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'There Is no Way to Peace; Peace Is the Way' - An Appeal to the Georgian Nation


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Khurcha Incident, SNAFU - Top-down Damage Control!

Part II

Jeffrey K. Silverman

Why is it that the Georgian media seem never to fact-check their stories, and one TV station outlet quotes the other – and such outlets like Georgian Public TV and Rustavi2. They are broadcasting basically the same mistruths; it is if they have access to “breaking news” as if they are traveling together in the same news vehicle. It also appears that when the original clips are requested, at least in the case of Rustavi2, the claim is made that they don’t have this – or perhaps they are not willing to put the material to closer scrutiny. 

The US State Department and OSCE, Department for Human Dimension, EU delegation to Georgia and Armenia has demonstrated an interest that an investigation would be in order. Hopefully, if it comes to that, it will be independent and done by those who are not affected politically by what may be damming outcomes. Naturally this would be separate from the official Georgian investigation that is underway by the Zugdidi regional police, which professes to be a criminal case for the purpose of investigating an attack on innocent civilians and the attempted of their murder by the Abkhaz armed groups (this case would be based on Articles 236, 109 and 239 of the Georgia's Criminal Code).

Nonetheless, it is clear that damage control is still underway. However, even those in Abkhazia share the same view, as on Abkhaz resident wrote in an email in early June, “I think am convinced that Saakashvili planned this incident to take the public attention away from elections and to use it to win. Why would we cross the border to shoot the buses? We could have done that in Gali if we had wanted. All the facts demonstrate that it was planned by Georgian security forces to blame Abkhazia and only Saakashvili has benefited.”
Regardless of the ledger of guilt or innocence, the official story line on Election Day goes something like this:

Official Story Line
UNOMIG and the Russian peacekeepers were immediately informed about the incident. A German expert, member of the UNOMIG, then arrived at the scene sometime later, pointed to the place from where the RPGs were launched: it was in 5-10 meters from the administrative border in the direction of Zugdidi; furthermore, the expert observed the traces of footsteps on the ground that crossed the administrative border in the direction of the Gali region, which confirms that the attackers had crossed the administrative border into the buffer zone.

Zugdidi regional police division has initiated a criminal case no. 044080471 to investigate an attack on the innocent civilians and the attempt of their murder by the Abkhaz armed grouping (according to the Articles 236, 109 and 239 of the Georgia's Criminal Code).

Eyewitnesses were then questioned by the criminal police of the Zugdidi division of Ministry of Interior. According to Iuri Chiava and Nestor Akhvlediani (drivers of the buses who were hired by Zaal Eliava, head of administration of the village Nabakevi), on May 21 2008, at about 11:00 they arrived by their buses in the village Khurcha and awaited the voters near the football pitch, approximately 30 meters from the river Khurcha. After a while, voters from the village Nabakevi began gathering. They had crossed the river Khurcha from the direction of Nabakevi and loaded onto the buses.  There were nearly 20 voters in each bus.

At about 13:30, the Georgian journalists approached the buses and asked the locals to get off the buses and so to take an interview before their departure to Zugdidi region where they had to cast their ballots. Voters as well as drivers had unloaded the buses and stood in front of journalist, approximately 20 meters from the buses. At this moment shooting began from the Nabakevi direction. People were immediately panicked. The two buses were then the hit with mortar rounds. One woman was injured. After about ten minutes later Georgian law-enforcement representatives arrived on the scene and engaged in a firefight that lasted for approximately 20 minutes.

Drivers estimate their material damage worth of 15,000 GEL. The Georgian government has agreed to cover the cost of their destroyed buses.



18 Jun. '08

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