:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/18/world/europe/18tblisi.html
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and MATT SIEGEL
Published: August 17, 2008
TSKHINVALI, Georgia — Russian authorities have given Western journalists little or no access to villages that have been looted and burned in Russian-controlled areas of South Ossetia and northern Georgia, making a full public accounting of the aftermath of the violence here all but impossible.
Foreign journalists in the Russian-controlled part of the conflict zone are driven in trucks, buses and armored personnel carriers from Vladikavkaz, in Russia, to Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, but are not allowed to stop and get out in any of the villages along the way.
The Russians say the limitations are to keep foreign reporters safe. Ossetians, they say, are angry with the West because they see it as having sided with Georgia in the conflict, and Russian officials argue it is not safe to go without an escort.
The issue is not just theoretical. Russia has claimed that Georgia committed genocide in Tskhinvali. The Georgians, for their part, have accused the Russians and Ossetians of a calculated campaign of cleansing. None of those claims can be independently checked, because the Russian government is not allowing foreign journalists into the areas.
Alexander Lomaya, secretary of Georgia’s National Security Council, said on Sunday that the Russians had been helpful with emergency issues, such as evacuating elderly people from destroyed villages. But he said that they had painted themselves into a corner by insisting there had been a genocide.
“Now they are facing problems in revealing what really happened,” he said. “How will they explain to the outside world that thousands were not killed after all?”
Russian journalists are allowed to move around freely. Dmitry Steshin, a reporter for the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, drove down through the scorched villages on Saturday. He was not stopped at a single checkpoint. He was shocked at the level of destruction.
“They just don’t want you to see that all the Georgian homes have been burned down,” he said. “It’s really as simple as that.”
Foreign reporters are reduced to riding in convoys and looking out the window of an armored personnel carrier. Before allegations of looting and ethnic violence against Georgian villages began, reporters were allowed to look out of the top of their armored personnel carrier on Aug. 12, one of the worst days of the looting. But several days later, the hatch was closed. Officials cited safety concerns.
Even Russian journalists complained about the restrictions placed on them. “I really think the problem isn’t the Kremlin,” said a Russian reporter in Tskhinvali, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue. “In the beginning, before the military completely took over here, access was much easier for everyone.”
Not everyone in the government is comfortable with the decision to bar Western journalists. A Kremlin official speaking on the condition of anonymity discussed the tensions that appeared to be in play behind the scenes. “It’s a question of mentality,” he said. “If it was up to me, you’d be in those villages tomorrow.”
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