DZHAVA, Georgia — Russia sent columns of tanks and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases Friday after Georgia launched a major military offensive Friday to retake the breakaway province of South Ossetia, threatening to ignite a broader conflict.
Hundreds of civilians were reported dead in the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won defacto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. Witnesses said the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was devastated.
"I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. "It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged."
The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Bush, were in Beijing.
The timing suggests Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia _ a key to his hold on power.
Saakashvili agreed the timing was not coincidental, but accused Russia of being the aggressor. "Most decision makers have gone for the holidays," he said in an interview with CNN. "Brilliant moment to attack a small country."
Diplomats called for another emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, its second since early Friday morning seeking to prevent an all-out war.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken to the parties involved and was working to end the fighting, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters.
Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili told CNN that the troops would be called home Saturday in the face of the South Ossetia fighting.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership _ a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.
The leader of South Ossetia's rebel government, Eduard Kokoity, said about 1,400 people were killed in the onslaught, the Interfax news agency reported. The toll could not be independently confirmed.
Ten Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded when their barracks were hit in Georgian shelling, said Russian Ground Forces spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov. Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces but Georgia alleges they back the separatists.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry accused Russian aircraft of bombing two military air bases inside Georgia, inflicting some casualties and destroying several military aircraft. Rustavi 2 television said four people were killed and five wounded at the Marneuli air base.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it was sending reinforcements for its peacekeepers, and Russian state television and Georgian officials reported a convoy of tanks had crossed the border. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, by evening, Channel One television said.
Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said government troops were now in full control of Tskhinvali, but the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Konashenkov as saying late Friday that Russian tanks were firing on Georgian positions in the city.
"We are facing Russian aggression," said Georgia's Security Council chief Kakha Lomaya. "They have sent in their troops and weapons and they are bombing our towns."
Putin has warned that the Georgian attack will draw retaliation and the Defense Ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship.
Chairing a session of his Security Council in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also vowed that Moscow will protect Russian citizens.
"In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located," Medvedev said, according to Russian news reports. "We won't allow the death of our compatriots go unpunished."
On Friday, an AP reporter saw tanks and other heavy weapons concentrating on the Russian side of the border with South Ossetia _ supporting the reports of an incursion. Some villagers were fleeing into Russia.
"I saw them (the Georgians) shelling my village," said Maria, who gave only her first name. She said she and other villagers spent the night in a field and then fled toward the Russian border as the fighting escalated.
Yakobashvili said Georgian forces had shot down four Russian combat planes over Georgian territory but gave no details. Russia's Defense Ministry denied an earlier Georgia report about one Russian plane downed and had no immediate comment on the latest claim.
Yakobashvili said that one Russian plane had dropped a bomb on the Vaziani military base near the Georgian capital, but no one was hurt.
More than 1,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were at the base last month to teach combat skills to Georgian troops. Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain.
South Ossetia officials said Georgia attacked with aircraft, armor and heavy artillery. Georgian troops fired missiles at Tskhinvali, an official said, and many buildings were on fire.
Georgia's president said Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities.
A senior Russian diplomat in charge of the South Ossetian conflict, Yuri Popov, dismissed the Georgian claims of Russian bombings as misinformation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Russia's Defense Ministry denounced the Georgian attack as a "dirty adventure." "Blood shed in South Ossetia will weigh on their conscience," the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.
Saakashvili long has pledged to restore Tbilisi's rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and built up ties with Moscow.
Relations between Georgia and Russia worsened notably this year as Georgia pushed to join NATO and Russia dispatched additional peacekeeper forces to Abkhazia.
The Georgian attack came just hours after Saakashvili announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast late Thursday in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict.
Georgian officials later blamed South Ossetian separatists for thwarting the cease-fire by shelling Georgian villages in the area.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0...70.html
Hundreds of civilians were reported dead in the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won defacto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. Witnesses said the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was devastated.
"I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," said Lyudmila Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. "It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged."
The fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic Games and many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Bush, were in Beijing.
The timing suggests Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili may have been counting on surprise to fulfill his longtime pledge to wrest back control of South Ossetia _ a key to his hold on power.
Saakashvili agreed the timing was not coincidental, but accused Russia of being the aggressor. "Most decision makers have gone for the holidays," he said in an interview with CNN. "Brilliant moment to attack a small country."
