Daily Archives: August 29, 2008

Today, Human Rights Watch released more evidence of what it calls “the widespread torching of ethnic Georgian villages inside South Ossetia.”  According to satellite images provided by UNOSAT, the torching of five Georgian villages, Tamarasheni, Kekhvi, Kvemo Achabeti (Nizhnie Achaveti in Russian), Zemo Achabeti (Verkhnie Achaveti in Russian), and Kurta, occurred on August 10, 12, 13, 17, 19 and 22.

For some of the visual evidence collected by HRW, see its photo essay “Burning and Looting of Ethnic Georgian Villages in South Ossetia”

UNOSAT satellite photos are:

Fires by date (high resolution, 3.3MB; low resolution, 1.6MB) Destroyed ethnic Georgian villages (high resolution, 26.7MB; low resolution, 8.5MB) Detailed satellite images of destroyed ethnic Georgian villages (10.2MB)

These acts of vengeance and ethnic cleansing were corroborated by Human Rights Watch researchers, Georgian refugees, and Ossetian militiamen “who openly admitted that the houses were being burned by their associates, explaining that the objective was to ensure that ethnic Georgians ..read more

A colleague sent me this cartoon from the 1 September issue of the New Yorker.  It’s quite an appropriate addendum to “Loving Cold War II.”