The
caption for this photo from Russian newspaper Kommersant
reads:
'Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, center, is shown
during a visit to the Georgian town of Gori.'
Le Figaro, France
In South Ossetia,
'Kosovo Backfires'
"In Brussels earlier this
year, Russian Foreign minister Lavrov solemnly warned his American counterpart
Condi Rice: the recognition of Kosovo would set a precedent for Abkhazia and
South Ossetia. The Americans and their major European allies were mistaken not
to take him seriously."
Twenty years
after being eclipsed by what was called the American “hyper power,” we are
witnessing the Russian Bear's big comeback to the international scene. The
Western diplomatic ballet now trying to temper the violence of the Russian
reaction to Georgian President Saakachvili's forceful blow against Southern
Ossetia last Thursday will change nothing. As Vladimir Putin clearly hinted,
Georgia seems to have definitively lost its rebel provinces of Ossetia and
Abkhazia.
When the Soviet
Union disintegrated in 1991 and Georgia obtained its independence, the tiny
autonomous region of South Ossetia (72,000 inhabitants), which wished to remain
under Moscow's authority, immediately rebelled against the new central
government in Tbilisi. Under communism, no one ever took the delineation of
internal borders seriously. The problem is that both in the Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia, they remained in force when practically at the same time, the
communist federal systems collapsed.
The Ossetians,
who speak a language similar to Persian, never felt close to the Georgians,
whose language is Caucasian. In 1921, the Ossetians sided with the Bolsheviks
against the Georgian separatists. Many Ossetian villages were burned by
Georgian secessionists before the Red Army finally got the upper hand. In his
policy on nationalities, Joseph Stalin, although of Georgian origin, was always
more Russian than the Russians themselves.
In July 1992,
Russian President Boris Yeltsin mediated between the Georgians and Ossetians,
which led to a ceasefire along with the deployment in South Ossetia of a
Russian “peacekeeping corps.” The same scenario occurred in Abkhazia two years
later.
Quite naturally,
the Russian [peacekeeping] troops sided with the pro-Russian populations of
both autonomous rebel regions. The reality is that in Tskhinvali [capital of
South Ossetia], Free Georgia has never exercised authority. By trying to
recover its authority by force and surprise, although it sovereignty is
certainly recognized under international law, the Georgian President has
committed a grave error in judgment. He underestimated the determination of
Moscow and overestimated the support that the United States was willing to
offer. Not only will the Americans not send a single soldier to Georgia, but
they will not long stay angry with Russia, because they need them to address
the Iranian nuclear issue, which is priority number one in Washington.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Naively,
Saakachvili believed that having international law on his side was enough to
enable him to use force. The problem is that his Western friends have just
precisely violated these very rules, by unilaterally recognizing Kosovo's
independence, while U.N. Security Council Resolution 1244 (which ended the war by placing the Serbian
province under the control of NATO forces) unambiguously affirmed the
sovereignty of Serbia over this majority Albanian territory. [In other words,
NATO contradicted Resolution 1244].
DEPUTY CHIEF OF
RUSSIAN GENERAL STAFF DISCUSSES OPERATIONS
In Brussels
earlier this year, Russian Foreign minister Lavrov solemnly warned his American
counterpart Condi Rice: the recognition of Kosovo would set a precedent for
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The Americans and their major European allies were
mistaken not to take him seriously, and to ignore the clear warning issued by
Spain, which was worried about such a violation of international law. [Spain is
concerned with the long-running secessionist movement in its own Basque region ].
Skillfully, the
Russians now use the same rhetoric as that utilized by Westerners in Kosovo in
1999, speaking of the minority Ossetian victims of “genocide” and “ethnic
cleansing.” Existing international law is without doubt imperfect. Perhaps it
should be changed. But as long as it exists, anyone who violates it will
inevitably, one day or another, be confronted with a severe backfire.
