Georgian War Crimes

Time Whewell's report, on last night's Newsnight, (See: here, showing the extent of the War Crimes committed by Georgia in its invasion of South Ossetia was clearly uncomfortable, not only for the, Walter Mitty like, Georgian President, but also for Britain's Foreign Minister, Miliband, given that Georgia is Britain's ally, and that for the last few months Britain, and the rest of the West, have presented the events as simply being Russian aggression. (See also Whewell's BBC account from 2008)

Whewell dryly demolished the supposed evidence of the Georgian's, of Russian instigation, that was supposed to be represented by a supposed intercepted phone call between Ossetian border guards, evidence which, despite its clear importance, had apparently not been put forward at the time of the conflict, and which had been "lost" for over a month. This evidence was also contradicted, by eye witnesses who reported no sign of Russian troops, other than those there as part of the agreed monitoring arrangement, by the fact that the Ossetians themselves criticised the Russians for their original failure to respond to the Georgian bombardment, and the fact that when eventually the Russians did manage to respond they were so disorganised that their first detachment walked into a Georgian ambush that attacked journalists and troops alike.

Whewell's report illustrated the way that Georgian tanks had systematically shelled apartment blocks from just yards away, had launched attacks on civilians trying to flee the conflict etc. To find the West's Georgian ally committing such barbarous acts and war crimes must be deeply embarrassing for the British Government. The West has vehemently denied any similarity between Russia's intervention, to prevent Georgian atrocities in Ossetia, and NATO intervention in Serbia to oppose Serbian atrocities in Kosovo, though they have never said why the two situations are different, other than that a supposedly "democratic" imperialism, and "democratic" Georgia are involved on one side against a totalitarian or undemocratic Serbia and Russia. I doubt, however, that those suffering the atrocities could tell the difference between a "democratic" or a "totalitarian" bullet.

It must be deeply embarrassing for those too, including some of those who claim to be on the Left, who told us that Saakashvilli was "No Milosevic", and who doubted that Georgia had engaged in murderous attacks on the Ossetians, and who were all too eager to believe that it was all the responsibility of the Russians. Even where those that fall into this category take a less strident anti-Russian stance they are keen to be "balanced" in their condemnation over the Russia-Georgian-Ossetia conflict telling us that there were a number of wrongs involved.

On this basis the US expansionism, putting a military ring around Russia is wrong, the Georgian attack on Ossetia is wrong, and the Russian response was wrong. Fine, yet the same people told us in Kosovo that imperialism's bombing of Serbia was "good" to stop the Serbian atrocities! But, as recent discussions on the AWL's website demonstrated the "kitsch" Marxists that argue this kind of social imperialism make exactly the same distinction that the politicians of the Miliband variety make between "democratic", and "totalitarian" states. At least it would show that if the AWL had not deleted a series of comments by comrades critical of their positions!

Of course, none of this confirmation of the murderous attacks of Georgia on Ossetia, could lead a Marxist to defend the Russian response, that would be as bad as the AWL's position on Kosovo, or their refusal to condemn a possible Israeli attack on Iran, and no doubt any further investigation will uncover similar atrocities carried out by Russian troops in Georgia. Marxists rather argue for a workers solution to such conflicts, and potential conflicts, for workers unity across borders and communal divides, for that workers unity to fight for consistent democracy for minorities to oppose any oppression against them by the state, to recognise that their main enemy is not other workers living across those divides, but their own ruling class and its state. Its a pity that many Marxists have abandoned that fundamental aspect of proletarian internationalism, settling instead for lining themselves up with one side or another in such conflicts depending upon which side they consider the lesser-evil.