In 1991 Georgia attacked South Ossetia for choosing to be part of the Russian federation rather than part of Georgia. That war led to South Ossetia becoming a virtually independent state in 1992, protected by Russian and Georgian peacekeepers.
Georgia's president reignited this war a few days ago when he launched another attack. The new attack by Georgia (population 4.6 million) on South Ossetia (population 70,000) killed a number of Russian peacekeepers and countless South Ossetians. The US and the UK with their newfound respect for national sovereignty chose to take plucky little Georgia's side.
It's pretty poor newspaper reporting that none of this is mentioned in the miles of newsprint dedicated to South Ossetia in the past few days, but instead we have a lot of rubbish about the Russians launching a new cold war. I think I know why the Russians are so pissed off!
We should all be deeply ashamed at the behaviour of our governments. The American government are republicans in the middle of a presidential election, and so they are behaving a little crazy, but what's our own government's excuse here in the UK?
John Simpson was in Georgia during the first war and covers his Georgian experiences in one of his fantastic books which I think was "Strange Places Questionable People". I read it a few years ago. He gives a summary of the first South Ossetian war here.
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Self-determination is historically controversial area, but recently the tendency bas been to let people split or redefine borders if they wish.
East Timor wants independence from Indonesia: "we" (whover "we" may be...) support it, even if Indonessia doesn't, and Australian peace-keepers are there to defend the independence.
Kosovo declares indepence fro Serbia, and the same "we" send UN troops in to defend it.
Since 1992, South Ossetia has had independence from Georgia. One would think that "we" would see that as analogous, and support their right to self-determination.
Similarly, one would assume that peace-keepers are there to keep the peace (indeed, when they see an attack and do not respond they are criticisized).
So why are we so sympathetic to Georgia?
Would we applaud Serbia for invading Kosovo, or Indonesia for attacking East Timor? Would we be all sympathetic if those attacking troops lost in the counter-attack from the peace-keepers?
I guess all countries have an equal right to self-determination, but some are more equal than others.
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