BLOG: Russia Keeps Troops in Georgia, Defying Deal

by C. J. Chivers
New York Times, April 3, 2009

TBILISI, Georgia — Nearly eight months after the war between Russia and Georgia, Russian troops continue to hold Georgian territory that the Kremlin agreed to vacate as part of a formal cease-fire, leaving a basic condition of that agreement unfulfilled.

The Russian military, working with the governments and the small military forces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two separatist regions in Georgia, has stationed forces in two large swaths of territory that were under Georgian control before the war. Observers and diplomats say Russia has also used attack helicopters and stationed tanks in areas where none existed before the war.

The sustained Russian military presence on land captured last summer — evident during two recent days spent in the area by two reporters — provides a backdrop of lingering disagreement between the West and Russia at a crucial time: The Obama administration is pledging to recalibrate the relationship with Russia, restore cooperation in other areas and explore a new treaty on nuclear arms.

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MEDIA: Georgia: Correspondent of the New York Times Detained in Akhalgori District (cascfen.net)

…was Returned to Georgian-controlled Territory

Media.ge, Tbilisi, 28 Mar 2009 - According to Tskhinvali-based Information and Print Committee, correspondent of the New York Times Christopher John Chivers, who according to Tskhinvali Security Committee was detained near the village of Mosabruni (Akhalgori district) in the morning of March 27, is now on Georgian-controlled territory.

According to the Security Committee of self-proclaimed South Ossetia, after questioning the journalist was told that activities in South Ossetia are regulated by special provisions and accreditation rules.

“According to those rules, foreign journalists must notify Information and Print Committee and get corresponding accreditation 3 days before visiting South Ossetia. After the conversation the journalist was returned to Georgian territory where he still is” – Security Committee officials say.

According to preliminary reports, two foreign journalists were detained in the village of Mosabruni.

This is not the first time that the journalists that accessed the territory of breakaway South Ossetia from Georgian-controlled areas were detained. For example after the August war of 2008 several Georgian journalists were detained in Tskhinvali and Akhalgori districts controlled by Russian army.

source: www.cascfen.net

NYT: Georgia Claims on Russia War Called Into Question

Georgian forces fired rockets at South Ossetia in August.

By C. J. CHIVERS and ELLEN BARRY
Published: November 6, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia — Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression.

Instead, the accounts suggest that Georgia’s inexperienced military attacked the isolated separatist capital of Tskhinvali on Aug. 7 with indiscriminate artillery and rocket fire, exposing civilians, Russian peacekeepers and unarmed monitors to harm.
The accounts are neither fully conclusive nor broad enough to settle the many lingering disputes over blame in a war that hardened relations between the Kremlin and the West. But they raise questions about the accuracy and honesty of Georgia’s insistence that its shelling of Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region of South Ossetia, was a precise operation. Georgia has variously defended the shelling as necessary to stop heavy Ossetian shelling of Georgian villages, bring order to the region or counter a Russian invasion.

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Times Topics
Conflict in Georgia
Complete coverage of the military conflict between Russia and Georgia.
Blog: Analysis of the Regional Tensions
More Topics: South Ossetia Abkhazia

Related
Georgia Fired More Cluster Bombs Than Thought, Killing Civilians, Report Finds
(November 6, 2008)

C.J. Chivers reported from Tbilisi, Georgia, and Ellen Barry from Moscow. Olesya Vartanyan contributed reporting from Tbilisi, and Matt Siegel from Tskhinvali, Georgia.

ETHNIC KILLING: Survivors in Georgia Tell of Ethnic Killings (NY Times)

by Sabrina Tavernise
New York Times, August 20,2008

TKVIAVI, Georgia — The men who came to Gulnara Militaura’s house seemed to know what they were looking for. They entered her kitchen and shot her husband and his brother in the head. For the next five days, as attacks and looting raged outside, she cowered at home, sprinkling vinegar on the bodies to try to keep them from rotting.
Now that the fighting between Georgia and Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia has subsided, killings like those will be grist for competing claims of ethnic cleansing.

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Thanks to virtualcollector.blogspot.com

Reporting was contributed by Olesya Vartanyan and Eric Barrett from Tbilisi, C J. Chivers from Tkviavi, Matt Siegel from Vladikavkaz, and John Wendle from the road north of Tskhinvali.© The New York Times Company

HRW had blamed Russian side earlier, that "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, a respected human rights group claimed today" (Human Right Watch: Georgian villages still burning)

ARTICLE:

Anti-government protesters confronting security forces, unseen, outside the parliament in Tbilisi on Wednesday.
Georgia protests erupt in violence as police try to clear demonstrators
By C.J. Chivers (international Harald Tribune)
Published: November 7, 2007

MOSCOW: Riot police with batons used tear gas and a water cannon on Wednesday to clear thousands of demonstrators from the streets of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, using extensive force in the face of protests against the country's pro-Western government.

Photos on November 7, 2007 by Alex Kedelashvili