Georgia was wrong as well
Friday, 22 August 2008
Wilson Fitzgerald (Write Back, August 18) expects that ‘anti-war' protesters should have been protesting about the Russian invasion of Georgia.
If there were Russian and Georgian consulates or embassies in Northern Ireland, I would be quite happy to be involved in protesting at both. The fact is that the current crisis was precipitated by Georgian bombardment of South Ossetia.
I have seen an e-mail from Abkhazia which referred to 1,600 people killed by the Georgian bombardment on South Ossetia before Russia intervened (I do not have independent confirmation of this).
Wrongs on both sides do not make one right and I would not consider either Georgians or Russians as justified in their actions and the Georgian government has not been a bastion of peace or democracy. Those who criticise ‘the peace movement' and anti-war activists often accuse us of not doing a particular action, such as protesting about Omagh on the 10th anniversary, as Wilson Fitzgerald does.
Wilson Fitzgerald seems to be setting us up as ‘Aunt Sallys’ to be knocked down when perhaps he should be asking what he has himself been doing for peace?
ROB FAIRMICHAEL
Coordinator, INNATE (Irish Network for Nonviolent Action Training and Education)
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