Czechs back Georgia but some voice concern at post-Kosovo “hypocrisy”

The conflict between Russia and Georgia continued on Monday, as both sides accused each other of launching new military attacks and western diplomats scrambled to negotiate a ceasefire. All eyes were meant to be on Beijing and the Olympic Games this August, but it’s the Caucuses that have grabbed the world’s attention, and the Czech Republic is no exception.

Silhouettes of Russian soldiers seen against the backdrop of a burning building in the town of Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway Georgian enclave South Ossetia, photo: CTK

It wasn’t so long ago that Czechs themselves were part of the Soviet bloc, and so pictures of Russian tanks rolling into South Ossetia have a special resonance here, especially two weeks before the 40th anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.

There’s been considerable interest in the conflict in the Czech media, who’ve rushed correspondents from Moscow and further afield to the Caucuses. One of them is Czech Radio’s Lenka Kabrhelová, whom Radio Prague reached earlier in the Georgian town of Gori, bombed at the weekend by Russian aircraft:

Georgian refugees from villages near Tskhinvali block a highway outside the Georgian Parliament in Tbilisi, Georgia, photo: CTK

“I talked on Saturday to people here in Gori, shortly after the bombing. They were really desperate. First they didn’t want to talk about it at all, because they were really distressed and it was really a terrible experience for them. Many of them have lost relatives, their sons, their daughters, their husbands. They were waiting in front of the hospital for any news of their relatives. One could observe how people were really shocked. On the other hand, many people said that they want to fight. They feel that they can’t let Russia – as they put it – get them again, as they did in Soviet times.”

So there is no sense from the Georgians that you spoke to that Georgia has made a mistake by attempting to regain control of South Ossetia, that this war was a tragic error?

“Actually that was a question I asked many people, and they didn’t want to hear about it at all. It may sound contradictory but all of them - even though many did not want war – they all said when it’s war, we have to fight. We don’t want war, but what can we do? It’s here so we have to fight to the end.”

South Ossetia separatist fighters rest near an armored vehicle in the town of Dzhava, South Ossetia, photo: CTK

The Czech experience of being invaded and subjugated by Russia has undoubtedly coloured the Czech view of the conflict. The Czech foreign ministry released a statement fully supporting Georgia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and indirectly blaming Russia for causing the crisis.

Czech arms firms, meanwhile, sell weapons and munitions - ironically weapons originally supplied by the Soviets - to the Georgian armed forces. The export deals are approved by the Czech centre-right government.

Soldiers sit on top of a Russian tank in a street in the town of Tskhinvali, capital of the breakaway Georgian enclave South Osetia, photo: CTK

But not all Czechs support Georgia in its attempt to regain control over South Ossetia. Former Foreign Minister Jiří Dienstbier, for one, believes Georgia has made a terrible mistake.

“I think they’ve made not just a tactical, but a strategic mistake, because it was clear – and they were warned – that if they tried to occupy South Ossetia or Abchazia, they will be reminded of the western approach to Kosovo independence. Kosovo’s independence is a model for people in Ossetia and Abchazia. They even declared independence again after Kosovo declared its independence, and Georgia and President Saakashvili should have known that if they try to occupy Southern Ossetia, the Russian response may be very strong. To start a war against a world power, is I think a very big mistake on their part.”

Jiří Dienstbier

Former foreign minister Dienstbier says he understands the current Czech government’s response to the crisis, but adds that after Prague recognised the independence of Kosovo, the Czechs – along with the rest of the western world - are morally on very thin ice.

“I think I can understand it, because it’s the position of a country that was it itself attacked many times in history. But we cannot change the situation. We can participate in the European Union negotiations and promote - there especially – the same standards for everybody. But after the Czech Republic recognised Kosovo, nobody can take us seriously if we refuse the wishes of the Abchazian and South Ossetian people to have independence. I must say that I don’t like these changes of boundaries. We should work to make boundaries unimportant, but it will take some time. But when we changed the principle by recognising the independence of Kosovo, by taking one part of a country, cutting it from the territory of a country, then we may have very similar problems all over the world.”