Post by BellaSwan on Aug 10, 2008 21:35:20 GMT -5
Hey guys. I am not wanting to start any political conversations here. I just don't think many people know or are paying attention to what's going on in the country of Georgia right now. In case you haven't heard, Russia has begun attacking this small nation, bombing it and threatening to invade. The reason that this is on my radar at all is because my good friend Dan happens to be there. A few years back, he spent two years there as a Peace Corps volunteer. He made many good friends and has gone back almost every year to visit. He just happened to be on his annual visit when this attack started. He is staying in Tbilisi, the capital, and has managed to send out a few messages. If you're interested, please read them, as they give an inside view of what's really going on there. Personally, I found them pretty interesting. And even if you don't read them, please keep my friend in your thoughts and prayers, in hopes that he has a safe journey home. Thank you.
(I have put them in the order he sent them, so the last is the most recent.)
Saturday (Friday for us) - Day Two of War
I am still safe ... writing from an NGO in Tbilisi. Many people here are on edge about the situation especially after Gori was bombed again this morning. No telling how many civilians were killed. As soon as I saw the news footage I recognized what had been hit. Part of my host family lives in that apartment block. Those bloody faces on those old people are people I have possibly greeted ... and surely are neighbors of my family. These are innocent people who love each other and are very kind to guests. The international community must step in and propose actions against Russia for violating a sovereign nation. Russia is supposed to have the role of peacekeepers in this region, but they are only feeding the flames which kill tons more people. This is nothing new. Google Chechnya, Politkovskaya, etc ... Look at what Russia has done in Chechnya. Look at the suppression of human rights in its own country. Look at the economic and energy terrorism that they have used by the Russian government against Europe and its neighbors ... many left to freeze during the harshest times of winter. I do not blame the Russian people per se, but those who control it must be pressured to give up their "peacebreaking" missions in Georgia, and a new joint peacekeeping force from either the UN or EU should be called in. If anything is convincing of this, it is what is happening now.
As for me, I am told to stay put. I have registered with the embassy, and they tell me that I will be contacted if the situation changes.
Thank you for your concern. If you know anyone with any pull in DC, please ask them to pressure our government to do more for the situation so that violence will cease immediately. If you are from another country, I would appreciate the same ...
Thank you ...
dan
Another Day With War So Close
(sent late last night)
I am still in Tbilisi where the mood is an eerie quiet interlaced with excited and concerned conversation. Last night on the metro, I witnessed a woman who had come in from Gori, the town which had been bombed yesterday with many civilians being killed and hurt where I have spent many good times with friendly people who would give you their last bit of food for the sake of hospitality. The woman was crying incessantly and had to be comforted by random strangers kind enough to care and offer an embrace with steadying words.
I found out this morning that the Tbilisi airport had been bombed ... also the town of Zugdidi near the Abkhazian conflict zone. The airport itself had not been bombed, we later found out, but something beside it had. I also found out that a convoy of buses would be leaving for Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, on Monday. This would carry American citizens away from Georgia. My flight is supposed to leave Tbilisi Tuesday at 4am, but it seems a risk to stay and wait to see if things escalate, or if there will even be a flight. As of now, it looks like I will go on the convoy, as many people I know will also do so.
I still implore you to write letters to you newspaper editors and call congress folk to persuade them to hold Russia accountable for illegal advances on Georgia's sovereign territory. When Russia bombed its own countrymen in Chechnya, it was horrifically tragic, but this time they are killing civilians in another sovereign nation. If small countries are not protected, then the United Nations is a colossal waste of time and energy. Yes, Georgia fired on its Ossetian region, but this is reportedly in response to repeated shellings of ethnic Georgia villages over the years ... and especially this week.
This is it for now. I will write again as I can ... Thank you for your concern, and I am sorry I am unable to write each of you in response ...
An Ominous Night
(sent about four hours ago)
I walked downtown tonight to go and have what might be my last Georgian meal for a while ... at my favorite restaurant. In doing so, I passed a gathering crowd near a McDonalds and the statue of Georgia's treasured national poet, Shota Rustaveli, who wrote a 12th century masterpiece called The Knight in the Panther's Skin. This was at 7:50. By 8, the square was flooded with people, and I was in the middle of it taking pictures. I will post them as soon as I get a chance. You will see the multi-generational crowd there from babies to great-grandmothers. If anyone says that the Georgians are cowering, let me say tht they are wrong.
Unfortunately, I did witness the recent aftermath of insane Georgia youth flying down the main avenue with Georgian flags waving as if they were on the autobahn. A horrific crash had taken place between the Parliament building and Freedom Square. It looked as if one car had been split in half. This was around 8:30pm. For the rest of the night, cars continues to speed through the streets in such a manner.
The meal was interlaced with now commonplace speculations of what might happen and what actually is happening here in Georgia. We hear that the airport has actually been bombed this ... and now that Russian troops and tanks are advancing on Gori, a town of 50,000 which has all but been abandoned due to devastating bombardment and the expected Russian onslaught.
Perhaps the news which hit home hardest with our group was that of Winston Featherly, a freelance journalist from Alaska who was in South Ossetia during the Armageddon and has now been wounded and taken prisoner in Russia's North Ossetia. His driver and translator, both Georgians as I know, were both killed. I had met this fellow several times while here this past month and just bumped into him on Thursday. His story has hardly gotten out ... but let's hope he is safe.
People appeared in denial a bit while I was walking back to where I am staying tonight. I saw lots of blank faces as who knows what will happen next. If Gori is taken, what is next? Tbilisi? This is absolutely disproportionate to anything which has occurred in the Tskinvali region of Georgia, which some might call South Ossetia. Russia has announced to the world with imperial audacity that it will use its petrol-fueled military might to do as it pleases, brewing like a storm in the east. Will anyone stand up to it?
