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On Ossetia, Denials by Khalilzad of Foreign
Fighters, by Yerevan of Russian Planes in Armenian Bases
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
August 11 -- Propaganda or
underground truth, on the sidelines of conflict
in South Ossetia, Russian media
has been reporting that foreign fighters, including Americans, were
found among
the dead in Tskhinvali. Russia Today quoted South Ossetia's
Eduard
Kokoity that "Ukrainians and mercenaries from the Baltics as well as
nationals from other countries were involved in the fighting, as
'foreigners
have been found among their bodies.'" South Ossetia's envoy to Russia
was
quoted that "in yesterday's most recent tank attack, the advancing
tanks
were supposedly crewed by Ukrainians. Two unidentified bodies found
today...
Americans... who were probably either mercenaries or instructors in the
Georgian armed forces."
Against
this
backdrop, Inner City Press on Monday afternoon asked the U.S.
Ambassador to the UN
Zalmay Khalilzad, Russian media is reporting that foreign fighters
including
Americans were involved in Tskhinvali. "Some say this
is propaganda, some
say this is true. What do you say?" Video here,
from Minute 8:44.
Khalilzad
answered that "we hear a lot of propaganda. We've heard the U.S. gave
the
green light to this operation... I have nothing specific with regard to
these
report, but I would not conclude that they are true. We did not have
any prior
knowledge or were not consulted by Georgia." He encouraged agnosticism
as
to what happened on August 6, that one "not necessarily buy the line
that
Georgia initiated a conflict."
We'll see.
Amb. Khalilzad [says] don't believe the hype
Meanwhile,
responding to an earlier
Inner City Press report, from Yerevan comes a quote by
Georgian Ambassador
to Armenia Revaz countering that the airplanes that bombed Georgian
airports
flew off from the Russian military base in Armenia: "No Georgian
official
structures said this. As representative of official authorities of
Georgia, I
don't say it either. We don't doubt that Armenia will remain neutral in
this
case and no airplanes will bomb the territory of Georgia from Armenia.
I have
no doubt." But the allegation was made by a Georgian official.
Armenian
Colonel Seyran Shahsuvaryan was also quoted that "there are no bomber
aircrafts at the Russian military base in Armenia," only light
interceptors. Again, we'll see.
Watch
this
site. And this (on
South Ossetia), and
this --
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