at Kaspi had been destroyed, there were reports of possible Russian troop movements towards the town, and the OSCE had its military observers in place to look in vain for signs of a Russian withdrawal that never came.

Photos: OSCE Military Observers, Kaspi-Gori crossroads, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

By the time the bus had already turned round to face back to Tbilisi, enough was enough. Already having walked further on down the road to the Gori-Kaspi crossroads, a few ethnic Georgians were walking towards the capital with whatever they could carry. Russian troops were further on ahead, we were told, and without even thinking, we decided that’s where we should be. So, Elizabeth, Florens, a Georgian photographer, the Washington Post’s Jon Finer and I walked the few hundred meters to the first Russian troops we had seen.

Photos: Russian Checkpoint, Igoeti, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

And the mood was quite cordial with some local villagers chatting to them as they stopped the occasional car going past. Half an hour later, however, Paet and his convoy drove past — minus the media bus that was meant to take us to Gori. Those journalists still at the Georgian checkpoint had been stranded — as had we at the Russian one. When a passing car hired by a lone journalist was stopped by the Russians we asked if we could travel with him. Along with a few other journalists who had also abandoned the Georgian checkpoint, we all climbed in only to find that the final Russian roadblock outside Gori would not let us in.

“We’re with the Estonian Foreign Minister,” we explained, but the Russians were unswayed. Even calls to the delegation inside Gori were ignored. “The Russians won’t let you in,” we were told by phone, but it seemed more like Paet and his entourage had finally managed to ditch us. Still, we managed to talk to some of the Russians manning the roadblock. One had even been to Armenia on holiday and enjoyed it more than his current stay in Georgia. “Armenians are more hospitable than Georgians,” he said.

He’s probably right. After all, when he visited Armenia he didn’t do so in a tank with thousands of other Russian soldiers and certainly didn’t have his air force drop bombs on Armenian towns and villages. Still, he was a nice kid and just doing his job. Contrary to reports from Moscow, the Russians also confirmed that they had received no orders to withdraw. Having also missed the chance to get into Gori to spend the night there with Alexander Lomaia, head of Georgia’s National Security Council, we had no choice but to eventually leave as night set in.

Wasting time on the road to Gori, and also money. Drivers willing to take journalists to Gori charge hundreds of dollars for the 140 kilometer round trip. No surprise perhaps when you consider that South Ossetian militias not only hijack vehicles, but are known to execute anyone they want. Adding insult to injury, I later ran into the lovely Margarita Antidze, Reuters’ Senior Correspondent in the Caucasus, and she said that their car had been stopped too, but when they saw Paet’s convoy they tagged on the end and got into Gori.

Crafty.

Photos: Russian Roadblock, Gori, Republic of Georgia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008