South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Kosovo and the future
26.08.2009 Source: URL:
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/108999-ossetiaabkhaziakosovo-0
One year after Russia’s recognition of the Independence of the Republics of
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Caucasus begins to gain a new shape, enjoy more
stability and make more sense, while Moscow is welcomed as a friend in its
historic sphere of operations. Given the actions and reactions of other powers
not so friendly to Moscow, it hardly comes as a surprise.
Climate of peace, finally
One year on, there is finally a climate of peace in the Caucasus. True, there
continue to be a handful of agents provocateurs in Chechnya and there continue
to be cells of criminals and bandits in Dagestan and Ingushetia, like
everywhere else. However, the citizens of Abkhazia and South Ossetia today are
more relaxed, feel safer, feel happier, feel at home with their new neighbours
who wish to help them develop instead of exterminating them like Saakashvili’s
Georgians.
The tremendous effort in social and economic projects funded and financed by
Moscow from the budget of the Russian Federation comes as a stark contrast to
the years of oppression these Republics suffered under a Georgia which
historically refused to hold the referendums it was bound to in these
territories under the Soviet law it had signed. Nothing is mentioned of this in
the russophobic western press.
Moscow showed extreme patience for years
For years, Moscow did its utmost to try to achieve a political and negotiated
solution to the question of these territories populated by Ossetians and
Abkhazes, ethnic Russians, inside Georgia, always from a point of view which
would be satisfactory for Tblisi. Georgia spent years, and increasingly so
under the Putchist mass murdering maniac Saakashvili, blocking the processes,
obstructing the rule of law and finally, last Summer, launching a shocking act
of butchery – one hopes, without the consent of Saakashvili’s masters in
Washington.
So what was Moscow supposed to do? Sit back and watch its citizens being
slaughtered by a bunch of maniacs egged on by mercenaries from NATO
sympathisers and US military advisors? Women and children were strafed with
machinegun-fire in basement apartments. Old men were slaughtered in the
streets. Babies were crushed with tanks by Georgian soldiers laughing in a
drunken hysteria of derision and hatred. Is this the type of operations
Washington trained them for?
Certainly US-sponsored Saakashvili made a dramatic miscalculation that night
but what to expect from a tie-chewing lunatic wholly and totally unprepared for
government and wholly and totally prepared to feather his nest and those of the
mafia which surrounds him at the expense of the people of Georgia?
Moscow acted with restraint
Nobody knows what was going through the mind of Mikheil Saakashvili on that
fateful night of August 7 to August 8, 2008. Hours after signing a peace
agreement, he ordered his troops to launch a massive attack against Tskhinval
and to prepare a similar assault on Abkhazia, thinking (absurdly) perhaps that
because Prime Minister Putin was at the Olympic Games, Russia’s attention would
be focused elsewhere.
What followed was a humiliating defeat for the murderous Georgian military
forces and their US backers and trainers (TV footage which western news sources
had forgotten to edit showed very clear orders in American English to the
fleeing Georgian troops) and despite the fact that Russia’s Armed Forces had a
resounding success and a brilliant victory, the response was measured and
contained, limited to a punitive raid to downgrade Georgia’s capacity to launch
such a savage attack again.
Many questioned why Russia did not go all the way to Tblisi and drag
Saakashvili before a court to be tried for war crimes, while meting out to the
cities of Georgia what the Georgians did to Tskhinval. However, Moscow stands
for the rule of law and this it upheld through a rightful expulsion of the
aggressor, protecting civilian life and refraining from causing unnecessary
damage (compare for example the US campaign in Iraq where civilian structures
were wantonly targeted with military hardware or the criminal NATO campaign in
Serbia where civilians were massacred).
Today and the future
One year on, South Ossetia and Abkhazia are undergoing a process of development
and not repression. Their citizens live in peace and not in fear. The climate
is one of happiness and not of bitterness, like before. There is love in the
air instead of hatred. For those who doubt this, go to the Internet and ask
Abkhazes and Ossetians their opinion. For those who wish to overturn the events
of last August, while it is now too late, ask the people of Abkhazia and South
Ossetia how they feel and who they would rather live with.
Nicaragua and the Russian Federation have already recognised the Republics of
South Ossetia and Abkhazia and a further group of states is preparing to do so.
Whether or not more wish to do so is immaterial. Under international law, they
already exist.
Parallels with Kosovo are pointless
Parallels with Kosovo are pointless since the case is totally different. Kosovo
was, is and always has been an integral part of Serbia right since the
beginning of the Serb nation and the union of the Serbian peoples. It is not
their fault that Albanians went there to give birth for generations and to
create a population imbalance in their favour, it is not their fault that the
Albanians launched terrorist attacks against the Serb authorities and it is not
their fault that NATO decided to create a mafia state of drug traffickers, arms
smugglers and pimps. Kosovo is Serbia and there is nothing in international law
which states that a foreign power can simply carve off part of a country, give
it to foreigners and say “This is yours”. The times of drawing lines on maps
ended long ago and there is something called international law which must be
respected by all, or then by nobody.
Georgia was obliged to hold referendums in South Ossetia and Abkhazia regarding
independence. It is clear that it did not hold them because it knew what the
outcome would be. And given the attempted act of genocide last Summer, given
that the overwhelming majority of South Ossetians and Abkhazes would choose to
live in their own states supported by Russia, their friend, it makes great
sense that Abkhazia and South Ossetia should be recognised as independent
states, while an independent Kosovo is not only nonsense but a violation of
international law.
Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY
PRAVDA.Ru
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