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punctdevedere

Listed below are comments made by punctdevedere between Friday, 15th August 2008 and Tuesday, 4th November 2008.

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Sinister motives? 08:34am on 04 Nov 2008 I just voted in an election in my home country, New Zealand, though I live overseas. I logged on to a web-site, verified my identity, downloaded voting papers, filled them out and faxed them off. Took me ten minutes.
The stunted country 08:02am on 22 Oct 2008 It's interesting to consider New Zealand's political structure as a contrast. Like all the Australian states, NZ was a British colony with a bi-cameral parliament. It was invited to join the Australian federation in 1901 but declined.

Some years later NZ's upper house was abolished leaving the country with a simple, unicameral system and (as of today) only 120 MPs. Decision making there is observably quicker and less complicated than across the Tasman.

Of course, NZ's opt-out may possibly have cost it in economic terms (at least until the introduction of CER), but that's another issue.
EU-Russia tensions 7:10pm on 15 Oct 2008 Europe needs to show some spine in its relations with Russia, not just for the benefit of the EU or even of worried Eastern European countries, but in the interests of Russia itself.

Russia is a very immature political entity which wields major political, military and economic power. Like it or not, she will be an great power throughout this century.

Accordingly, we need a Russia that understands how to defend human rights, how to behave constructively in international relations and how to operate as a democracy.

With America in disgrace after the Bush era, the EU is the only mentor qualified to lead Russia in the right direction. In this role, there are times when Russia will need to be encouraged and times when she will need to be disciplined. The war in Georgia means this is a time for discipline, as encouragement would send entirely the wrong message.
Feeling the heat 5:32pm on 06 Sep 2008 Two issues:

1. Conflict investigation. If there is to be an investigation of the conflict, it must (a) not have pre-designed outcomes (e.g. "Georgia started it - so we don't need to respond to Russia's aggression".), and (b) take into account the full context and history of the region (in my view the underlying cause of the 2008 conflict was poor Russian peacekeeping and mediation following the 1992 wars...)

2. EU Unity. It is patently obvious that the EU's decision making processes are fundamentally broken and not even the Lisbon treaty can save them. The answer is relatively simple - any incoming European Commission should present a detailed programme of government (including foreign policy) for approval to Europe's only truly democratic institution, the parliament. Then the commission would have a mandate to act on the basis of that programme.
Separating fact from fiction 12:17pm on 21 Aug 2008 Russia launched into this war on the basis of a preposterous accusation - the 'genocide' of 1,600 South Ossetian civilians in Tskhnivali.

Now even the Russians are admitting that they are only able to document 134 deaths in all of S. Ossetia. At these levels, any military activity outside the confines of S Ossetia was completely unjustified.

If the Russian government has any honour, then

1. It should immediately withdraw all of its military personnel and hardware from Georgia. Not tomorrow. Today. There was no excuse for the invasion and there is no excuse for continuing occupation.

2. Russia should commit to paying reparations for all the unnecessary damage it has caused to Georgian infrastructure (e.g. the sinking of coastguard ships at anchor in Poti)

3. The President or Prime Minister of Russia should make a formal televised apology to his citizens for the Government's dishonesty. The damage that the initial propaganda did to Russian attitudes needs to be unwound.

4. International investigators should be given free access to all of Georgia so that the truth can be established once and for all. Russian, Georgian and separatist administrations need to cooperate and hand over any commanders or leaders who have a criminal case to answer.

5. International peacekeeping forces should be put in place in S Ossetia and Abkhazia so that Georgians can return to their homes in those regions whilst ensuring the protection of Ossetians and Abkhazians.
Separating fact from fiction 07:49am on 16 Aug 2008 The initial investigation by Human Rights Watch of deaths in Tskhnivali during the war quotes a doctor at the only hospital saying that they have processed 44 bodies, including military personnel.

The Russian leadership has lied to the world and to its own people about the event that triggered their intervention.

Russia has also lied about the refugee crisis in N Ossetia by maintaining that there were 30,000 refugees. According to HRW, quoting Russian records, just over 24,000 S Ossetians sought refuge in N Ossetia on the first day of the conflict. Over 11,000 of these returned to S Ossetia a day later, following the Russian tanks and keen to participate in the conflict. Only 13,000 remained as at the date of the HRW visit.
Separating fact from fiction 7:50pm on 15 Aug 2008 The statements of Georgian President Saakasvili are definitely not reliable statements of fact. He seems to be grasping at straws in his attempts to get the West to intervene.

This is not, however, carefully planned propaganda; more like a desparate reaction to events. He's not setting out to lie, he's just not waiting for confirmation of the stories he is hearing.

Russian propaganda is far more insidious. Whilst no serious observer could describe the Tskinvali attack as genocide, this "Cassus Belli" was all over the Russian media within hours of the conflict igniting, together with its suspiciously rounded numbers of casualties.

I lived through the tail end of the cold war and have spent many years observing another Russian-sponsored enclave in Transnistria, Moldova. My experience in both of these conflicts was and is that the Russian leadership is masterful in twisting the truth to their ends, turning black into white and night into day (a charge they mischievously lay at Saakasvili's feet to deflect it from themselves).

We simply cannot trust what they say without deep and independent verification.

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