Human Rights Watch accused of "willful ignorance" of Georgian atrocities

[arendt]

The blatant media bias displayed by the "mainstream" news organizations is more than matched by the shameful cover-up of Georgian atrocities by the mainline "human rights" organizations, first and foremost Human Rights Watch. In the most brazen display of willful ignorance since Walter Duranty overlooked the Soviet gulags, HRW spokeswoman Anna Neistat told the Guardian that Ossetian claims of Georgian atrocities were "suspicious":

"The figure of 2,000 people killed is very doubtful. Our findings so far do not in any way confirm the Russian statistics. On the contrary, they suggest the numbers are exaggerated."

The voices of the Ossetians are barely reaching the West, but when they do – as in this Australian Broadcasting Corp. news report – they underscore the sheer ugliness of HRW's appalling apologetics:

"One woman told how a family of four including two children tried to flee from a Georgian tank but it 'fired on their car and they were all burned' to death, said Angela, who like all the refugees only gave her first name. In another incident, a woman eight months pregnant and two family members fleeing from the city under attack were hit by tank fire and 'nothing remained of them,' Angela said.

"She saw the Georgian tanks roll into Tskhinvali, the soldiers shouting 'Hail Saakashvili,' who is the president of Georgia. 'They destroyed the city,' added Inna, 33, who said she could not understand how the Georgian troops 'could do that to civilians.'

"'You see your friend's home burning and there's nothing you can do. You just watch and cry, it's a genocide,' Inna said. An old woman among the refugees said all she had left was the dress she was wearing. 'My house is destroyed,' she said."

More important than the hypocrisy and ideology-induced moral myopia of the "human rights" crowd, however, is the very real human suffering that is being pointedly overlooked. These are real people being killed and rendered homeless, people who now live in terror and uncertainty while we in the West sit around discussing the geopolitical implications as if individual human beings were pieces on a chessboard.

- Justin Raimondo, "Mikheil Saakashvili: War Criminal"

http://antiwar.com/print/?articleid=13304

Well, clearly the first thousand casualties of this war have been any semblance of truth in reporting.

The HRW stories have been heavily cited at DU by people trying to excuse the Georgian atrocities. Now, we hear from a screaming libertarian (not exactly a liberal or a conservative) that HRW is lying through its teeth. And he links to a story from Australia to prove it.

So, who you going to believe? I have been spun in so many directions I am dizzy. But, my "true north" is that the neocons are behind this and the neocons always lie.

arendt

[MH1]

1. I have seen far more excusing of Russian atrocities here at DU

than Georgian "atrocities".

Who am I going to believe? HRW before antiwar.com, that's for sure. But if you post some credible source with more information on Georgian atrocities, I will certainly read it.

I think we can all agree that this has been a long-simmering conflict. Probably that's as far as you and I will agree. I have seen plenty of claims from various sources, that Ossetian separatists were firing into Georgia before the escalation by Georgia. That doesn't absolve Georgian actions but it also puts the lie to some other claims being made, that Georgia just "invaded" (their own territory, depending on who you believe), without any provocation. The idea that there was no provocation is laughable. But again, that doesn't excuse atrocities, if they were committed.

Either way, nothing done by the Georgians excuses the atrocities and ethnic cleansing that is reportedly being carried out by the separatists and the Russians, if those reports are true. Don't you agree?

[cali]

2. anti-war.com is anything but a credible source

and it's one that DU doesn't accept.

[bemildred]

3. Why believe any of them?

Even HRW and the like are human and political organizations and can be expected to make mistakes and respond to political and economic pressure.

[bluerum]

4. The killing of innocent civilians is an atrocity but it is not synonymous

with genocide.

My take is that Saakashivili was set up to respond to credible threats - but threats that were engineered by external interests. Certainly not in the interest of Georgia or Ossetia. He was in a lose lose position.

Now Russia has what they want and the neocons got what they want. And more innocents have died.

[MH1]

5. Yours is one of the more sensible summations I've seen. eom.

[Puglover]

6. Locking.

Posting links to this website is not permitted on DemocraticUnderground.

Puglover