Conflict Photo Diary
August 21, 2008
Source: The Washington Post, August 2008
War Photographer Laid to Rest - Video
August 20, 2008
During the five days of severe fighting the Georgia-South Ossetia military confrontation claimed the lives not only of troops and civilians, but media workers as well. At least four journalists were killed and more than ten injured during the conflict.
No parent should have to bury their own child. But it was the only thing Yulia Klimchuk prayed for. Her son Aleksandr was killed in the first days of the Georgian assault. And if it wasn’t for his colleagues in Russia, his Georgian family might never have recovered his body.
Aleksandr was a photographer for the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS. Based in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, he often covered tensions between Georgia and its breakaway republic.
His colleague Elena Munusova recalled that they would often ask him to take some shots of Tbilisi, but he would say: “No, I prefer working in news, making political reports”. He liked to work in extreme spots.
When Georgia launched its ground incursion into South Ossetia, Aleksandr and his colleague Gigi Chikhladze were travelling with the Georgian troops. Nobody knows for sure what happened to them.
Sergey Uzakov, also a photographer for ITAR-TASS, said: “Doctors can’t tell me how they died. I was only told their bodies were picked up on the road by Russian troops and delivered here, to Tskhinvali morgue. But it’s very mysterious.”
Sergey identified the body and promised Yulia that she would have a chance to bury her son. With the help of other journalists stationed in Tskhinvali he found two metal coffins and drove them across the border into Georgia.
“Other journalists have joined us here. Our friends from AP, Reuters, France Press, and Time are here now and we all see it as our duty to complete this,” Uzakov said.
Oleg Panfilov from the Center for Extreme Journalism says that the “working conditions for journalists were terrible. Of all the war conflicts in the post-Soviet space and the Balkans, this was the worst time for journalists.”
But other photographers who have been working in the conflict zone say all wars are the same. And in the midst of death and destruction there’s always a place for self-sacrifice and professional brotherhood.
Link to Story:
www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29251
Link to Video:
www.russiatoday.com/news/news/29251/video
Source: Russia Today
Georgian Peacekeepers Deployed In Iraq - SlideShow
July 31, 2008
Georgia’s contribution of troops to the coalition in Iraq has split opinion in Tbilisi, but for the soldiers on the ground, the only concern is getting through their mission in one piece.
View Slideshow!
Source: RFE/FL, July 2008
Official Statement of the GMoFA: Reply of the Press and Information Department to the News-Georgia Agency
July 29, 2008
Question: How would you comment the statement of vice commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Force in the Tskhinvali Region V. Ivanov that illegal armed gangs opened fire on 28 July 2008 at a trilateral group of military observers and OSCE officers carrying out monitoring in the conflict zone?
Reply: Such incidents have already become a common sight in the Tskhinvali region. Bandit groupings of the criminal regime open fire either in the direction of Georgian villages or Georgian police checkpoints or Georgian peacekeeping forces. Besides, illegal armed gangs try to open fire from the positions that is sure to bring Russian peacekeepers under the Georgian side’s response fire.
It is interesting to note that the command of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces report on the opening of fire by separatists in the direction of the monitoring group comprised of Russian representatives as well. The Russian side should be well aware that the separatist regime rather than being motivated by any kindly feelings for Russia is focused on the appropriation of Russia’s budgetary funds.
We’d also like to focus your attention on another terrorist act in the Gali district that took the life of a young man and left 2 children injured. The information available to us indicates that the mine was planted deliberately in such a manner as to easily attract children’s attention and result in a blast with dire consequences.
It needs to be noted that the situation remains highly complicated in the North Caucasus as well. There are reports of constant armed attacks between local rebels and Russian law-enforcement agencies. A case in point is an attack on police checkpoint within the railway station in the city of Khasav-Yurt, Daghestan, on 28 July, which, according to official reports, left two policemen wounded.
We’d like to reiterate that the only way to achieve de-escalation of the situation in the Caucasus region is through joint efforts. On our part we are ready to cooperate with Russia on the basis of the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Source: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, July 2008
www.mfa.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=459&info_id=7107
Cultural Slideshow
May 18, 2008
Georgia!!!
May 15, 2008