Fair Play for South Ossetia and Abkhazia

If the events of the past two weeks is any indication, the world is going to see a lot of fighting over small "breakaway" republics around the world for much of the foreseeable future. What I am hoping to see is fair play for South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Let me explain why.

In Kosovo, which itself is a "breakaway" republic from Serbia, the United Nations Security Council passed UNSC Resolution 1244 back in 1999, calling for an end to the fighting and establishing a UN presence in that enclave of mostly ethnic Albanians. Earlier this year, the Kosovo government voted its independence, which was backed by the U.S. and other countries.

Okay, so we have a UN Security Resolution stating that Kosovo is part of Serbia, the people of Kosovo wanted independence, and the United States government both supported and recognized Kosovo as a free and sovereign nation. Remember that.

Now to South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Back in 1991, when the Soviet Union disbanded, Georgia was left on its own. In separate referendums, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which both had large ethnic Russian populations, voted to stay allied with Russia and for autonomy. Georgia, given its history with Russia disagreed and fighting broke out between South Ossetians and Georgians.

The last fighting in South Ossetia took place in 2004 and necessitated a UN-brokered peace and OSCE peacekeeping mission to that breakaway republic. The peacekeeping force consisted of Russian, Georgian, and South Ossetian forces. Additionally, under the agreement, in the event of any hostilities, Russia was to come to the aid of the party being attacked.

Last week, Georgian peacekeepers fired on and killed their Russian counterparts before shelling the Russian neigborhoods in the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali. Soon afterwards, Georgian troops from Georgia itself invaded South Ossetia and began leveling Tskhinvali, in addition to killing Russian civilians. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev invoked the agreement and sent Russian troops to the aid of the Russian peacekeeping force and civilians in South Ossetia.

As early as August 7th at 11pm, the Russian ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, had convened the UN Security Council to broker a cease fire. The U.S. and Georgia refused the cease fire because it contained the language "renounce the use of force". Russia invaded Georgia proper the next morning to intercept the other Georgian troops and aircraft that were en route to South Ossetia and the Russian Black Sea fleet left port in Sevastopol, Ukraine to block any arms shipments entering Georgia through Poti.

As it stands now, Russia wholly occupies South Ossetia and Abkhazia and parts of Georgia. Russian President Medvedev has stated that he would fully support the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which means that either those autonomous regions will be fully independent under the sponsorship of Russia for protection or they will be absorbed outright by Russia. Either way, those two nations will not be returning to Georgia and I can't say I blame those citizens. The South Ossetians, especially, were invaded, bombed, and shelled by the Georgian military.

The imminent independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia has many in the West upset and outraged. They are accusing Russia of treachery and of "stealing" countries "belonging" to Georgia. Even U.S. Republican Presidential candidate John McCain is on the record as stating "in the 21st century, countries don't invade other sovereign countries". (The same Senator McCain who made that statement forgot two Middle Eastern countries: Afghanistan and Iraq.)

But, back to Fair Play for South Ossetia and Abkhazia, if the United States is going to go against the UN Security Council and recognize Kosovo as an independent country, then there should be no outcry or problem with Russia recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries.

The United States government set the precedent and any exceptions to that precedent by Russia should and will be seen as hypocrisy on the part of the Bush Administration.