Are there any independent reporters of the Georgian massacre of

[Ilsa]

Ossetians last week? I found a blog by The Radical Mormon, but I'm wondering where to look to get really reliable professional coverage of what happened, if it exists.

Yes, I've seen some stuff on DU, but most of it was bloggers quoting other blogs, and then there is the little girl on FOX. I've been out of state this last week and my computer/DU access has been limited. But now I am home and can do some reading.

Thank you very, very much. I love showing others how screwed up our media is.

[DebJ]

1. Has anyone checked out the Human Rights Watch org that

the Georgian Pres keeps quoting when he's not eating his tie?

[Ilsa]

5. Why was he eating his tie, anyway?

I'd love to get as close to the truth on this stuff as we can without being there.

[MrMonk]

10. Human Rights Watch reporting on the war

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/13/georgi19607.htm

HRW spokespeople have also been issuing more details that have been quoted or cited in other articles, but did not make it into the releases on the website.

[David Dunham]

2. The Wash Post editorial on Saturday said only 44 people died, mostly military

[hellbound-liberal]

3. Here's something from Al Jazeera though it is mostly just raising questions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvhgfQijYdM

Here's a story from McClatchy that also confirms the number of deaths around 40.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/48860.html

You might also chech www.democracynow.org. I go there whenever I am looking for indepth unbiased reporting.

[Muttocracy]

4. I second Democracy Now, also BBC and DW

BBC has good background info too.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/default.stm

I think Deutsche Welle out of Germany is usually good, though now that Germany has taken sides I don't know (I don't know where DW gets their funding)
http://www.dw-world.de/

NPR's Ivan Watson is in Georgia, Gregory Feifer in Russia. NPR's commentators and hosts drive me nuts these days but some of their field reporters are still good.

They're compiling stories here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93497143

[Ilsa]

6. Thank you... got this lovely report:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3571263,00.html

Georgian elite forces fighting Russia in the breakaway region of South Ossetia were illegally armed with German assault rifles in a blatant violation of Germany's arms export laws, according to a TV report.

The report by German public broadcaster ARD, which was to be aired late on Sunday, claims that Georgian elite forces in the rebel province of South Ossetia were supplied with German weapons manufactured by arms company Heckler & Koch based in the south-western German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.
snip

[hellbound-liberal]

8. It certainly pays to read the foreign press. They do a much better job of presenting the truth

That's why so many of our fellow Americans are so uninformed, all they get is the American corporate media which is heavily censored.

[Ilsa]

9. Yeah, I was getting some BBC stuff, but did a search on their site and

couldn't find what I was looking for. Maybe my search words were off or something.

thanks for everything. I tell my online friends to turn off the tv news and look for foreign outlets.

[Ilsa]

7. Thanks. Will do. Was getting too many Russian links. I need a third

party for more objective information. DN is an excellent source. I was gone for a week. I heard a few reports on the radio, and read some via my cell phone, but couldn't dig into everything.

[pampango]

11. Here is the latest I could find from Human Rights Watch.

http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/17/georgi19633.htm

"(Tbilisi, August 18, 2008) – Mounting evidence that Russian and Georgian military used armed force unlawfully during the South Ossetian conflict highlights the need for international fact-finding missions in Georgia, Human Rights Watch said today. Ongoing militia attacks and a growing humanitarian crisis also indicate the urgent need for the deployment of a mission to enhance civilian protection.

In interviews with Georgians who fled South Ossetia and the Gori district following Russian forces’ assault on the area, Human Rights Watch has documented the Russian military’s use of indiscriminate force and its seemingly targeted attacks on civilians, including on a civilian convoy. The deliberate use of force against civilians or civilian objects is a war crime. Human Rights Watch has also confirmed the Russian military’s use of cluster bombs in two towns in Georgia (http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/14/georgi19625.htm).

Human Rights Watch interviews with more than 100 people in Tskhinvali and in the villages of Nizhni Gudjaver and Khetagurovo yielded a clearer picture of Georgian forces’ indiscriminate use of Grad multiple rocket launchers and tank fire. In Tskhinvali, Human Rights Watch saw numerous severely damaged civilian objects, including a hospital, apartment buildings, houses, schools, kindergartens, shops, administrative buildings, and the university (http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2008/08/12/georgi19594.htm).

Slava Meranashvili, 32, from Kekhvi, an ethnic Georgian village in South Ossetia, north of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali, told Human Rights Watch that his village was bombed by Russian jets several times. He told Human Rights Watch, “On August 9 or 10, massive bombing started and the village administration building and a hospital building were destroyed. Bombing took place day and night. It looked like they were targeting big buildings that could be housing the Georgian military.”"

An international fact-finding mission to Georgia and South Ossetia would seem to be a great idea.