Diplomats called for another emergency session of the United Nations Security Council, its second since early Friday morning seeking to prevent an all-out war.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had spoken to the parties involved and was working to end the fighting, State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos told reporters.
Georgia, a staunch U.S. ally, has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain. But Saakashvili told CNN that the troops would be called home Saturday in the face of the South Ossetia fighting.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership _ a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.
The leader of South Ossetia's rebel government, Eduard Kokoity, said about 1,400 people were killed in the onslaught, the Interfax news agency reported. The toll could not be independently confirmed.
Ten Russian peacekeepers were killed and 30 wounded when their barracks were hit in Georgian shelling, said Russian Ground Forces spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov. Russia has soldiers in South Ossetia as peacekeeping forces but Georgia alleges they back the separatists.
Georgia's Foreign Ministry accused Russian aircraft of bombing two military air bases inside Georgia, inflicting some casualties and destroying several military aircraft. Rustavi 2 television said four people were killed and five wounded at the Marneuli air base.
Russia's Defense Ministry said it was sending reinforcements for its peacekeepers, and Russian state television and Georgian officials reported a convoy of tanks had crossed the border. The convoy was expected to reach the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, by evening, Channel One television said.
Georgian State Minister for Reintegration Temur Yakobashvili said government troops were now in full control of Tskhinvali, but the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Konashenkov as saying late Friday that Russian tanks were firing on Georgian positions in the city.
"We are facing Russian aggression," said Georgia's Security Council chief Kakha Lomaya. "They have sent in their troops and weapons and they are bombing our towns."
Putin has warned that the Georgian attack will draw retaliation and the Defense Ministry pledged to protect South Ossetians, most of whom have Russian citizenship.
Chairing a session of his Security Council in the Kremlin, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also vowed that Moscow will protect Russian citizens.
"In accordance with the constitution and federal law, I, as president of Russia, am obliged to protect lives and dignity of Russian citizens wherever they are located," Medvedev said, according to Russian news reports. "We won't allow the death of our compatriots go unpunished."
On Friday, an AP reporter saw tanks and other heavy weapons concentrating on the Russian side of the border with South Ossetia _ supporting the reports of an incursion. Some villagers were fleeing into Russia.
"I saw them (the Georgians) shelling my village," said Maria, who gave only her first name. She said she and other villagers spent the night in a field and then fled toward the Russian border as the fighting escalated.
Yakobashvili said Georgian forces had shot down four Russian combat planes over Georgian territory but gave no details. Russia's Defense Ministry denied an earlier Georgia report about one Russian plane downed and had no immediate comment on the latest claim.
Yakobashvili said that one Russian plane had dropped a bomb on the Vaziani military base near the Georgian capital, but no one was hurt.
More than 1,000 U.S. Marines and soldiers were at the base last month to teach combat skills to Georgian troops. Georgia has about 2,000 troops in Iraq, making it the third-largest contributor to coalition forces after the U.S. and Britain.
South Ossetia officials said Georgia attacked with aircraft, armor and heavy artillery. Georgian troops fired missiles at Tskhinvali, an official said, and many buildings were on fire.
Georgia's president said Russian aircraft bombed several Georgian villages and other civilian facilities.
A senior Russian diplomat in charge of the South Ossetian conflict, Yuri Popov, dismissed the Georgian claims of Russian bombings as misinformation, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.
Russia's Defense Ministry denounced the Georgian attack as a "dirty adventure." "Blood shed in South Ossetia will weigh on their conscience," the ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site.
Saakashvili long has pledged to restore Tbilisi's rule over South Ossetia and another breakaway province, Abkhazia. Both regions have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and built up ties with Moscow.
Relations between Georgia and Russia worsened notably this year as Georgia pushed to join NATO and Russia dispatched additional peacekeeper forces to Abkhazia.
The Georgian attack came just hours after Saakashvili announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast late Thursday in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict.
Georgian officials later blamed South Ossetian separatists for thwarting the cease-fire by shelling Georgian villages in the area.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0...70.html
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Fri, August 8, 2008 - 1:40 PMRussia moves closer to war with Georgia over South Ossetia
MOSCOW -- Russian tanks rumbled into the breakaway Georgian republic of South Ossetia today, and volunteer Russian fighters made their way over the border, pushing Moscow closer to a full-blown war against U.S.-backed Georgia over the mountainous sliver of land.
