About a week ago, I read that children were being evacuated from the mountainous region of South Ossetia, a de facto independent state of Georgia which is a facto representative democracy. South Ossetia is about one and a half times the size of Luxembourg and two thirds of the approximately 70000 people who live there are ethnic Ossetians. The ethnic Ossetians have been itching to break away from the former breakaway Russian state of Georgia and for many years, isolated conflicts, violent tension, referendums (both recognised internationally and not recognised internationally), have constituted a sort of tug-of-war between Russia and Georgia whereby Ossetia (of which there is a North and a South) is the monkey-in-the-middle.
While Russia will claim South Ossetia's independence is Russia's priority, it has readily provided 70% of South Ossetians with Russian citizenship. Back in 1992, when Georgia seceeded from Russia, all parties agreed to a peacekeeping force made up of Georgians, Russians and Ossetians but the minority Georgians in South Ossetia voiced their concerns over the Russian peacekeeping forces actually siding with South Ossetian separatists.
In the midst of all this who belongs to whom and where should they be living, there is of course a big fat economic factor. It's called the Roki Tunnel and it's where narcotics, alcohol, and oil flow between Georgia and Russia. These differences of opinion, these economic interests, these ethnic divides have resulted in the deaths of thousands, whether they be Ossetian separatist fighters, Georgian or Russian soldiers, helpless everyday civilians. The fact that current EU President, French President Nikolas Sarkozy's office has declared he would travel to Moscow to meet with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev, will be of little comfort to those who have lost loved ones, have been injured, have seen their villages and cities destroyed and/or have been displaced. As I'm writing this, French and Finnish foreign ministers are on their way to Moscow with an internationally brokered ceasefire proposal signed by Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The above paragraph is a most basic account of the latest chapter in the centuries-old story of the region... and of so many other places in the world. In fact, I can not think of any place on the entire planet where there has only ever been peace. This land is our land. NO! This land is OUR land!! We belong to this folk. NO! We belong to THIS folk. Or even worse: You don't belong to my folk which is why I'm going to kill you even if this is your land.
This brings me back to the kids being evacuated as tensions between South Ossetians and Georgians grew last week. Not every child from the area was evacuated. The death toll since last Friday until today has been estimated at 2000, many of those killed have been children.
The kids who survive will have been taught a horrific lesson in hatred, in violence. Who could blame them for becoming an adult generation that perpetuates the violence and hatred? All the political leaders involved in the bloody tragedy that has unfolded in South Ossetia are criminals, as far as I'm concerned. They have hijacked the opportunity for kids to cheer on heroes competing against one another by running, jumping, swimming. They have stolen from the children the mere hope that there really could be one world, one dream.
Alle Fotos: Yuri Kochetkov/EPA
The 2014 Winter Olympics have been awarded to the Russian city of Sochi which is basically around the corner from South Ossetia. There are fears that the violence the region has endured the past few days could jeapordise the games because it may spark violence in an area with similar political dynamics - Abkhazia, which is even closer to Sochi than Ossetia is.
Sochi's official Olympic motto will hopefully fulfill a premise 'One World, One Dream' could not for the children of Ossetia. Sochi 2014's official motto is: "Gateway to the Future".
Österreich | 11.8.2008 | 18:24 
