Georgian troops burn South Ossetian refugees alive

Georgian troops burn South Ossetian refugees alive

english.pravda.ru

Ossetian journalists wrote on their website that Georgian troops had captured a group of refugees from one of the regions of S. Ossetia. The Georgian military men locked them in a house and set the house on fire, burning all the people inside alive. An Ossetian woman informed Russian Prime Minister Putin of the hideous crime during his visit to a refugee camp. Another woman told Putin that she had seen a Georgian tank running over an elderly Ossetian woman who was trying to save two children.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Watch out, this is Pravda, not the most reliable source. All other reports of this I have seen are using Pravda as the original source. If true, what a barbaric thing to do. And if true, is Georgia not deserving of a severe Russian response?

The western media is trying to spin this whole situation into "Russia attacks Georgia", when the truth is that Georgia sneak attacked South Ossetia first, viciously killing 2,000 civilians. The argument now is whether Russia responded too heavily by attacking Georgia outside of South Ossetia.

An American man living in South Ossetia says U.S. and Georgian leaders are responsible for the violence that has killed 2,000 people in the region. Joe Mestas, who witnessed days of shelling, told RT that Washington will have to answer for the violence.

See video at www.russiatoday.ru...

english.pravda.ru
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 11-8-2008 by TrueAmerican]

reply to post by TrueAmerican


This just reeks of propaganda to me. I don't think we can hope for any sort of non biased, fair or honest reporting on the situation for a while. War is hell and these things may have happened, but I am having a hard time buying this one.

ffs, it screams propaganda, an unnamed woman told this to putin and unnamed journalists reported it on an unnamed website, give me a break.

reply to post by Karlhungis


I know man, I feel the same way, but when you consider how many CIVILIANS have been killed, it is entirely possible that this happened. It's friggin sad.

It really does feel like "ethnic cleansing" to me. Georgia deserves what they get for this barbaric attack.

[edit on 11-8-2008 by TrueAmerican]

Oh, propaganda?

Ok - South Ossetian's - nex time you are burned alive please carry a digital camera with you and make a lot of pictures - otherwise no one will believe you.
If you see someone be burned alive don't run! - Go and make pictures, and if you don't get shot or burned too, post your pictures to Reuters!

Are you people completely insane? So a Russian source is taken as propaganda, western sources not - guess what, there are no western sources in S Ossetia, at least not now. Unbelievable.

[edit on 11/8/08 by absente]

There was a post (with a vid) in another thread covering this event. In it a (supposed) American talks about the Georgian attacks prior to the Russian incursion.

CAUTION - VID CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES


www.abovetopsecret.com...

Now, whether this was 'staged' or not is debatable, but it sure made me wonder.

I was told specifically by those living in Russia to not read pravada its bs.

reply to post by absente

So a Russian source is taken as propaganda, western sources not

I never said that. I implied that there was propaganda on both sides. I don't trust a word of the western reporting on this situation, but forgive me if I also don't trust Russia. The same Russia that has been known to kill reporters who had less than favorable things to say about Putin. Neither side can be trusted to report this accurately. Both sides have too much to gain from manipulating the court of public opinion.

So, yes... I think it is propaganda.

reply to post by masqua


I had added the American guy talking to the OP already, masqua, if that's the same story.

Regardless of all this, we need to beware of what in the hell is going on here. Alex Jones is freaking out, of course, but still pointing out the media spin, which I believe is true. While the world is consumed with the olympics, the NWO is taking advantage of that to try and secure oil routes at Russia's expense. Which may explain why Russia went straight for the jugular and bombed that pipeline.

Also please note story carefully:

Ossetian journalists wrote on their website that Georgian troops had captured a group of refugees from one of the regions of S. Ossetia...

Pravda reported on it, but the original source was an Ossetian website.

[edit on 11-8-2008 by TrueAmerican]

Karlhungis, i refered to "pieman's" post - should use the answer button next time - of course there is propaganda on both sides you are right - but we are talking about war crimes here.

reply to post by absente


Ahh, ok. I wouldn't hold my breath on the warcrimes though. With so much blood on the US's hands right now, I think the UN is going to just bury its head in the sand and hope the world forgets for a little while.

We are going to hell in a handbasket.