The Russian incursion came after Georgia launched a large-scale, predawn military operation meant to seize control over the rebel region, whose de facto autonomy and ties to Russia have long been an irritant to Georgian leaders. Backed by warplanes, Georgian waged a hard battle throughout the day for control of the republic's capital, Tskhinvali.
The heavy fighting between Georgian troops and Russia-backed South Ossetian rebels threatened to provide a battleground for long-simmering tensions between the Moscow and the West.
Officials on both sides report civilian deaths, but numbers are sketchy. South Ossetian officials said that more than a thousand people had been killed in the battles; that figure could not be confirmed. Each side blamed the other for violating a shaky ceasefire and throwing the republic back into fighting.
At least 10 Russian soldiers were killed in the fighting, Russian officials said. Russian troops have been based as a peacekeeping force for years in South Ossetia and Georgia's other breakaway republic, Abkhazia, even as tensions between Russia and Georgia climbed.
As news of the fighting reached Russian officials, they vowed retaliation.
"Of course, there will be a response," said Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, speaking on the sidelines of the Olympics in Beijing.
"We will not allow the deaths of our compatriots to go unpunished," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in Moscow. "Those guilty will allow due punishment."
Russian warplanes launched airstrikes on several Georgian towns, according to Georgian witnesses, and reportedly bombed Georgian air bases.
Russian news reports referred to the fresh army units headed into South Ossetia from Russia as "reinforcements." South Ossetian leaders told the Interfax news agency that the arrival of new fighters was helping them to recapture control of the capital from Georgian troops.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, issued a statement calling on the international community to "give Russia the message that invading the territory of a sovereign state and bombing its territory is unacceptable in the 21st century."
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili ordered a full mobilization of all reservists earlier today, and told CNN that on Saturday his government planned to called home the 2,000 Georgian troops currently serving with U.S.-led forces in Iraq.
"We all have to unite in this very important and difficult moment for our homeland, when our future and our freedom are under threat," Saakashvili said in a national address. "I hereby announce that reserve officers are called up. Everyone must come to mobilization centers and fight to save our country."
The status of the South Ossetian capital remained unclear. Both sides, by turns, claimed to have seized control of most of the city. Russian troops reported that many of the buildings had been destroyed, and that the parliament building had burned to the ground. Aids organizations warned that civilians were hiding out in basements without water, electricity or medical help.
The fighting in the republic, which has a population of 70,000, carries serious geopolitical weight, tapping into simmering neo-Cold War tensions as Russia and the United States are competing for influence in strategically vital lands of the former Soviet Union.
Moscow has given South Ossetia and Abkhazia political and economic backing in their efforts to separate from Georgia. Russia has granted passports to many residents who would otherwise live as de facto stateless citizens.
Georgia, meanwhile, has turned to the West, accepting U.S. backing and annoying Russia by vying for membership in NATO.
The breakaway republics have long been a sore spot for Georgia. Saakashvili has vowed to bring the territories back into the country, but had always said he would do it without resorting to violence.
Tensions ramped up significantly this year, after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. At the time, Russia warned that the precedent would destabilize other breakaway regions. Since then, Georgia has accused Moscow of tampering in South Ossetia and Abkhazia in order to fuel trouble.
www.latimes.com/news/natio...35393.story -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Fri, August 8, 2008 - 5:07 PMUS has political, economic stake in farflung spat
WASHINGTON - There's more than meets the eye to the frantic U.S. efforts Friday to talk Russia and U.S. ally Georgia out of war over an obscure mountain tract most Americans have never heard of.
A look at the map and your gas credit card bill shows why.
South Ossetia is claimed by Georgia, the former Soviet republic that cast its lot with the United States and the West to the eternal irritation of Moscow. The breakaway province has been under Russia's sway for years.
Georgia sits in a tough neighborhood, shoulder to shoulder with huge Russia, not far from Iran, and astride one of the most important crossroads for the emerging wealth of the rich Caspian Sea region. A U.S.-backed oil pipeline runs through Georgia, allowing the West to reduce its reliance on Middle Eastern oil while bypassing Russia and Iran.
The dispute makes the Bush administration the middleman between a promising ally it wants to help and the powerful former adversary next door whose help it needs.
Washington praises democratic development in Georgia, delights in its contribution of combat troops for Iraq and acknowledges valuable intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation.