Like I said earlier, please pray for my friend, that he will be able to make the convoy to Armenia, and if not, that he is actually able to get a (safe) flight out of Georgia.
I'm also including a few pictures he sent out at the end of July before this all started. The first one is of Dan himself, ironically titled (by him) "At peace."
(I have put them in the order he sent them, so the last is the most recent.)
Saturday (Friday for us) - Day Two of War
I am still safe ... writing from an NGO in Tbilisi. Many people here are on edge about the situation especially after Gori was bombed again this morning. No telling how many civilians were killed. As soon as I saw the news footage I recognized what had been hit. Part of my host family lives in that apartment block. Those bloody faces on those old people are people I have possibly greeted ... and surely are neighbors of my family. These are innocent people who love each other and are very kind to guests. The international community must step in and propose actions against Russia for violating a sovereign nation. Russia is supposed to have the role of peacekeepers in this region, but they are only feeding the flames which kill tons more people. This is nothing new. Google Chechnya, Politkovskaya, etc ... Look at what Russia has done in Chechnya. Look at the suppression of human rights in its own country. Look at the economic and energy terrorism that they have used by the Russian government against Europe and its neighbors ... many left to freeze during the harshest times of winter. I do not blame the Russian people per se, but those who control it must be pressured to give up their "peacebreaking" missions in Georgia, and a new joint peacekeeping force from either the UN or EU should be called in. If anything is convincing of this, it is what is happening now.
As for me, I am told to stay put. I have registered with the embassy, and they tell me that I will be contacted if the situation changes.
Thank you for your concern. If you know anyone with any pull in DC, please ask them to pressure our government to do more for the situation so that violence will cease immediately. If you are from another country, I would appreciate the same ...
Thank you ...
dan
Another Day With War So Close
(sent late last night)
I am still in Tbilisi where the mood is an eerie quiet interlaced with excited and concerned conversation. Last night on the metro, I witnessed a woman who had come in from Gori, the town which had been bombed yesterday with many civilians being killed and hurt where I have spent many good times with friendly people who would give you their last bit of food for the sake of hospitality. The woman was crying incessantly and had to be comforted by random strangers kind enough to care and offer an embrace with steadying words.
I found out this morning that the Tbilisi airport had been bombed ... also the town of Zugdidi near the Abkhazian conflict zone. The airport itself had not been bombed, we later found out, but something beside it had. I also found out that a convoy of buses would be leaving for Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, on Monday. This would carry American citizens away from Georgia. My flight is supposed to leave Tbilisi Tuesday at 4am, but it seems a risk to stay and wait to see if things escalate, or if there will even be a flight. As of now, it looks like I will go on the convoy, as many people I know will also do so.
I still implore you to write letters to you newspaper editors and call congress folk to persuade them to hold Russia accountable for illegal advances on Georgia's sovereign territory. When Russia bombed its own countrymen in Chechnya, it was horrifically tragic, but this time they are killing civilians in another sovereign nation. If small countries are not protected, then the United Nations is a colossal waste of time and energy. Yes, Georgia fired on its Ossetian region, but this is reportedly in response to repeated shellings of ethnic Georgia villages over the years ... and especially this week.
This is it for now. I will write again as I can ... Thank you for your concern, and I am sorry I am unable to write each of you in response ...
An Ominous Night
(sent about four hours ago)
I walked downtown tonight to go and have what might be my last Georgian meal for a while ... at my favorite restaurant. In doing so, I passed a gathering crowd near a McDonalds and the statue of Georgia's treasured national poet, Shota Rustaveli, who wrote a 12th century masterpiece called The Knight in the Panther's Skin. This was at 7:50. By 8, the square was flooded with people, and I was in the middle of it taking pictures. I will post them as soon as I get a chance. You will see the multi-generational crowd there from babies to great-grandmothers. If anyone says that the Georgians are cowering, let me say tht they are wrong.
Unfortunately, I did witness the recent aftermath of insane Georgia youth flying down the main avenue with Georgian flags waving as if they were on the autobahn. A horrific crash had taken place between the Parliament building and Freedom Square. It looked as if one car had been split in half. This was around 8:30pm. For the rest of the night, cars continues to speed through the streets in such a manner.
The meal was interlaced with now commonplace speculations of what might happen and what actually is happening here in Georgia. We hear that the airport has actually been bombed this ... and now that Russian troops and tanks are advancing on Gori, a town of 50,000 which has all but been abandoned due to devastating bombardment and the expected Russian onslaught.
Perhaps the news which hit home hardest with our group was that of Winston Featherly, a freelance journalist from Alaska who was in South Ossetia during the Armageddon and has now been wounded and taken prisoner in Russia's North Ossetia. His driver and translator, both Georgians as I know, were both killed. I had met this fellow several times while here this past month and just bumped into him on Thursday. His story has hardly gotten out ... but let's hope he is safe.
People appeared in denial a bit while I was walking back to where I am staying tonight. I saw lots of blank faces as who knows what will happen next. If Gori is taken, what is next? Tbilisi? This is absolutely disproportionate to anything which has occurred in the Tskinvali region of Georgia, which some might call South Ossetia. Russia has announced to the world with imperial audacity that it will use its petrol-fueled military might to do as it pleases, brewing like a storm in the east. Will anyone stand up to it?
Like I said earlier, please pray for my friend, that he will be able to make the convoy to Armenia, and if not, that he is actually able to get a (safe) flight out of Georgia.
I'm also including a few pictures he sent out at the end of July before this all started. The first one is of Dan himself, ironically titled (by him) "At peace."
