A damning admission on the Georgian war by Alex Lantier + 1000’s demand Saakashvili’s resignation

Dandelion Salad

by Alex Lantier
http://www.wsws.org
8 November 2008

The New York Times on Friday carried a front-page article headlined “Accounts Undercut Claims by Georgia on Russia War.” The article cited a report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a multinational association of 56 member states whose monitors were in Georgia when the fighting broke out, which demolishes the official US account of the August 2008 Russian-Georgian war, according to which the war was an act of Russian aggression.

The OSCE concluded that the conflict began on August 7 when US-trained Georgian troops shelled Russian peacekeepers and civilians in the capital of Georgia’s breakaway province of South Ossetia, Tskhinvali.

According to Friday’s New York Times, “the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on August 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.” The newspaper added, “Georgian artillery rounds and rockets were falling throughout the city at intervals of 15 to 20 seconds between explosions, and within the first hour of the bombardment at least 48 rounds landed in a civilian area.”

After an initial bombardment around 6 PM on August 7, Georgian troops declared a unilateral ceasefire, during which they apparently moved rockets and artillery into better positions. At 11 PM, Georgia announced that Russian troops were shelling Georgian villages in South Ossetia and declared an operation to “restore constitutional order” there

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via A damning admission on the Georgian war

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Thousands demand Saakashvili resignation

RussiaToday

Nov 7, 2008

Several thousand protesters have turned out in Georgia’s capital Tbilisi to voice their discontent with the current leadership and to demand early presidential and parliamentary elections. They picketed the national parliament and the presidential residence to commemorate the events of last year, when a similar rally was violently dispersed by police.

Thousands demand Saakashvili resignation

see

BBC wakes up to Georgian `war crimes`

Thom Hartmann: Voter Fraud and Georgia-Russia War

I Survived the Georgian War. Here’s What I Saw. I blame Georgia’s leaders.

Political Equivalence by Ralph Nader

Obama calls for US military mobilization (draft)

Georgia