Information War During The 2008 South Ossetian War - August 12 Through 15

August 12 Through 15

Human Rights Watch initially called the Russian death toll figure of 2,000 unfounded, citing a doctor who said that between August 6 to 12 the hospital treated 273 wounded, more military than civilian. The doctor also said that 44 bodies had been brought to the hospital since the fighting began, both military and civilian. According to HRW, "the doctor was adamant that the majority of people killed in the city had been brought to the hospital before being buried". Human Rights Watch group stated later, however, that

"The 44 figure became the subject of controversy as some mistakenly characterized this as Human Rights Watch's definitive figure on civilian casualties, and others used this as evidence of bias. We were fully aware and noted in media statements that the figures provided from Tskhinvali hospital were not a comprehensive tally. Some of the residents killed in Tskhinvali and especially in the outlying villages were never brought to the hospital; instead, a number of people were buried beside their homes."

Human Rights Watch also state that "Human Rights Watch does not have the capacity to make a definitive estimate as to the number of civilian casualties." But they site different investigation groups, which provide numbers between 160 to 300-400 civilian casualties. Anna Neistat, leader of a HRW team investigating the humanitarian damage in South Ossetia, told The Guardian that

investigators had... recorded cases of Ossetian fighters burning and looting Georgian villages north of the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali. "The torching of houses in these villages is in some ways a result of the massive Russia propaganda machine which constantly repeats claims of genocide and exaggerates the scale of casualties... That is then used to justify retribution."

While acknowledging that third-party investigations were incomplete, she claimed that the death toll placed by South Ossetian and Russian authorities (of over 2,000) was "suspicious" and "very doubtful". The South Ossetians later claimed that 1,492 were killed as the result of the bombing of Tskhinvali.

On August 13, Fox News interviewed 12-year-old Ossetian-American girl Amanda Kokoeva, who had returned from South Ossetia. Fox began the interview by emphasising the terrors faced by a 12 year old girl "when bombs started falling". Invited to tell about Georgin bombings, the 12 year old girl and her aunt said they were saved by Russians from Georgian bombings. As the aunt started to mention that South Ossetians were being killed by Georgians, Fox News cut the interview for commercials. When the break ended and they were back to air, Fox granted the aunt an additional 40 seconds to finish her thoughts during the last minute of the program at which time she started to blame the Georgian government but explicitly distinguished it from the Georgian people. Thereafter the anchorman said "as we know, there are grey areas in war" as the program came to an end. CBS also had an interview with this girl before.

Russian media paid much attention to this incident. It was highlightened in particular on NTV (Russia) and Russia 1. However, the Russian channels allowed many inaccuracies and even editing themselves. First both channels created impression that the anchor stopped the conversation as soon as Amanda's aunt expressed the thought that it was Georgia to blame for the conflict. However, they failed to show that Amanda has been saying the same for almost a minute before, and the anchor did not interrupt her. Second Russia 1 edited the sound superimposing what is supposed to be anchors cough on Amanda's aunt talk, creating an impression that he was trying to prevent audience from hearing her. While in the original footage this sound is absent. The reporters from NTV (Russia) translated the words of Amanda thanking Russian troops while showing Amanda's aunt talking. Both channels also failed to translate the words of an anchor that "the commercial brake would interrupt the broadcast whether they liked it or not"

Regarding the Russian control of Gori, Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, denied that Russian troops were occupying Gori, saying that Russian soldiers "are not in Gori, have never been in Gori and do not occupy Gori," and rejecting news reports that the town was in ruins. Only a day later, Russian Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov addressed reporters in Gori, announcing that the Russian troops would leave Gori 2 days later. The final withdrawal came 10 days after Borisov's interview.

BBC News world affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds filed a story on August 15 citing the reports of refugee Ossetians in Russia and a Human Rights Watch report describing much of the damage in Tskhinvali as due to Georgian fire in concluding that the Georgian attack into South Ossetian on August 7 was being "played down" contrary to the "evidence". Reynolds called attention to what he considered exaggerated Georgian claims and the fact most of the western media is based in Georgia (the cause of this, as he writes, being Russia's reluctance to admit western media) is his story about how "mud" thrown in the "propaganda war" has "stuck" to Russia: "the Bush administration appears to be trying to turn a failed military operation by Georgia into a successful diplomatic operation against Russia.