South Ossetia issues ultimatum to Georgia (Many wars of Georgia)

MOSCOW - South Ossetian authorities have issued an ultimatum to Tbilisi saying that if Georgians do not stop firing at Tskhinvali, they will face a military operation held by Ossetian servicemen. This morning Georgians started firing at Ossetia again after almost a daylong ceasefire. Propelled gun shooting damaged an Ossetian hospital.

According to recently announced data, 3 people were injured in the incident. Georgians used anti-aircraft guns during today's assault, witnesses say, the First Channel reported.

However, Georgians say that 3 people died and 2 were injured after Ossetians fire at Georgian towns, the Rustavi-2 television reported. Georgian Prime Minister negotiated with representatives of Georgian law-enforcement authorities this night. However, Georgian mass media do not disclose more detailed information.

Since Dudaev came to power in Chechnya in 1991 and Chechen mobs got access to the Soviet Army arsenals, thousands of people in Chechnya were massacred, robbed or raped, and tens, perhaps even hundreds of thousands, had to flee. The majority of victims were non-Chechen, and the reasons for that were first, that it was the Chechens who got all the weapons - everything from kalashnikovs to fighter jets and tanks - and second, that the Checehns still had some sort of protection in the form of clan solidarity and blood feud rules, while all the rest of population (circa 50%) had none since the government structures in the republic had collapsed.

I have more than hundred interviews with refugees of all nationalities from this period conducted by the human rights activist Helena Zaks (who is a Jew and in fact is far from being sympathetic to the Russians). This materials have never been published for fear to instigate violence towards Chechens living in Russia proper. In one of the interviews an old Chechen teacher told, citing his former student who at that time was a high-ranking local police official, that in 1991-1994 on average 10-12 unidentified bodies were found every day in the republic. It is easy to get a lower estimate for the number of people murdered then in Chechnya. Incidents with kidnapping and terrorism also started before the first Chechen war begun. I remember a few cases when the planes were hijacked and taken to Chechnya, but Dudayev refused to extradite the hijackers for it was (in his words) against the "Chechen tradition of hospitality". Shamil Basayev also made his name known already in 1994.

I would recommend you an article by an American professor of sociology who did ample field work in Chechnya and Dagestan.

http://www.untimely-thoughts.com/index.html?art=347
http://www.untimely-thoughts.com/index.html?cat=Feb%203,%202004&type=3&art=346

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