Georgia, Russia: Tbilisi Reports

See Global Voices special coverage page on the South Ossetia crisis.

Below are a few posts from bloggers who are currently in Tbilisi, Georgia.

LJ user merienn wrote this (RUS) from Tbilisi on Aug. 11 and 12:

Aug. 11, 2008 – 10:46 AM:

At 6 AM today, Marina called, scared to death: there was an explosion, and their windows were nearly smashed over at Gldani. Turned out the radars […] that serve the international airport were being bombed.

Yesterday, Khelvachauri, a suburb of Batumi, was bombed, Sandro is staying there with grandfather and grandmother and doesn't want to go to the village to my parents.

Khatuna and I were walking with kids [at the park], it's almost empty, and we took them to McDonalds’ – banned in peaceful times, it seems so attractive in the time of war.

Yesterday, crowds of people were marching all over the city with flags, chanting “Sakartvelo” – Mishka didn't understand what was going on.

- There's war now, and we are being bombed, and these people are demanding to stop all this.
– And who's doing the bombing? – Mishka the Ant asked, [his eyes huge with surprise].

I didn't tell him who was bombing us.

- Let them throw these bombs on themselves, I hate them, – Mishka got angry in a funny way.

Just a week ago we were chatting about some sweet trifles – where they do French manicure better, and where I put that swimming suit, and how to train your husband to hang his wet towel on the rope.

Now we are breaking our heads, [trying to figure out] how to get to Batumi with kids and avoid being shot at, where a safer place to take shelter is, who said what the UN Security Council, whether it is true that people got killed in Poti.

There's no panic. […] There was shock on the first day, and then it started feeling as if we've been living like this for a hundred years. Crowds of people are donating blood. We knew that this is how it would be. […]

We are not leaving anywhere. [Because] all they do is wait for us all to leave.

***

Aug. 11, 2008 – 11:54 AM:

[…] There is no Russophobia whatsoever – I've already said more than once that we have very clear boundaries separating the notions of the Russian state and the relations between the peoples. […]

I'll pack a backpack, just in case – warm clothes, water, documents. Refugees have taught us so – the rest doesn't matter.

Though it is unclear where we'll be forced to go – there's not a single place in my country that's inaccessible for the brave fighter jets.

They bombed Gori once more. Bombed Kakhetia.

Sites hosted in Georgia have been hacked, there's no opportunity to access Russian sites, so LJ remains my only platform to keep in touch with the world. […]

***

Aug. 11, 2008 – 07:00 PM:

[…] We've decided not to go yet because it is dangerous. At home, the walls [of a house] help. […]

Value all that you have. Value the fact that you are alive and healthy, that you can watch a movie instead of the news, that you can buy a ticket and go anyplace you like. […]

***

Aug. 12, 2008 – 01:38 AM:

I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow morning. Maybe tanks will enter the city. Mishka is asleep, my little boy, he kept turning around, asking: They aren't bombing Batumi, are they? He misses his brother. I shouldn't have told him yesterday. Though this way he is prepared, at least.

All hope for Sarkozy, maybe he'll convince them – but this is unlikely, too, no one is going to back out at this point – they'll be eating us hot.

Tbilisi-based LJ user dzvirpaso wrote this (RUS) on Aug. 11:

I've just called Ukraine's consul in Georgia, I know him well. He said that he and his family (wife and two children) are here. He said that those who wanted to leave were leaving, but assured me that the situation was stable. I asked whether he thinks if it would be better to leave or not, and he replied that there's no need to at this point, that everything is stable and will soon be over. If something happens, he will definitely call me.

LJ user oleg_panfilov reports (RUS) on the situation in Tbilisi this night:

I've just had a ride around the city – everything is quiet and calm. People are discussing the situation on the phones and that's why it's been impossible to reach friends in the past two or three hours. Some people manage to get through [to my number], ask me what to do, and then the phone goes silent again.

There is panic, of course, but for now only in conversations and discussions. Though there are those who've decided to leave already – mainly to Eastern Georgia, towards Azerbaijan.

I can't get rid of the thought that these people do not want to greet the occupational troops with flowers and wine – even though there's such an effort being done for them, all the demands for Saakashvili to escape… […]

In another post, oleg_panfilov adds (RUS):

[…] Tomorrow there'll be plenty of politics.

