Russian Militia Accused Of An Orgy Of Rape, Murder, Burning And Looting
Russian paramilitaries on the road towards Tbilisi. The Russian army left Gori in convoy and stopped about 30 miles from the city.
The first armoured personnel carrier nudged past the top of the hill. It paused as if getting its bearings, and then set off towards Tbilisi. Behind it, an endless column of Russian military vehicles appeared on a shimmering horizon - trucks, tankers, and a beaten-up Nissan.
The Russian army was on the move. What wasn’t clear was where it was going. For the next hour the column continued its sedate progress, past yellow fields and a hazy mountain valley, from Gori towards the Georgian capital,Tbilisi.
Thirty miles from the city, it stopped. A Russian soldier hopped out of his vehicle and began directing traffic. “We’ve been told to stay there,” he explained, pointing down a rough dirt track towards the rustic hamlet of Orjosari, just over a mile away.
The soldier said Russia didn’t intend to keep going down the main highway connecting Tbilisi to Gori, and the east and west of the country. “The only reason we’ve come here is because of a provokazia by Mikheil Saakashvili,” he said, accusing Georgia’s president of wrongdoing.
In theory the conflict between Russia and Georgia is now over, as European negotiators led by France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, hammer out a peace deal. In reality, Russia’s mighty war machine was trundling insouciantly through Georgia.
Several Russian trucks overshot and missed their turning. One broke down. A soldier got the wheezing vehicle going again. Where was he from? “Chechnya. We’ve come here to help,” he said.
For the terrified residents of Gori and surrounding villages, it didn’t seem like help. Yesterday morning, as the Russian tanks advanced from their base in South Ossetia they passed through Georgian controlled-villages, telling residents to hang out white flags or be shot.
Behind them, according to people fleeing those villages, came a militia army of Chechen and Ossetian volunteers who had joined up with the regular Russian army. The volunteers embarked on an orgy of looting, burning, murdering and rape, witnesses claimed, adding that the irregulars had carried off young girls and men.
“They killed my neighbour’s 15-year-old son. Everyone was fleeing in panic,” Larisa Lazarashvili, 45, said. “The Russian tanks arrived at our village at 11.20am. We ran away. We left everything - our cattle, our house, and our possessions.”
Achiko Khitarishvili, 39, from Berbuki, added: “They were killing, burning and stealing. My village isn’t in a conflict zone. It’s pure Georgia.”
These claims of Russian atrocities were impossible to verify. But the mood of panic was real enough - with villagers fleeing towards Tbilisi by all means possible. One family of eight piled into a tiny white Lada; others fled on tractors.
For much of the day the Russian troops in Gori were busying destroying Georgia’s military infrastructure. Smoke poured from the military supply camp in the village of Uplistsikhe.
Those who fled expressed a feeling of betrayal. They said Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, had duped them. “I believed him when he said there was peace. That’s why we stayed in our homes. But it isn’t true,” Lamzika Tushmali, 62, said. She added: “There is no ceasefire.”
At the end of the Russian column, a group of volunteers arrived in a shabby mini-van flying a Russian flag. One of them had his face covered with a balaclava; all were heavily armed; their mood was exuberant. What were they doing? “We’ve come for a holiday,” one said.
For most of the day there was no sign of the Georgian army. After five days of ferocious bombardment by Russian warplanes, it appears not to exist. With rumours swirling of an imminent Russian attack on Tbilisi, however, Georgia mustered a platoon of 50 soldiers, who took up positions 10 miles down the road from where the Russians appeared to have parked up for the night.
On Georgian radio, meanwhile, military experts were discussing the possibility of a new partisan war against the Russians - suggesting that the government’s failure meant that it was time for ordinary Georgians to take the initiative.
It’s an idea that may take root. “I spent two years in the Soviet army. If there is a partisan army I’ll be in the first row,” Koba Chkhirodze, 41, said yesterday.
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Where’s the outrage from John Murtha? Just like a Blue Falcon to reserve such distinguished dishonor for the character assignation of his own countrymen! Oh, that’s right Murtha thinks the U.S. is just a bunch of Punks and that Georgia deserves what they get!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRJkCqkC_oU
August 13th, 2008 at 11:21 pmThe mask of the wolf falls and we see the face of the killer, there can be no doubt as to what this is…peace keepers do not invade a country after calling a cease fire.
Putin is a fiend.
Billy
August 13th, 2008 at 11:35 pm“In theory the conflict between Russia and Georgia is now over, as European negotiators led by France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, hammer out a peace deal. In reality, Russia’s mighty war machine was trundling insouciantly through Georgia.” (The Guardian)
Why would Russia acquiesce to any demands by French President Sarkozy when it’s not part of the EU? I was going to post this comment a couple days ago but I wanted to see how much clout Sarkozy really has. I’m disappointed but not surprised.
The Russian soldiers sound bouncy and well fed. A big difference from when they were being fed dog food by their superiors. More Western aid money that wasn’t dispersed where it was supposed to go, I guess. (The Guardian, July 14, 1998)
August 13th, 2008 at 11:39 pm“In theory the conflict between Russia and Georgia is now over, as European negotiators led by France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, hammer out a peace deal. In reality, Russia’s mighty war machine was trundling insouciantly through Georgia.” (The Guardian)
Why would Russia acquiesce to any demand by French President Sarkozy when it’s not part of the EU? I was going to post this comment a couple of days ago but I wanted to see how much clout Sarkozy has. I’m disappointed but not at all surprised.
The Russian soldiers sound bouncy and well-fed. A big difference from being fed dog food by their superiors. More Western aid money that wasn’t dispersed where it was supposed to go, I guess. (The Guardian, July 14, 1998)
August 13th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
B-2 low and hot, CBU +CBU +CBU and an air-burst over putin’s snot… 3000 degrees of HOT to TROT. Watch the kgb melt to spot… puddles……puddles! 
August 13th, 2008 at 11:59 pmhttp://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/depeches/infojour/reuters.asp?id=76790
Billie some overwelming bitterness anywhere ?
The Russians are no saints, though we ought to wait to prononce on the casualties, seems that looks like Balkans wars, where numbers and atrocities were over recorded, each camp went on and on on the atrocities of the other camp
August 14th, 2008 at 3:32 amI nominate Richard poet laureate.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:01 amBravo.
What a scroungy bunch! These assholes look like civilians to me.
August 14th, 2008 at 4:54 am
franchie - bonjour…Back in WWII EVERYONE ran from the russians. Refugees headed towards the western front and the germans considered it a blessing to be transferred from the eastern front to the western front - everyone knew the well earned reputation of the ruskies…(though the germans certainly treated them like dogs) I don’t think they were a signatory to the geneva conventions at the time…Ivans got a bad reputation
August 14th, 2008 at 6:50 amearth to murtha
August 14th, 2008 at 7:03 amhi Steve, it’s a villans’war or if you prefer mujicks’war, im afraid that the educated elite of St-Petersburg can’t helped, though the kind of drunk “soudards” usely don’t live long, soon they disappear under their tanks wheels
August 14th, 2008 at 7:14 amWherever the Russians go, looting, raping, murder. What can you expect from a bunch of commie Godless fucks? Sort of like the Democrats and union fucks here.
August 14th, 2008 at 9:33 amsomething tells me that they won’t move on any long
http://www.monkeyreview.co.uk/index.php/2008/04/01/russia-vodka-yoga
August 14th, 2008 at 4:05 pm