The armed conflict in South Ossetia territory and other regions of Georgia which began on 8 August is still continuing. Dozens Russian and Georgian soldiers and hundreds of peaceful innocent civilians were killed. Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes to escape the bombing, artillery fire, stray bullets and looting, and ran to various regions of the Russian Federation and Georgia. The city Tskhinvali destroyed and needs to rebuild. Russian armies crossed the border of South Ossetia and remain on the territory of Georgia, in immediate proximity to Tbilisi.
Unfortunately, there is virtually no objective information about developments, accurate data on the losses, destruction, real actions in means of mass media. This was a result of total suppression of freedom of speech, aggressive use by power the current law on mass media. The Ministry of Press and Information of the Russian Federation in connection with events in South Ossetia has already warned the editorial staff of responsibility for failure to comply with Article 4 which prevents the use of the media “for the dissemination of extremist material”, which, as we know, interpreted very broadly.
We are confident that the Russian Federation and Georgia should stop as soon as possible heated conflict, strictly observe the agreements reached on a ceasefire and withdrawal of Russian armies from Georgian territory. Any military actions on the territory of Georgia is a threat to the independence of another state and a violation of the right to life of innocent civilians, is not a peacekeeping. We are not politicians, and we have no ready-made recipes on the question on the status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, but believe that this issue should be resolved exclusively in the peace negotiations with the participation of international observers because over the past 14 years the concerned parties demonstrated their inability to peacefully overcome differences and reach consensus.
We call upon the Government of the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw its armies from Georgian territory to the positions previously occupied by peacekeepers, and stop using force against civilians.
We call upon the Government of the Russian Federation and Georgia to do everything possible to civilians as soon as possible to return to their abandoned homes, and those whose homes destroyed, receive adequate assistance and compensation.
We call upon the government and all citizens of both countries to avoid escalating conflict and making it into a source of rising xenophobic sentiments and the deterioration of relations between Russian, Georgian and Ossetian peoples.
We appeal to the conflict zone to allow independent international observers who could monitor compliance with the agreements reached and the international community to provide objective unbiased information.
We express our support and solidarity for human rights organizations of Georgia, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and invite them to join our efforts to prevent further massive human rights violations.
16.08.08.
Not all groups of the Russian Research Center for Human Rights supported this statement.
Signed by
Valentina Melnikova – Chairman of the Board of the Russian Recearch Center for Human Rights,
Helena Vititinova – Director of the Russian Recearch Center for Human Rights,
Lyubov Vinogradova – Representative of Advisory Team of the NHRH of East European Region.
