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South Ossetian man angered by Irish media coverage

Thursday, 21 August 2008

A South Ossetian man living in South Dublin has spoken of his frustration at how the Irish and western media are portraying the current conflict between Russia and Georgia that has led to the loss of lives and destruction in his homeland.
The 34-year-old man, who does not want to be named, is from the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali, which was bombarded by Georgian forces on August 7.
He has been living in Ireland for six years and now resides with his wife and two young children in Lucan.
He said that after he learned of the Georgian military’s attack on Tskhinvali on August 7 - which the Russians claim killed some 2,000 Ossetians - he frantically tried to contact his family to find out if they were still alive.
He has since found out that his brother is still in the South Ossetian capital and that his mother is also safe but has fled to Russia as a refugee.
“My oldest brother is back there now but during the attacks I called him a couple of times and they told me what happened,” he recalled. “It was unbelievable; it was mad.”
The South Ossetian said he has been angered by the Irish and western media focussing more of their attention on the conflict situation in Georgia rather than what has happened in South Ossetia.
“All the information and news and papers here, they just talk about the position of the Georgians,” he said. “Nobody is talking about what happened in South Ossetia. They are just talking about the Russians in Gori and everywhere else.
“I want to say something to people: don’t follow the news that is coming from Georgia. President Saakashvili is saying that Russians bombed Tskhinvali but that is not true. And nobody is talking about the 2,000 South Ossetians who were killed by Georgians.”
After the break up of the Soviet Union, South Ossetia escaped Tbilisi's rule in a 1991-1992 war. They want to unite with their ethnic kin in Kremlin-controlled North Ossetia.
Since then the enclave has been internationally recognised as being part of Georgia but it has maintained de facto independence.
Asked if he would like independence for his homeland, he said: “We were independent for the last 17 or 18 years as part of Georgia but we had our own Government and we didn’t use Georgia’s money. We had borders with them.
“You can see what has happened now,” he added. “We are too small and our army is too small to defend ourselves. We want to be independent but I don’t think we can make our people safe. That is the reason we are asking Russia to protect us.”
Georgia has withdrawn its military from South Ossetia after Russia agreed to an EU brokered peace deal with the Georgians. However, the Russian military still remained deep within the former Soviet state’s territory last week.
Amid a fierce propaganda war, casualty figures have differed wildly, with Moscow and South Ossetian officials claiming that some 2,000 people have been killed in South Ossetia, and their Georgian counterparts putting the figure at a few dozen.
The conflict began when the Georgian military attacked South Ossetian separatists in Tskhinvali on August 7, which provoked retaliation from Russia, who subsequently drove the Georgian forces back into Georgia.

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