European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) firmly condemns the war that has erupted between Georgia and Russia and urges both sides to cease fire and respect international law and civilians' rights.
Aloys Rigaut, President of LYMEC, commented: "
We had hoped that after the Balkan war in the early 1990s, we would not see more wars of this type on our continent but unfortunately this is not the case. We are all deeply concerned about the situation, as much as about the future. Russia's military intervention outside the conflict zone of South Ossetia is a show of strength and a direct challenge to the European Union's and NATO's credibility. The urgency is to stop the hostilities and find back the path to negotiations and peace. However once this is over the EU will seriously need to rethink its relations with Russia. We need in particular to strengthen our relations with our closest neighbours, such as Ukraine and Georgia, as well as our security and defence policy. There is no grey zone here for Russia to expand".
Irakli Kakhidze, President of Young Republicans, LYMEC's partner organisation in Georgia, stressed: "This war is not anymore about South Ossetia. It is progressively escalating into a fully-fledged war with Russia. They are striking outside the conflict zone, attacking our railways, military bases and airports, ports and oil terminals, and they have refused a cease fire. It is clear that their objectives go beyond South Ossetia. They want to destabilise our country and re-establish their influence in the region", before adding: "We want the war to stop and call on the international community to help us".
The actions started in August 7th in South Ossetia. Separatists opened fire in the direction of Georgian villages, which was responded by fire from the Georgian side. Russia engaged itself in the conflict on August 8th, which then rapidly escalated, involving strikes outside the conflict zone - notably in Abkhazia, Gori and even Tbilisi, where inhabitants are in a state of panic. According to latest information, Russia is even bombing non-military targets such the international airport and factories close to Tbilisi centre. There is contradictory information about the number of victims of the conflict. Georgian officials are announcing that 92 people, including 47 civilians, are dead from the Georgian side, whereas Russian media report that more than 2,000 people are dead.
LYMEC calls on its member organisations to raise awareness about the conflict in their national media.
