Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Monday, August 25, 2008 7:59:58 PM
The Russians steal it, then sell it. Thuggery:
Georgian residents inspect the scraps of their homes, obviously a military target
Georgian civilians leaving Gali, a predominantly Georgian town within the breakaway province of Abkhazia, spoke with wonder of a bazaar bristling with everything from US army boots to plasma televisions and even sophisticated radar equipment. The men peddling the goods were all Russian soldiers, they said.
Russian soldiers have a reputation for entrepreneurship in the midst of battle. Over 14 years of intermittent conflict in Chechnya, many officers made considerable fortunes from selling arms to Chechen rebels.
The market spirit seemed to strike again as Russian troops began a pull out from undisputed Georgian territory it appears they took more than just souvenirs with them as they departed.
Shortly after 150 military lorries withdrew from western Georgia into Abkhazia, where Moscow has long backed the province's rebels, residents say market stalls began to spring up in Gali, a garrison town close to the Georgian frontier.
"It was amazing," said Nano Jaisashvili, a greengrocer from Gali. "They were selling clothes, binoculars, microwaves, laptops. We've never seen anything like it in Abkhazia. My neighbour bought a $500 (£250) fridge for 1,000 roubles (£20)."
Georgian police manning their side of the Inguri River, which separates Abkhazia from Georgia proper, begged fellow countrymen crossing the bridge that spanned the water to shun the market.
"Not a single Georgian should buy anything from there," the officer-in-charge said. "Remember that, while things might be cheap, they were stolen from your brothers and sisters."
A Russian officer commanding the border post denied the existence of the market.
"I have been here non-stop for several days and I would have seen them bringing over all these things," he said. "Russian soldiers do not loot and those that do we hand them straight to the prosecutor's office to face charges."
The Daily Telegraph was unable to confirm existence of the market after it was denied permission to enter Abkhazia.
But Russia's claims of scrupulous probity when it comes to the spoils of war seemed a little tendentious at two Georgian military bases that The Daily Telegraph visited yesterday.
At the army camp of Senaki, built by the US and perhaps the most advanced in the country, storage facilities by a runway had been stripped bare by the retreating Russians.
Office equipment from the barracks, where several windows had been blown out, had also been ransacked.
Fearing Russian booby-traps, Georgian soldiers were too scared to take proper possession of the base. Instead a herd of cows was set loose on the lawns in a rudimentary attempt at mine clearance. A Russian missile launcher dangled temptingly from a bush, but no-one dared touch it for fears it might explode.
Georgian concerns of Russian sabotage appear to have been borne out after a fuel train struck a suspected mine near Gori, a strategic town near the border with South Ossetia, Georgia's other breakaway region and the scene of the fiercest fighting during the five-day war. The explosion derailed 20 oil wagons, scattering them over a wide area, but caused no casualties.
At the naval base of Poti, another herd of cows roamed through rubble and debris left by Russian bombs. Russian troops occupied the port for several days, spending most of their time blowing up warships and coastguard vessels. The twisted and partially submerged wrecks lay scattered across the Black Sea harbour, where a film of oil coated the surface of the water.
Damaged furniture, partially documents and stationery strewn across the offices of the harbourmaster and the coastguard headquarters bore testament to frenzied looting. Computers had been prized from their sockets, patches of dirt on kitchen walls showed where fridges once stood and office doors had large holes in them.
Scorch marks caused by dynamite were visible on the door of a safe room and the safes inside had been cleared of valuable. In a nearby bathroom, the lavatory had been ripped from the wall and spirited away.
"One has to wonder if the Russians would even know how to use it," Tengiz Babunashvili, the commander of the port's radar facility, remarked bitterly."
One does indeed wonder, Commander Babunashvili. Follow the link above to continue reading the report. Let's take some time remind ourselves of what the Russian army has done to Georgia over the last few weeks; just for nostaligic purposes if nothing else. In no particular order...
Russia literally set fire to the countryside using flammable devices dropped from helicopters into Georgia's forests. They rounded up civilians and threw them into ready-made concentration camps, and those were lucky ones who Russia didn't simply murder on the spot. Russia used illegal cluster bombs in order to shred civilians into itty-bitty pieces. The invaders blew-up and otherwise destroyed as many civilian houses and apartments as they could, including the buildings used to provide basic social services to the population. When the Russians evacuated an area, they placed landmines as a parting gift for all the little children. Using their vastly superior numbers, Russia physically carved Georgia in half to take as their own, and have cut-off or occupied Georgia's energy supply and natural resources. The Russians repeatedly lied about their commitment to ceasefires which they previously agreed to. During the invasion of Georgia, Moscow threatened to fire nuclear missiles at both Poland and Ukraine if they dared to be brought under our missile defense net to protect themselves from Iran. And to top it all off, the Communist pigs who invaded Georgia looted and pillaged every thing of value they could get their filthy little hands on and proceeded to hock the stolen property in the regions conquered, which are still under Russian occupation today.
Feel free to let me know if I missed anything. Russia committed so many atrocities during their invasion of Georgia that it's hard to keep up with them all.
"Invasion" of Georgia? No. It is much more like the rape and domination of a once-free nation.