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Georgia: Russian OSCE Monitor Call

Although the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) had already decided to increase the number of military observers to up to 100, the BBC reports that Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has echoed such calls in order to provide “impartial monitoring.” The news items also says that Medvedev has spoken to the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the continuing dispute over the breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also spoke with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, on Saturday, according to the AFP agency.

The conversations came ahead of an extraordinary EU meeting set to start on Monday, where Russia’s recognition of the two territories is likely to be strongly criticised.

The Kremlin statement said Mr Medvedev told Mr Brown that the Georgian aggression “fundamentally altered the conditions in which, during 17 years, attempts were made to the settle the relations between South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Georgia”.

The conflict in the region began on 7 August when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia by force after a series of lower-level clashes.

[…]

Russia has since withdrawn the bulk of its force and says the troops left behind are serving as peacekeepers.

Georgia has described them as an occupation force, announcing that it is cutting diplomatic relations with Moscow.

The Kremlin statement said Russia was “in favour of the deployment of additional OSCE [Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe] monitors in the security zone” in Georgia.

Earlier this month, the OSCE decided to increase the number of its military observers by up 100 in Georgia.

The Russian statement also said that Moscow “looks forward to maintaining a constructive dialogue with EU, other international organisations, as well as individual countries”.

Pictures ’show Georgia torching’

Satellite images have confirmed that ethnic Georgian villages inside South Ossetia have been deliberately burned, US-based Human Rights Watch says.

It said analysis by UN experts showed the damage “was caused by intentional burning and not armed combat”.

HRW researchers had “personally witnessed Ossetian militias looting and burning down ethnic Georgian villages”.

The group said this was evidence of war crimes and urged Russia to prosecute those responsible.

[…]

The satellite images show active fires in five ethnic Georgian villages around the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, on on 10, 12, 13, 17, 19 and 22 August - well after active hostilities ended in the area on 10 August, Human Rights Watch said.

“The images strongly indicate that the majority of the destruction in five of the villages - Tamarasheni, Kekhvi, Kvemo Achabeti, Zemo Achabeti, and Kurta - was caused by intentional burning.

“The high-resolution images of these villages show no impact craters from incoming shelling or rocket fire, or aerial bombardment.”

[…]

“The expert analysis indicates clear patterns of destruction that are consistent with the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch researchers working in the region,” the human rights group said.

The researchers had spoken to several members of the Ossetian militias who “openly admitted that the houses were being burned by their associates, explaining that the objective was to ensure that ethnic Georgians would not have the houses to return to,” it said.

“All of this adds up to compelling evidence of war crimes and grave human rights abuses,” said Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

“This should persuade the Russian government it needs to prosecute those responsible for these crimes.”

Researchers have suggested both sides may have violated the codes of war - using violence that was either disproportionate or indiscriminate, or both - claims that the International Criminal Court is currently investigating.

Russian prosecutors have announced they are opening criminal cases into the deaths of 133 civilians who they say were killed by Georgian forces.

And Georgia has filed a lawsuit against Russia at the International Court of Justice, based at The Hague, alleging the country had attempted to ethnically cleanse Georgians from the breakaway regions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7588473.stm

Georgia: Russian OSCE Monitor Call

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