Friday, August 22, 2008

Russians and Ossetians are looting Georgia

I am honestly not sure how any Christian can seriously support what the Russian government is doing in Georgia, although I have met Russian Christians who apparently do. Honestly, they should watch something besides Russian TV news, which in Russia are mostly government-owned or government-controlled, and typically contain loads and loads of government propaganda. Having watched a number of Russian news reports I can say that the only thing you get from it is the portrayal of Russians as heroes and Georgians as criminals, and all information is manipulated to make it look that way. In the past few months as the Russian government was preparing for an invasion into Georgia, the Russian TV was so anti-Georgian, that the Russian public actually began to see the tiny nation of Georgia (whose military is 20 times smaller) as Russia's enemy number 1, instead of the traditional #1 spot being occupied by the United States.

According to multiple independent sources, Russian regular troops, Ossetian militias and irregular Kuban Cossack units are all marauding across Georgia, looting people's homes, stealing everything they can take away (furniture, dishes, vehicles, computers, pieces of wood, even toilets!) and burning everything they can't. There are multiple eyewitness accounts of Russian soldiers telling Georgians to leave their houses or be killed. After the people leave, everything from their houses is taken and the houses are burned. In some cases, even the houses are taken apart brick by brick and everything is carted away into Russia. This is going on across Georgia, wherever Russian troops are, not just in the Georgian villages in South Ossetia. Russian troops even stole humanitarian aid from the Georgian port of Poti, along with 20 American military Humvees that belong to the American government and were used in a military exercise earlier this month. Eyewitnesses say that Russian troops are also dressing into the uniforms of Georgian soldiers and committing atrocities, something that the Soviet KGB was doing in Western Ukraine after WWII, by creating fake Bandera troops and killing peaceful people, and then telling everyone how evil they were. (This was proven by documents released by the KGB after Soviet Union fell.) There's plenty of evidence on the Internet, from independent organizations like Human Right Watch, who have people on the ground watching the situation, to videos taken on the ground in Georgia.

Pictures of Ossetian militias looting and burning Georgian villages: http://www.hrw.org/photos/2008/georgia0808/



Russian troops dressed as Georgians commit atrocities against Georgian people:


Russian soldiers steal US Humvees from Georgia:



In this video the Russian soldiers are stealing a number of boats from the port of Poti. When one of them falls off the military truck, they simply set it on fire in the middle of the road:


Russian soldiers took computers and air-conditioners from a Georgian school building:


Russian commander allows Ossetians to steal a car belonging to a Georgian:


There's plenty more information around if you are willing to look at it.

The basic lesson of all this is that if Russian "peacekeepers" ever come for a visit to your contry, you better hide everything you own, because if you don't they will steal it or destroy it. Interestingly, the first thing the Russian soldiers were demanding from Georgians was wine, for which Georgia is famous. I am guessing if they ever come to Ukraine, the first thing they will be demanding is salo from Ukrainians. Ukraine is taking Russia's aggressiveness seriously and is preparing for a potential invasion from Russia in the future. And Ukraine is not alone in its fears. Many other European countries, even beside Baltic Republics and Poland, are seriously rethinking their relations with Russian Federation. For example, both Finland and Sweden are thinking seriously about the military threat from Moscow. Austrians are also upset. As are many other nations.


"Мы не хотим жить в состоянии ожидания опасности от России, - сказала министр иностранных дел Австрии и подчеркнула, что после таких событий Европа не может просто "перевернуть страницу и перейти к очередным делам с Россией"
http://maidan.org.ua/static/news/2007/1219381874.html



Сегодняшний конфликт в Грузии заставляет Финляндию снова задуматься о целесообразности членства в НАТО. ... Нападение России на Грузию показало, что военная агрессия не исключается и в северо-европейском направлении. Например, действующая шведская доктрина, согласно которой Швеции не грозит военная агрессия, уже признана устаревшей.
http://maidan.org.ua/static/news/2007/1219378691.html

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