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MEDIAWATCH: Destabilisation threatens the north Caucasus
30 Sep 2008 16:43:00 GMT
Author: Joanne Tomkinson

Has Russia finally defeated Chechnya's separatist insurgents at the same time as another major conflict is brewing in the volatile north Caucasus region? Press coverage of Chechnya, and its neighbours Ingushetia and Dagestan, raises questions about balance between peace and conflict in the whole area.

"Like it or not, Russia has won this war," says Jonathan Steele of the 17-year-old conflict between Moscow and Chechnya, in Britain's Guardian newspaper.

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Georgia's displaced top 150,000, U.N. says
18 Aug 2008 17:06:00 GMT
Author: Ruth Gidley

U.N. agencies say almost 160,000 people have been forced out of their homes in Georgia and the breakaway region of South Ossetia by fighting between Georgia and Russia.

After reaching the town of Gori in central Georgia on Sunday - the first time U.N. organisations had got into the city since it was captured by Russian forces as they fanned out from South Ossetia into the Georgian heartland - staff from the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, estimated that 30,000 people had fled within South Ossetia, plus almost 99,000 in the rest of Georgia. Another 30,000 were estimated to be displaced to Russia.

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Explosives threaten civilians after S.Ossetia ceasefire
15 Aug 2008 11:52:00 GMT
Author: Emma Batha

Thousands of people uprooted during the fighting over South Ossetia will be risking their lives when they return home because of unexploded or abandoned munitions, aid workers and weapons experts warn.

"There will be a lot of unexploded ordnance lying around the streets and possibly even in people's homes which have been damaged, and in schools and health centres," said Robert MacGillivray, head of operations for Mines Advisory Group (MAG).

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Aid groups push for access, data on Georgia displaced
11 Aug 2008 16:53:00 GMT
Author: Alex Whiting

LONDON, Aug 11 (AlertNet) - Relief groups are struggling to get aid to thousands of people caught up in clashes between Georgian, Russian and Ossetian troops in Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says it is receiving reports of a growing number of civilian casualties and widespread displacement throughout the region. "The humanitarian situation remains very serious," said Dominique Liengme, ICRC head of delegation in Georgia.

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Will Karadzic get a fair trial?
30 Jul 2008 14:38:00 GMT
Author: Emma Batha

Former Bosnian Serb leader and war crimes suspect Radovan Karadzic arrived in The Hague today to stand trial for genocide. News of his surprise arrest on a Belgrade bus last week came just days after the International Criminal Court indicted Sudan's president for genocide in Darfur.

Most people in the West generally assume that war crimes trials are a good thing. But do international tribunals actually deliver justice? John Laughland, author of a book on the history of political trials, thinks not.

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