Deliberate attempts by the Russian government to exaggerate the number of people killed in the South Ossetia conflict are provoking revenge attacks on Georgian villagers in the breakaway republic.
Read more here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/13/georgia?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront
This is an important prove, that the 1400 deaths announced by the Russian officials, was nothing more than another piece of Russian propaganda. Human rights watch could confirm only 44 deaths in Tskhinvali. At the same time, it’s obvious Georgian forces can’t be solely blamed for these deaths, as Russians were bombing and attacking the town at least for two days, while Georgians were based there. And it’s not a fact, that all the deaths are on the Ossetian side.
At the same time, it is proven by international organizations that about 10,000 Georgians were killed in Abkhazia in 1993, while over 300,000 became refugees.
During the current conflict, just one bombing in Senaki killed about 30 civilians, while many other bombings took about 10 deaths each (in Marneuli, Gori, a bombing of a minibus and many others).
No one knows yet exactly how many Georgians are being killed currently in the places occupied by Russians. Over 30,000 Georgians lived in SO, mostly in the Georgian-controlled part which is now fully occupied by Russians, along with some territories outside of the conflict regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
People who have hidden in forests and escaped Russians this way, are telling that while in some villages Russians are killing people immediately, from other Georgian villages they are kidnapping people towards Ossetian villages.
RFE/RFL also has contacted Human Rights Watch (Russia) researcher Tatiana Lokshina in Vladikavkaz who sais: “All the people with whom we talked, argued that in Tskhinvali were many dead, and a lot of corpses lay in the streets. In doing so, I have not talked with any man who would say that myself saw those killed in the streets. One woman from Tskhinvali told us that he had seen dead old man get out of tshinvalskoy hotels, and made assumptions that he most likely died during the shelling. But approval of the enormous number of killed has also not confirmed primary information”
“We were told that the hospital was opened in North Ossetia on August 9, and in the morning on August 9 in the evening on August 10 received a total of 52 wounded, among them 50 people in serious condition. —!!! In doing so, 90% of those wounded – soldiers, 10% – the civilian population !!!— We are not trying to argue that this statistic is representative, of course. On the other hand, the leadership of the hospital said that the wounded pass it through them “, – said Lokshina.
Thus, look – not only Russia exaggerates SO death, but refers of huge number of civilians among them – when in fact most wounded and killed look to be soldiers! (http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2008/08/11/20080811164619560.html)
Human Rights Watch (HRW), – is in”t that place Saacashwilli was working before???
I don’t think so…
He was a lawyer
Anyway, even if he had (although he had not), would it mean worldwide community shouldn’t trust Human Rights Watch and should trust Russian foreign minister more?
Very strange logic…
Human Rights Watch is the most respected and trusted human rights organization worldwide, you can check it…