TFGG01: HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SPLIT OVER RUSSIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 002429 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/15/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV PREF PHUM PINR RS SUBJECT: TFGG01: HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS SPLIT OVER RUSSIAN VERSION OF SOUTH OSSETIA EVENTS Classified By: DCM Eric Rubin; reason 1.4 (d) ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Representatives of the Moscow offices of internationally-based human rights organizations have publicly questioned the GOR's figures for the number of dead and wounded from the conflict in South Ossetia. In an August 14 roundtable with Charge, home-grown activists have hewn more closely to the Kremlin's story of Georgian atrocities and asked for a clearer, more even-handed USG position. Human rights activists suggest that NGO reports of atrocities in Russian-held territory may have pushed the GOR to respond. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Tanya Lokshina, a researcher for the Moscow office of Human Rights Watch who has been in the region since shortly after the conflict began, publicly questioned the GOR's estimate that 2,000 South Ossetians died in Tskinvali alone as a result of the fighting. According to Lokshina, a dual U.S.-Russian national, personnel at Tskinvali's only hospital registered 44 dead and 273 wounded during the fighting there. This is in huge contrast to the figure of 2,000 dead that the GOR has cited for Russian media. Aleksandr Cherkasov, a member of the board of the Moscow office of the human rights group Memorial, told us August 14 that he fully supports Lokshina's conclusions. He noted that Tskinvali is a small city and those wounded in the fighting would have been able to go to the city's only trauma hospital. He said the number of civilian dead and wounded might increase for the small number who may have either been buried or traveled to hospitals in North Ossetia. ¶3. (C) Concerning reports of looting by South Ossetian militia of Georgian villages, Cherkasov stated that after human rights organizations raised this issue on August 11, the Russian military immediately blocked access to Georgian villages between Java and Tskinvali and homes there were protected. He did not know if similar measures were taken to protect ethnic Georgian villages in other parts of South Ossetia. ¶4. (SBU) According to the internet-based Caucasian Knot, Memorial along with several smaller human rights organizations including Sergey Kovalyev's "For Human Rights" and Garry Kasparov's United Civic Front, have issued an manifesto announcing an anti-war campaign until there is a final peace in Georgia. ¶5. (C) At an August 14 roundtable discussion hosted by Charge with representatives of several human rights organizations, participants uniformly assigned blame for the present crisis to Saakashvili. Yuriy Dzhibladze, President of the Center for the Development of Democracy and Human Rights and an ethnic Georgian living in Russia, was the most strident. He said the Russian public believed the U.S. was guilty of having a double standard for not condemning Georgia's initial aggression. He said that the U.S. position must be clear and it must admit that the GOG made a mistake, and emphasized that what Saakashvili did was "not just a mistake, it was a crime." Others noted with deep regret that the United States -- justifiably in their view -- is seen in Russia as being indifferent to the suffering of the Ossetians, and suggested that the U.S. demonstrate grater sympathy for all the people who have suffered and continue to suffer in the region and not just the ethnic Georgians. Comment -------------- ¶6. (C) Since the August 10 condemnation by several of the smaller, less influential human rights organizations of Russia's operations in Georgia, human rights organizations have continued to divide over whether to support the government's campaign to rally Russian public opinion. The fact that the most outspoken critics of the GOR are those human rights campaigners with international connections will reinforce stereotypes that they serve a "foreign pay-master." The unwavering support by home-grown organizations could provide the government with more fodder for its criticism of the Western response to the conflict. BEYRLE