Ahh, here is another source on the matter:

en.rian.ru...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who visited Russia's North Ossetia, where thousands of refugees from the Georgian province are being housed, called the killings an act of genocide.

At a meeting with refugees at a makeshift hospital camp in Alagir on Saturday, eyewitnesses told the premier how Georgian troops had set fire to a house with several young women inside.

"They were rounded up like cattle, shut into the house, and set on fire. In another place, we saw a tank run over an old woman who was running away with two children. We saw how they slashed up an 18-month child," a refugee said.

Putin told the gathering: "This is full-scale genocide... They have completely lost their minds."

Originally posted by absente
Karlhungis, i refered to "pieman's" post

and i never claimed the west didn't produce propaganda, i didn't say pictures were required, i didn't say i wanted any kind of documentary proof.

did you read my post? i'll say it a different way so that you might be able to bend your mind into the obviously convoluted passages of my complex logic,

when a long time national propaganda agent, pravda, claims unnamed journalists reported on an unnamed website that unnamed witnesses, at an unnamed refugee camp, have reported unidentified people being burnt alive in an unnamed address in an undisclosed location, it screams of propaganda.

Just to add some credibility to the report, the BBC has been reporting for some time that Georgian Soldiers have been "ethnically cleansing" South Ossetia since their invasion. They also have men on the ground, the BBC.

Here is a link to a BBC page on the conflict and to the side are seperate links to different stories, pictures and videos.

It's no coincidence that the refugees all seem to be fleeing into Russia, not Georgia. That's a telling sign.

we will not be able to determine what is true and what is propaganda from any news source owned by the corporate machine (which is in effect part of the transnational energy consortium, and all club members of the same ideological community.)


Just keep logging the news and we'll sort it out as the ATS family dissects it.

I trust ATS' collective take on these matters MUCH more than Murdoch's 'news' machine anyway.

[edit on 11-8-2008 by Maxmars]

decent reporting looks like this

Aelita Dzhioyeva, a lawyer who fled South Ossetia on Thursday, said she had managed to call relatives in the city on their mobile phones. "The situation is dire," she said. "People have no water, no electricity, no gas and no food."
She added: "My relatives told me Georgian soldiers burnt to death a family of seven people in their apartment. An 18-year-old boy who climbed out into the street for a few moments was shot dead by a sniper

source

although the truth is, this could well be chinese whispers, a soldier being shot escaping a burning building becomes a civilian becomes a young man becomes a young man fleeing a house being burnt by soldiers become seven vestal virgins and a nun being raped and burnt in a church!!

it could be true though.

en.rian.ru...

Russia points to media bias in coverage of S.Ossetia conflict
17:13 | 10/ 08/ 2008

Print version

MOSCOW, August 10 (RIA Novosti) - A top Russian diplomat accused foreign media on Sunday of pro-Georgian bias in their coverage of the ongoing conflict between Georgia and Russia over breakaway South Ossetia.

Russia says Georgian forces have killed around 2,000 South Ossetian civilians, mainly Russian nationals, in attacks that began on Friday, and that 34,000 locals have been forced to flee to Russia. In response to the Georgian offensive, Russia sent tanks and troops into the province, and carried out a series of air strikes on Georgian military targets.

"We want television screens in the West to be showing not only Russian tanks, and texts saying Russia is at war in South Ossetia and with Georgia, but also to be showing the suffering of the Ossetian people, the murdered elderly people and children, the destroyed towns of South Ossetia, and [regional capital] Tskhinvali. This would be an objective way of presenting the material," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a RIA Novosti news conference.

I think that is a valid request. Tell us the damn truth and not politically skewed versions. The 'propaganda' is coming more from the western media than it is from Pravda or Novosti.

reply to post by pieman


I agree with you completely. Its Pravda, folks. Now some of these things may well be occurring, but Pravda's credibility has long been established as next to zero. In fact, it probably has even less credibility than the original Pravda did during the Cold War when it was the official propogandist of the Soviet Communist Party. These days? Its basically engages in tabloid journalism.

Again, that's not to excuse or defend anything that Georgia has done, but simply to acknowledge what even the OP realizes: Pravda is not a particularly good or reliable source of information.

reply to post by TrueAmerican


man, that propaganda will come from all sides, but it's no bad thing that russia and the west are producing opposite propaganda, at least this way there's a chance we might find the truth somewhere in the middle.