Winston, IDPs and Links

Ok then, sat in a rainy campsite/hostel in Munich feeling utterly inapropriate for drinking and socialising whilst everything's on so I thought I might just do a quick post bringing you all up to speed on a couple of things that might not have picked up in the press. I'm no longer "on the ground" so to speak but I've been in contact with a few people and found a few things out.

For bigger picture stuff it's worth looking at a number of news sources and trying to pull together the facts from the contradictions. I'll outline a number of sources at the end of the post.

Also in this post I'll finally give you all some fresh news on Winston Featherly, the journalist injured in South Ossetia and talk a little about the new wave of internal displacement that's hit Georgia from my organisation's perspective.

Winston

Finally some movement on this one, we've got a few news sources reporting it now. Though the only American one that seems interested is his state paper.

Unfortunately it seems that early hopes for Winston's condition might have been overly optimistic. He's reported to be one of the most seriously ill of the journalists injured in the incident that wounded him. He's in intensive care in Moscow General Hospital 86 and has recieved a blood transfusion.

He's been in contact with his family, he has recieved a couple of operations on his leg and is reportedly very weak and has difficulty communicating with his care givers as he doesn't speak Russian.

On a positive front he's been interviewed by a Fox News journalist so he should hit the mainstream media any minute now. He's also apparently due to be transfered to a military hospital in Germany as soon as possible.

I have concerns, not just for his health but his saftey, the Russians have been keeping him heavily under wraps, the western press have been suspiciously silent about his case despite attempts by many of us to get it published, he has probably seen a lot of stuff that could undermine Russian rhetoric.

I'm probably worrying too much.. We hope that he's all safe and sound and with his family within the next few days.

The Displaced

I've been talking with my boss in Tbilisi today, it was a relief to have contact again and to learn more about the situation for the fresh wave of IDPs that have been created by the conflict. My organisation has been dealing with displacement since the first war and has its work cut out from now on.

I was able to do my first of what I hope will be a large amount of work for the organisation by putting together a letter for our past and present donors briefly outlining the humanitarian situation and requesting help.

I've reproduced it here to fill you in on what we're dealing with. Compared to the first conflict the numbers are fortunately quite low. My concern is with the Russians in Gori, Zugdidi, Poti and Senaki it could get much worse quite quickly though I've completely given up on trying to make serious predictions about the tragectory of the conflict.



The disastrous conflict that has engulfed Georgia over the last week has triggered a fresh IDP crisis with tens of thousands of refugees fleeing their homes in Gori, South Ossetia and Kodori Gorge to escape the bombs and approaching tanks of the Russian army.

In some cases such as Senaki, where a Russian bomb destroyed a collective centre groups of refugees from the last war are forced once more to flee their homes.

We are writing to bring your attention to the conditions under which those who have been forced to escape are living.

We have been working under the coordination of UNHCR to begin a needs assessment of IDPs in Tbilisi. It is currently difficult to ascertain the full extent of the problem but preliminary reports are troubling.

According to data from the Ministry of Refugees and Accommodation of Georgia and UNCHR the number of IDPs in the capital Tbilisi number 19,350. These refugees make up the vast majority of the 23 000 who are estimated to have been displaced. There are also a significant 600 seeking refuge in Kutaisi.

A large number of those who fled are women and children many of which are very young (aged 2-5); there are also many pregnant and breastfeeding women who are beginning to suffer from lack of food

The IDPs are spread amongst 278 new collective centres in the capital, putting great additional pressure on existing efforts to support IDPs from the last war. The refugees are currently living in former hospitals, schools, kindergartens and hotels few of which are designed for accommodating people, let alone in such large numbers.

Water and sanitation are already becoming apparent as a problem. Most collective centres have been abandoned for some time and have fallen into disrepair. Many of the centres lack water and sewage and many have damaged or unusable toilet and bathroom facilities. Water for drinking and washing has to be carried from other buildings or other streets in many cases and the lack of decent washing and toilet facilities pose a serious risk to health.

