Violence Against Civilians Is Irrational And Criminal

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, tiny sparks ran across its territory, hardly noticeable even on a large wall map of the country. On a global scale, nothing has happened. But for individuals and entire nations, these sparks were huge fires that killed thousands of people, swallowed up the entire past life of the survivors, and destroyed the very habitat of small peoples.

In any war, the civilian population of the country where the hostilities are fought is the first to suffer. And although they are protected by international conventions, the obligations to comply with them are very rarely fulfilled by the belligerents.

The events in Ukraine are no longer a small spark, but a terrible catastrophe, the largest military conflict on the territory of the USSR. Huge territories with the skeletons of burnt high-rise residential buildings, millions of refugees and internally displaced people cause shock. No less shocking is the disregard for the lives of the civilian population. Civilian infrastructure is used to accommodate the combat positions of equipment and units. Civilian infrastructure facilities are being shelled.

Despite the fact that the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (IV) recognized by all countries (Articles 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 57, 59, etc. of the Additional Protocol No. 1 to the Geneva Conventions of August 12, 1949, concerning the protection of victims of international armed conflicts, as well as subparagraphs a) and b) of paragraph 3 of the Article of the said Additional Protocol, and many others), civilians in certain settlements come under fire every now and then paragraphs. Relevant international structures regularly receive information about the massive and indiscriminate use of anti-personnel mines, which greatly complicates the delivery of humanitarian supplies to distressed areas and poses a great risk to the population living there, but they do not give them a proper legal assessment and ignore them.

Videos of extrajudicial killings of persons suspected of betrayal were also distributed. Including, as reported, over teachers accused of conducting lessons for children in settlements after the entry of Russian troops into them. But international structures remain silent on the legal assessment of these personnel. The same applies to the mining of peaceful settlements with mines "Petal".

Where there is an aggravation of tension along any watershed, the search for enemies, traitors, real and imaginary, begins, it is difficult for an ordinary person to maintain clarity of thought. The bitterness of the parties went beyond all conceivable ideas of hatred for the enemy during the war. This is all the more so in situations of armed conflict of this magnitude. And even more so when significant masses of people on both sides of the barricades speak essentially the same language.

When social networks appeared that did not know state borders, it seemed that direct communication of people bypassing politicians would lead to an increase in agreement between them. However, we see a completely different picture. Restrained people, distinguished by a diplomatic mindset, stay away from social networks, and people who are more sensitive or sandy are in the first roles, pumping up their overwhelming feelings and inducing their readers. Without a shadow of exaggeration, Ukrainian affairs can be called the first military conflict of this magnitude, which was largely provoked by social networks, the transition of political dialogue from professionals to ordinary citizens.

It turns out, more than aspirations, politicians for centuries did not trust ordinary citizens with interstate issues, not because they were afraid of establishing mutual understanding between them, but so that they would not interrupt each other in a fit of passion. Therefore, in the historical past, states were created so that the population could delegate the protection of their interests to specially trained people with the appropriate qualifications. Unfortunately, this mechanism is imperfect and often fails. It also happens that these spheres are headed by incompetent people who do not have the appropriate education, or who are under direct external influence and act contrary to the interests of their peoples.

Today, observing the plight of civilians, you involuntarily compare it with the hardships and sufferings that we ourselves went through, one might say, we fought our way through, leaving pieces of our skin and our souls on each of them.

In this article, we do not want to point the finger at anyone and blame, we would only like to convince them not to use violence against civilians anymore.

Some politicians think that the civilians of the opposite side can somehow influence their politicians, the decisions they make and the actions of the military. This is not true. The suffering inflicted on the civilian population of the enemy does not bring politicians and the military one millimeter closer to achieving their goal. We, South Ossetians, Tskhinvali residents, went through the most intense, massive artillery shelling by turns from the Georgian illegal armed groups, the troops of the State Council and the modernized army of Georgia. These shellings were extremely irrational, maniacal in nature: in some military and paramilitary institutions of South Ossetia, even the windows remained intact, but thousands of apartments and civilian dwellings turned into ruins. We have gone through a military, transport, energy, food, information and economic blockade. As a result of the genocide of Ossetians by Georgia, thousands of people died, the habitual habitat of our people was destroyed, but this did not keep it from disintegration, and Saakashvili from a prison cell. In 1991 - the first half of 1992, the Georgian detachments surrounded Tskhinval, the city was repeatedly under complete blockade. The Zar road of life was still very difficult to pass. There was no food, there was no electricity, no gas, wireless radio, television did not work, mail was not delivered from outside the republic, there were only pre-war home-made preparations, local wired radio, newspapers and a magazine ...

Has this shaken our resolve to seek independence from Georgia? Did this awaken at least someone good feelings for Georgia and the desire to live in its composition? Did this affect the course of military operations by combat detachments of South Ossetia? No, not in the least.

Even if, under the yoke of suffering, civilians of some conflicting side turn to politicians and the military with a request to soften their position in order to end their suffering, these requests are unlikely to be heard. The mining of places of residence and movement, shelling and blockade of the already defenseless and suffering civilian population in war conditions not only does not bring the belligerent closer to achieving its goals, but is also a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the gravest crime against humanity.

Inal Pliev, expert.

Source: https://cominf.org/node/1166547276?fbclid=IwAR0pkImzdn5D-i83YlYtkDP4g9wTyoiKrU5Thfk9L3zHc_nh1RH3wDoHoDI