EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As EU leaders in Brussels meet to debate Russia relations and diplomats in Geneva discuss Georgian security, one Polish aid worker aims to remind politicians of the stark realities of the conflict via a vandalised flag. Henryk Wlaszczyk - who did not want EUobserver to name the organisation he works for in case it is denied access to future war zones - arrived in Georgia at the height of the conflict on 11 August. He was based in Gori and travelled in the South Ossetia border region. Gori - the birthplace of Stalin - after Russian troops left in late August "The Russians attacked the university in Gori, which was shelled with high-calibre ordnance," he said. "When we entered we saw fires, books scattered everywhere. Then we noticed how the Russian soldiers had attacked the university flag and the EU flag, which was full of holes from bullets and bayonets. This symbol of the EU countries and of Georgian aspirations was an object of direct physical hatred." The medical worker picked up the flag and aims to pass it on to European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering in the coming days, to show the war was not just a scrap over bits of Georgian land, but a clash between two bordering ideologies and "empires" - the EU and Russia.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As EU leaders in Brussels meet to debate Russia relations and diplomats in Geneva discuss Georgian security, one Polish aid worker aims to remind politicians of the stark realities of the conflict via a vandalised flag.
Henryk Wlaszczyk - who did not want EUobserver to name the organisation he works for in case it is denied access to future war zones - arrived in Georgia at the height of the conflict on 11 August. He was based in Gori and travelled in the South Ossetia border region.
Gori - the birthplace of Stalin - after Russian troops left in late August
"The Russians attacked the university in Gori, which was shelled with high-calibre ordnance," he said. "When we entered we saw fires, books scattered everywhere. Then we noticed how the Russian soldiers had attacked the university flag and the EU flag, which was full of holes from bullets and bayonets. This symbol of the EU countries and of Georgian aspirations was an object of direct physical hatred."
The medical worker picked up the flag and aims to pass it on to European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering in the coming days, to show the war was not just a scrap over bits of Georgian land, but a clash between two bordering ideologies and "empires" - the EU and Russia.
