What happened between Georgia and South Ossetia?

Most of us had never heard of South Ossetia - so when war suddenly broke out there as the Olympics started, many of us were dashing to our atlases - or looking it up on Google Maps. Since then the American press has judged that is was a totally unjustified Russian attack on a small democratic neighbor, Georgia - and as such to be absolutely condemned. Russia was clearly back to her Soviet days. It was another invasion like that of Hungary in 1968 - or so we were told.  (photos - the troops in group photo are reported  to be American trainers - with them training in explosives in the next photo - the last is a South Ossetian  improvised hospital in basement during during Georgian attack)

The Russians claim their attack was justified because mass slaughter had just taken place in South Ossetia at the hands of the Georgians. They said it seemed 1400 people had been slaughtered by the Georgian government - but the US-based Human Rights Watch said it was nearer 100. So - just what had happened?

Here is what i have managed to find out. There was a different slant taken on the conflict in Europe.

The first video is a BBC report on the situation -
http://ru.youtube.com/watch?v=p-U-WAzuBKA




And here is a report by an American eye-witness




Now for the basic facts as far as I can establish them

Ossetia historically has been different from Georgia. They were absorbed into the Russian empire at different times. The people are ethnically different. The Ossetians live both north and south of the Caucasian Mountains which run from the shores of the Black Sea east towards the Ural mountains. The Georgians live in the large valley to the south of these mountains.

In Soviet times, Stalin, a son of Georgia, placed the Ossetians living south of these mountains under the administrative control of the Georgians. These South Ossetians did not like this - but they were given an autonomous zone as an ethnic minority and in practice it did not matter where one lived within the Soviet Union.

But when the Soviet Union was abolished by the Russians and Georgia decided to go independent, the South Ossetians refused to follow. They prized their autonomy - and wanted to remain in close relationship with the rest of their people living in North Ossetia inside Russia. When the Georgians tried to enforce their control over them, these people fiercely resisted. Hundreds died. A peace deal was eventually agreed. South Ossetia regained its autonomous status, It had self-rule - but formally stayed within Georgia. Georgian and Russian troops were deployed as peace keepers along its border. In most practical senses it had gained its independence from Georgia - but formally it remained part of Georgia.

So things remained for some years. There was often tensions between the two sides - but Georgians would flock to the markets in South Ossetia where prices were cheaper. The peace keepers, mostly Russians, stayed in place.

Then the current president was elected in Georgia - and he vowed to regain total control over South Ossetia. He started by closing down Georgian access the Ossetian markets. These people, only numbering 70,000 to 80,000, began to again fear war. The Georgians vastly outnumbered them. Skirmishes occured along their borders. Georgian spy drones were shot down.

Georgia over the past three years has heavily increased its military spending - from around $30 million a year to one billion dollars. The country has been gaining a good income from an oil pipeline built by a British oil company, BP, but with significant Israeli investment. The US has also poured funds in.  Israeli sources report that around one thousand privately contracted military advisors were sent from Israel to Georgia to train its army and improve its weaponry. Along with this came imports of Israeli and US military equipment - and about 100 American military advisors.

The Georgian Defense Minister reportedly speaks Hebrew. The alliance became very close. It was reported that Georgia had agreed to allow Israel the use of two military airfields if Israel decided to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. These would greatly shorten the route the Israeli strike would have to take -and make it much harder for Iran to stop it.

What is called the "Silk Route" strategy was also in play. The oil pipe line laid across Georgia takes Central Asian petroleum to a Turkish Mediterranean sea port from which the Israelis were planning to pipe underwater some to Israel and across to an Israeli port on the Red Sea from which it could be supplied to Asia. The US neo-con plan is to militarize this route via Georgia to the Caspian and its oil - with alliances to protect it and massive supplies of armaments. The new alliance is known as GUAM.

This 'silk route' runs right along Russia's southern borders and would give NATO and the US enormous advantages. It was hoped that it would take the riches of this very important, very oil-rich former Soviet region away from Russia, seriously limiting Russia's economic potential, while greatly enhancing the West's control over oil.

Georgia is practically essential if oil is to be got to the Mediterranean while avoiding Russia.

'The logical routes to take oil to Asia are via the pipeline now being built across China to the Caspian and also a pipe line to the Persian Gulf across Iran would be highly logical and economic. But the latter is the one the West does not want and are actively blocking.

The Recent War

It was planned by Georgia as a surprise strike against the capital of South Ossetia to begin at the moment when everyone was watching the start of the Olympics.

It was immediately preceeded by a meeting of the GUAM military alliance in Georgia in early July - then by a Russian military exercise near Georgia but inside Russia  and by a military exercise involving 1,200 US troops and about 700 Georgian inside Georgia. In fact this only finished one week before the war broke out.