There is a chronic lack of basic amenities. There is a small supply of beds, mattresses and blankets but not nearly enough to meet demand, many families have had to resort to using newspaper and cardboard boxes to sleep on.

Lack of food is also a major problem, especially given the number of young children and pregnant and breastfeeding women. When questioned about basic cooking and eating equipment on IDP replied “we do not have a food, so for what we will use the plates and glasses?”.

The high rates of physical and psychological trauma combined with the risk of diseases such as dysentery arising from the terrible living conditions (there are already a number of reported cases) are creating an acute need for a range of medicines.

There is therefore and urgent requirement for aid for the IDPs in a number of areas (food, water, sanitation, medicine and basic necessities). The longer it takes to resolve the issue the greater the risk to human health, we desperately need your support!

Please distribute this information to your friends and partners, the situation is still very unstable and we don’t know could potentially deteriorate further.

Any help you can give would be gratefully received.

I'll try and keep you all posted on the relief efforts as I get more information. My next post will be largely focused on this issue.


News Sources

As I said, my reporting will be taking a slightly different angle from now on, with less of a focus on current events and developments. I'm now going to give you a list of the main sources (aside from the obvious western ones) that I've been using to report on the situation. Read them yourselves and make your own minds up.

Georgian

civil.ge Major Georgian news source, regularly updated, certainly a very Georgian perspective. Has been hit by a number of DDoS attacks recently so here's a couple of mirrors.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs weblog provides the official Georgian Government line on the conflict. Read with a pinch of salt but a lot of the stuff that's been coming out of it has proven to be more reliable than its sensationalist tone suggests.

Interpress Some of my Georgian friends use this site, I haven't looked at it too much but they apparently they update pretty regularly and it's reasonably reliable. It's password protected but because of the conflict they've put the password on a banner on the home page.

Rustavi2 State broadcaster. I normally loathe them and I wouldn't expect particularly objective reportage. They've been heavily DDoSed too, look at it to see what information your average Georgian gets through their TV. They have lots of video (in Kartuli of course).

Russian

It's good to know what your enemy is thinking so I'll quickly recommend a couple of Russian sources. Read with caution of course ;-)

Interfax is a major Russian news agency, the site's main content is registration only but it's got a handy news ticker very regularly updated, we're talking by the minute here, though sometimes (often when something really important is happening) it stops updating for an hour or so. A good starting point for the hottest breaking news. I was glued to it for the first few days of the conflict. No depth what-so-ever..

Itar-Tass is another major Russian news agency, I didn't use this one as much because I really liked the rapid updates on interfax. A lot more depth though. The website is as ugly as hell.

Russia Today is Russia's premier television channel. Truly terrifying and not for the faint hearted, I get a nasty feeling in my stomach and very pessimistic about a quick end to it all everytime I go there. Lots of news, lots of video, these were the guys who interviewed Winston. Evil nationalist propaganda, watching this I know how an Iraqi feels watching CNN. They've got a youtube page too for quick, reliable video streaming.

Expat Blogs

I'd like to get more on here I only know a few and they're mainly my friends. If you know of any others please contact me with the link and I'll post it. When I get a bit more space I'll put a link bar on the side.

http://georgien.blogspot.com/>Georgia and South Caucuses Blog This one is great, really, really good I've been reading it for a while, long before this shitty war. This guy really knows what he's talking about. Lots of stuff about art and culture on it too.

Billy's blog Here's another guy who knows what he's talking about, unfortunately he's not quite as bitten by the blogging bug (aliteration unintentional) as myself or others. Keep an eye on it though, I'm bugging him to do more writing.

I've got atleast two more mates who are writing seriously about this, unfortunately I read their blogs on facebook so I can't link them, I've asked them for links so I'll have this message replaced by links to them as soon as I can.

As I said, I'll have these up on a sidebar soon.

There is of course also the legendary "Megobrebs" mailing list. It's only really for people in Georgia but if you're there and you're not on it, get it sorted out.

Anyway

I'm at a youth hostel, it's one o'clock and I'm virtually sober. Time to rectify this problem. Will post again soon.