Forgot to write that Eka Zguladze, deputy minister of foreign affairs of Georgia, has confirmed to me that tomorrow, in the middle of the day, presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland and Ukraine are expected to arrive in Tbilisi.

37 comments

  • Stephen Adkins

    To Ian Mortimer; Mr. Mortimer; I do not support this government, I never have endorsed the policies of this president or any other.My only concern is for the peace and humanity of this planet. I may be an American by birth, but not by choice. I do not consider myself to be an adherent of this governments foreign policies nor its treatment of other peoples,governments. I am very well aware,Mr. Mortimer of the lies this government spews to the world and indeed its own people since this wretched country began.

  • alex

    No matter how much you all like to pretend that Georgians are the blame in all of this and you’re not geedy about your motherlands imperialistic intentions towards it’s ex soviet territories, sooner or later you’ll have to own up to your governments dirty deeds; as the actual and true stories of ethnic clensing pure in by actual human rights observers regarding true Russian military autrocities against the Georgians in Georgia. And as secretary of state said early today we’re not living in 1964 anymore where you can roll up. Your tanks and improvise a regime change the way mr Putin wants to.

  • Ken Sears

    It’s time for Georgia to cut its losses and just GIVE Russia both South Ossetia and Abkhazia! Oh, yeah, I know – those regions want their “independence”. Yeah, right…. Like Russia is going to let them be independent… what a laugh.
    Georgia, this is what you need to do: abandon South Ossetia and Abkhazia to the hell of Russian domination if that’s what they want (and even if it’s not), let Russia have the headache of Ossetian and Abkhazian separatism- they’ll make a nice “bouquet” for Russia together with Chechnya… not to mention the impending crises in Russia’s eastern regions.
    Then secure the Georgian borders once and for all, join NATO and the EU and tell Russia where-it-can-go. It’s time finally for Russia to know where its power ends.
    As for the West, it’s way, way past time finally to establish energy independence and boycott Russian oil. Stop drenching Russia with the capital it needs to pursue its dreams of empire.
    The world needs to LISTEN to the presidents of Poland, Ukraine, Latvia and Estonia who gathered in Tbilisi. They KNOW what they’re talking about more than ANY of the obsessively malcontented westerners who have glommed onto this event as just another chance to rant hysterically against George Bush. Those spoiled westerners never lived under the Russian empire.
    As one of my Ukrainian neighbors said to me this morning, “Russia is the world’s number one aggressor.” He reminded me that while people talk about how WWII “started” on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, people for some reason forget that the USSR invaded Poland and Finland from the other side on September 15th. The USSR was hand-in-hand with Germany in launching the aggressions that launched WWII.

  • RBG

    Russia-vs-Georgia – New website about conflict

    Vote for one of the sides

    http://www.russia-vs-georgia.com/

  • Bill Lamb

    i am english and have been watching the events unfold in Georgia since the start, I dont agree with the attacks by georgia on the breakaway states, but what was surprising is the time it took the Russians to mobilise that many tanks and troops to protect the breakaway states. I have a Georgian friend who lives in Tbilisi and knowing her the ordinary Georgians would not have wanted this conflict.I think if Saakashvili is left in power he will continue to be a loose canon, It is up to the Georgian people to say enough is enough and remove him from power before he destroys the country.The Americans are that fickle they would drop Saakashvili as a friend at the drop of a hat.

  • Max

    Dear Julia,

    I respect your opinion. But like many in the world,I wonder if peacekeeping forced (as you said) always bombed civilians. We shared the grievances for the victims on both sides.But you have to learn the difference between military and thiefs. You have to admit the real reason why people in the former Soviet Union don’t want to go back to the early days,why they tried to protect themselves from your beloved country.

  • Bill Lamb

    Having watched all the news channels on English TV even the Russian channel RT the word Genocide is used a lot by politicians, all the reporters that are out in the conflict not one has reported genocide, what happened in the former Yugoslavia was genocide,the deaths that occured to the civilian population are tragic but happen in any conflict just look at Iraq the amount of civilians that are killed on a daily basis,but has never been classed as genocide,saakashvili is a gangster who is inflicting misery on the Georgian population for no apparent reason than his own gratification.

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