Interestingly, the Russians only pulled out of their two Soviet-era bases inside Georgia, as agreed with the Georgians, immediately before the US/Georgian joint military exercise.

It is inconceivable that the US and Israel did not know about this war in advance. This is also the view of Israeli military experts. They believe that Israeli advisors were with the Georgian troops during the initial attack. The Russians believe that Americans also were - producing an American passport dropped in a building captures by the Georgians inside S. Ossetia. American ration packs were also found.

The Start of the War.

Just a few hours before it started, the Georgian president announced the offer of a peace deal with the South Ossetians.  This now seems to have been merely a ploy.

The Georgian forces at the same time assembled around the Georgian city of Gori close to the South Ossetian border.  Many vehicles carrying batteries of 40 Grad rockets at a time were set up in nearby fields along with other artillery. Planes were loaded with bombs.

Then suddenly they attacked.  Electric power was shut off and the residential neighborhoods of the capital town of South Ossetia were targetted by the  Grad Rockets. They came in through the roofs and walls. They hit cars upon the roads.  Georgian tanks blasted the Russian peace-keepers base, killing many of them.

The Georgians soon claimed they had seized this town  - but the Ossetians fought back with molotov cocktails against the tanks, destroying several of them.  The Georgians came back. We now have mobile phone video of their tanks shooting at the houses as they drove down city roads. The water supplies were also cut off.  We have many photos of the bullet scared and burnt out brick or stone walled houses. The Georgians now tried to capture the tunnel on the only major road from Russia into South Ossetia - and it was at this point that they were stopped by Russians coming out of this tunnel to the aid of the Ossetians.

The war was then swiftly ended in Ossetia - it had only lasted a few days.

Nevertheless the Ossetian capital and villages were so scarred that it was felt that about 1,400 must have died in the town and the neighboring villages. Stories were told about hand grenades thrown into cellars by the Georgian troops .  Ryan Grist, the British head of the OSCE Tkhinval Field Office witnessed this attack and said 'the entire city was under fire... It is absolutely intolerable that a peaceful city full of civilians should be shelled.'

However many local people managed to survive  in cellars, half the population managed to flee  to shelter in Russia,  and the current Ossetian list of dead numbers about 320.

This video shows Tskhinval, the capital of South Ossetia and the widespread destruction. The yellow building you see at 00:42 was a University. Then it shows the building of Ossetian television that was destroyed with Georgian tanks and GRADS according to the Ossetians.

North Ossetians  also rushed to help - and when they saw this devastation they set out on revenge attacks, raiding and looting the nearby town of Gori where the attack had come from.  It took time for the Russians to stop this - perhaps because they too were angry at what had been done.

For them, the President of Georgia is as evil as was Saddam Husein. He was responsible for an horrific war crime. Amnesty International has repeated condemned his government for using torture. Last year in November he brutally put down the Opposition within his country. 

The Russians did not try to topple him - but they lingered inside Georgia to humiliate him and to destroy the military equipment the Georgian government had assembled near to South Ossetia.  The fighting would not have stopped if the Russians had not gone into Georgia - as the artillery, planes and grad rockets have a long range and could reach into the heart of Ossetia from Georgian territory. 

 The Russians then refused to leave until he had signed an agreement not to try to use violent means to regain control over South Ossetia.  They left immediately after he signed this - it took days to get this out of him. They did not touch the oil pipeline.

Behind the scenes, the Russians, by standing up to what they regard as a ruthless attack on a civilian population planned with the assistance of Israelis and Americans,  have seriously derailed the Washington and UK neocons' plans for this region.  Thus the incredibly hostile reactions to the Russian action  afterwards - despite the Russians having stopped an invasion. The Russians are now heroes among the Ossetians - but demonized for this in the West.

What has happened since?

Turkey stopped  two major American warships from passing through the Dardanelles to come to Georgia's aid.  They did this under a pre-Second World War treaty. But this was astonishing given that Turkey is in NATO.

The Caspian nations stopped pumping oil though the pipeline through Georgia - sending it instead out via a Russian pipeline. It is not known how long this is for.

In the Ukraine, a vital part of Neocon plans to closely encircle Russia and make it indefensible  has come to nothing this week.  Why - because Ukraine's Prime Minister was extremely unhappy with the President's plans to embrace NATO and the West and to turn the country's back on Russia.  Most people in Ukraine in opinion polls now question if joining NATO is the right thing for their country - they are very unhappy with what is seen as Western bias in the policies of the President - he is now most unpopula. A more pro-Russian government is likely to be put into place.

The Caspian oil nations before all this happened  had formed their own defense alliance including China and Russia - with Iran given guest status. America is not part of this - and nor is the EU.

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