Date: Mon, 30 Mar 2009
Subject: Re: Hamilton's post at the JRL#61/ Georgia
From: Joera Mulders <joeramulders@gmail.com>
Mr. Hamilton has eloquently brought up some factual mistakes made Der Spiegel. These revelations however do not bring us any closer to the truth.
Mr Hamilton points out inconsistencies in the Der Spiegel account of the number of troops amassed at the border with South Ossetia. I assume he is right. But does it matter? On the evening of the 7th it started raining Grad rockets on the city of Tschinvali. Was this weaponry amassed with the goal of an invasion into SO or did it happen to be in a neutral zone controlled by the OVSE by coincidence? Reflecting on the number of troops does not answer that question.
Der Spiegel was also wrong in writing that it took president Saakashvili four days to mention the 150 Russian tanks crossing through the Roki tunnel. Mr. Hamilton's reference to the 8th of august article which can be found for example on the RFE/RL website shows it took Saakshvili only a day. Let me quote the first two paragraphs of that article:
"Georgia says its soldiers have seized the "greater part" of South Ossetia after heavy fighting erupted overnight in the breakaway region. The "total mobilization" of Georgia's military forces was ordered, and Russian troops have entered South Ossetia, raising fears of a full-blown military conflict.
"Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said a Russian armored column with 150 vehicles has now entered South Ossetian territory. He also said Georgian forces earlier shot down two Russian warplanes."
This piece of information from the RFE/RL website does however not indicate that Russian tanks went through the Roki tunnel prior to the nightly decision made by Georgia to restore constitutional order in the break away regions. The sequence of events as described at that day even suggests the opposite.
No one disputes the fact that the Russians came in the morning of the 8th. Neither does Der Spiegel when we read their article accurately. I quote:
"But four days after the war began, when the Russian military had already driven the Georgian army out of South Ossetia and was only 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the capital Tbilisi, Saakashvili made the surprise claim that he had learned at 10 p.m. on Aug. 7 that the Russians planned to send 150 tanks through the Roki tunnel, which connects South Ossetia and North Ossetia, which is part of Russia."
In other words, Der Spiegel refers to president Saakashvili's use of the image of Russian tanks coming through the Roki Tunnel as a motive for his 7th of August decision to restore constitutional order, not his 8th August mention of the fact that Russian tanks were coming through the Roki Tunnel.
Then there is order no2. We can talk endlessly much about alleged Russian intelligence involvement in the appearance of this order, but that does not answer the question behind the interest in that order. The international community after all deserves to know on what basis Kurashvili , a senior official from the Georgian Ministry of Defense in the nightly hours of the 8th stated that Georgia Decided to Restore Constitutional Order in S.Ossetia .
Kurashvili's statement was real as testifies its mention during the parliamentary commission hearings in Georgia. However, Kurashvili himself has testified that he made the statement on his own initiative, after which his president called the statement utter foolishness and stated that Kurashvili was not ordered to make such a statement.
The big question is thus whether Kurashvili was forced to take full responsibility for the statement afterwards with the purpose of obscuring the decision making mechanism prior to the attack on Tschinvali or whether he is possibly speaking the truth.
This is what the international community should try to find out in its search for the truth.
Finally, I was surprised to read Mr. Hamilton's below the belt accusation at Der Spiegel for its alleged inclination to be consistent with its earlier position in the five day war, especially after I noted Mr. Hamilton's exclusive use of sources such as the Russians Latynina and Illiaronov and Georgian military and government officials.
We all want to find out the truth. Let's stick to real questions.