Sent by Sophia Tabatadze, a georgian Artist
Dear Friends,
As you should already know, there is a disaster in Georgia.
The most of young men have been already mobilised and went to the war. Beside having Gori, Marneuli - surrounding Tbilisi towns attacked, Russia bombarded west Georgia already - Senaki and Poti - the biggest Harbour of Georgia and open-air Airport next to Kutaisi and the Kodori Gorge (in Abkhazia). Anyway, the West Georgia is already a second hot spot ( if it does not become to be the hottest).
Tbilisi Airport was not functioning already this morning, as Russian's bombarded the Aircraft factory in Tbilisi, which is in that direction. Now the area close to the Airport of Tbilisi was bombed. The warships of Russia are approaching the Black Sea, Abkhazia to impose a sea blockade on the country. There was a risk of Batumi port to be bombed, but Russian's may be cautious of Turk's response (Turks have treaty rights on Adjara from the 1920s). Zugdidi, the capital of Samegrelo region was also bombed.
As for Humanitarian Aid. The hospitals are jammed by injured people. The healthcare system, as you know was not financially prepared for this cost. There is a shortage of blood substitutes, antiseptics, bandaging material and even of ICU respirators - Yes there is an urgent needed in International Solidarity and Humanitarian support! As one of the quick reaction from Genesis, our Tbilisi and Ortabatumi/Batumi clinics will provide free of charge medical aid to injured people. hospitals are jammed and providing follow-up care will be very difficult for them. The staff of our office and clinic were on holidays, which they will interrupt and everybody will be at their work tomorrow.
This is a full scale war against Georgia! If it resolves relatively soon, the projects will probably take their course, but slower and much more efforts and resourses will be needed. In general, the country faces a devastating economic crisis. There will be a huge number of extra refugees. Ten minutes ago (13.10 Georgian time) the BBC World Service was quoting the UNHCR that 10,000 refugees from Georgian parts of South Ossetia were fleeing and/or expected to flee South to Gori and to beyond in the next 48 hours.
If the war continues .... the God help Georgia!
Maia Mgaloblishvili-Ryan
President
Genesis
Georgia
There are some web-sites/articles describing the problem quite well
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/08/russia.georgia by the former Policy Director of Slovakia Ministry of Defence, and http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/08/russia.georgia1 from British Analysts This page is accurate timeline for the escalation http://www.jamestown.org/news_details.php?news_id=339
