Putin Accuses U.S. of Encouraging Tbilisi to Attack S.Ossetia

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 29 Aug.’08 / 00:40

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has alleged that the United States not only failed to restrain the Georgian leadership from launching hostilities in South Ossetia, but that it even encouraged Tbilisi to attack Tskhinvali.

“I hoped that the U.S. administration would intervene to stop the aggression of the Georgian leadership, but nothing of this kind happened,” he said in an interview with CNN aired on August 28.

He then said that the U.S. administration’s failure to restrain the Georgian authorities had “damaged our relations.”

“But the thing is that not only has the U.S. administration failed to restrain the leadership from committing this criminal act, but in fact it equipped and trained the Georgian army,” he said.

“Even during the Cold War, during the time of tough confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States, we always avoided direct clashes between our citizens and servicemen. We have serious reasons to believe that directly in the combat zone citizens of the United States were present. And if that is the case, a suspicion arises that someone in the United States has on purpose created this conflict to worsen the situation and create an advantage in the competitive struggle for one of the presidential candidates in the United States.”

[…]

The White House has denied the Russian prime minister’s allegations, saying they were “patently false.”

“It also sounds like his defense officials who said they believed this to be true are giving him really bad advice,” Dana Perino, a White House spokesperson, said on August 28.

Meanwhile, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on August 28 that it was “well known” who had helped the Georgian authorities and “even encouraged” them to launch military hostilities against South Ossetia.

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=19332

U.S. Official Says Tbilisi was Told to Avoid Armed Conflict with Russia

Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 20 Aug.’08 / 17:45

U.S. deputy assistance secretary of state, Matthew Bryza, said Washington had been warning Georgia against going into direct armed conflict with Russia.

“Our message was consistent to our Georgian colleagues … ‘Avoid a direct military confrontation with Russia at all costs. You cannot prevail. It simply is not possible,’” Reuters reported quoting Bryza as saying. “It [Russia] can almost instantaneously roll tanks in. And then even if you succeed miraculously in stopping the tanks, and the infantry, and the mechanized infantry, which move very quickly, it’s the air power that’s finally going to get you. And that is what happened.”

http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=19226

[…]

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin castigated the western media for what he called their consistently anti-Russian reporting of the Georgia conflict.

But in Europe’s free and diverse media Russia’s side of the story is regularly reported in detail, and views critical of the US over Iraq and Kosovo are commonplace.

In Russia, by contrast, the most influential medium of TV is heavily slanted to favour the Kremlin’s line.

[…]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7586662.stm

Three journalists — Giga Chikhladze, correspondent of Russian Newsweek and head of Alania TV, Alexander Klimchuk, head of the photo agency Caucasus Press Images and correspondent for the news agency Itar-Tass, and Stan Storimans, cameraman for the Dutch TV station RTL-4 - have been killed since fighting began in Georgia on 8 August. The death of a fourth journalist, a Georgian, and his driver, reportedly in the bombing of Gori on 12 August, has not been confirmed.

[…]

Four Turkish journalists — Hilmi Hacaloglu, Cumhur Catkaya, Güray Ervin and Levent Öztürk - working for TV stations NTV and Kanal Türk, were caught in gunfire from Soujth Ossetian militiamen as they drove to Tskhinvali on 11 August.

The all-news station NTV showed film they shot while trapped and wounded in their jeep. The militiamen stopped shooting when the journalists identified themselves at a distance. […]

[…]

Tamara Urushadze, correspondent of the state-owned Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB), was slightly wounded in the arm by sniper fire while reporting on 15 August.

Tzadok Yehezkeli, of the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, broke his leg in several places when he was caught in the Russian bombing of Gori on 12 August. He was operated on at Tibilisi’s Ghudushauri hospital and is out of danger.

A group of Israeli journalists was stopped by Russian soldiers in Gori on 14 August. Tzur Sheizaf, of the news website Ynetnews (the online version of Yedioth Ahronoth), was taking pictures near a Russian army checkpoint on the edge of Gori when a soldier stopped him and fired in the air, causing civilian panic. He demanded the keys of the vehicle carrying Sheizaf and three colleagues.

[…]

Several media outlets have been ransacked during the fighting. Radio station Atinati went off the air on 13 August after the Russian army destroyed its antenna on the Urta hills, near Zugdidi. Station chief Gia Khasia said troops had taken away all its transmission equipment. Atinati broadcasts in Russian and Georgian with an audience in Abkhazia. It got back on the air using other equipment but with limited range.

Russian troops also ransacked the TV station Ergisi, in Senaki, 30 kms from Zugdidi, stealing several video cameras and computers. The station has not been able to resume broadcasting.

Lasha Berulava, correspondent for radio station Imedi and the news agency Interpress News, and Murad Partsvania, of the TV station Odishi, were arrested and held for several hours by the Russian army at the Tskemi military base, in the Abasha region.

http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=28213

Georgia: Satellite Images Show Destruction, Ethnic Attacks

Russia Should Investigate, Prosecute Crimes

( New York , August 29, 2008) – Recent satellite images released by the UN program UNOSAT confirm the widespread torching of ethnic Georgian villages inside South Ossetia , Human Rights Watch said today. Detailed analysis of the damage depicted in five ethnic Georgian villages shows the destruction of these villages around the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, was caused by intentional burning and not armed combat.

“Human Rights Watch researchers personally witnessed Ossetian militias looting and burning down ethnic Georgian villages during their research in the area,” said Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. “These satellite images indicate just how widespread the torching of these villages has been in the last two weeks.”

The new satellite images, taken by a commercial satellite on August 19, were analyzed by experts of the Geneva-based UNOSAT program, which is part of the UN Institute for Training and Research and produces satellite-derived mapping in support of UN agencies and the international humanitarian community. UNOSAT experts identified visible structures on the images that were likely to have been either destroyed or severely damaged. The expert analysis indicates clear patterns of destruction that are consistent with the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch researchers working in the region.

[…]

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/28/georgi19712.htm