Moscow's cooperation is vital to numerous Washington aims in Iran, North Korea and elsewhere.
"For all those reasons and the fact that Georgia has demonstrated that it is a close ally, we cannot simply sit by and say `so be it, what does South Ossetia mean to us?'" said Janusz Bugajski, director of the new European democracies project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Georgia as a whole means quite a lot."
The pipeline that crosses Georgia can pump slightly more than 1 million barrels of crude oil per day, or more than 1 percent of the world's daily crude output. The 1,100-mile pipeline carries oil from Azerbaijan's Caspian Sea fields, estimated to hold the world's third-largest reserves. Its potential vulnerability was already in the spotlight after it was sabotaged this week, apparently by Kurdish separatists.
Most of the oil is bound for Western Europe, where gas prices are even higher than the $4 and more a gallon that U.S. consumers are now paying. With only so much oil to go around, what the pipeline carries affects prices elsewhere. The United States also hopes it will be a model for other development projects that could have a more direct effect on the U.S. market.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on the phone Friday morning, appealing for calm in South Ossetia, a patch of craggy farmland that is home to about 70,000 people — fewer than live in Youngstown, Ohio. In a statement later she reiterated U.S. commitment to Georgia's "territorial integrity."
President Bush discussed the violence with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, while the presumptive Democratic and Republican candidates to replace Bush issued worried statements. Tanks rolled as Bush spoke.
Hundreds were reported dead in the worst outbreak of hostilities since the province won defacto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. Witnesses said the South Ossetian capital of Tskhinvali was devastated.
South Ossetia is one of the few places where ethnic, nationalist or other complications mean that the Cold War went dormant but didn't die. U.S diplomats refer to these neighborhood squabbles as "frozen conflicts," a euphemism that belies the long-recognized threat that seemingly petty disputes can easily provoke a wider war.
The United States, European nations and others raced Friday to keep the conflict from spreading. The State Department appealed for a cease-fire and prepared to send a mediator to the region.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made, said the envoy was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, a specialist on the region. The timing of the trip was unclear.
"We are asking our friends, and the United States among them, to somehow to try to mediate and try to persuade Russia to stop this military aggression and invasion of Georgia," Vasil Sikharulidze, Georgia's ambassador to Washington, said in an interview.
At the Pentagon, a senior defense official said Georgian authorities have asked the United States for help getting its approximately 2,000 troops out of Iraq. The request is apparently related to the fighting in South Ossetia.
Georgia has been the third-largest contributor of combat troops after the United States and Britain.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions have been private, said no formal decision has been made on whether to support the departure, but said it is likely the U.S. will do so.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080...a_middleman -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Fri, August 8, 2008 - 5:09 PMArmed Cossacks pour in to fight Georgians
Hundreds, possibly thousands, of volunteer fighters from Russia were mobilising to enter the war in Georgia's breakaway republic of South Ossetia last night.
Units of armed Cossacks from across the North Caucasus region which borders Georgia were poised to join the battle for the separatists' capital, Tskhinvali.
In North Ossetia, the region of Russia which shares cultural links and a border with South Ossetia, lists of men willing to fight against Georgian forces were drawn up. Vitaly Khubayev, 35, from the capital, Vladikavkaz, told the Guardian: "There are already two busloads of fighters leaving for Tskhinvali every day. They give you a uniform on the way and you get issued with weapons once you arrive. If I didn't have three children I'd have gone."
The two Ossetias are historically inseparable and residents of the northern republic were furious yesterday at what they described as the "Georgian fascist attack" on their neighbours.
Many said they were willing to take up arms and travel to defend their relatives across the border in South Ossetia. Valentin Tekhti, 67, a teacher, said: "Our Ossetian brothers are dying. If we get the call, every man who can stand on two legs will go to fight."
Amiran Khubetsov, a doctor, said: "A nation is under bombardment in the land it has occupied for hundreds of years. The world must not ignore this aggression."
At a special meeting of the UN security council yesterday morning, the United States called on the Kremlin to prevent irregulars entering South Ossetia via the 4km Roki tunnel, the republic's only link with Russia. But at a meeting with the US president, George Bush, in Bejing, the Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, admitted "many volunteers" were heading to South Ossetia and it would be "very hard to maintain peace".
Under Russia law, Cossacks - the descendants of runaway serfs and outlaws who in the past were employed to protect the country's southern border - are allowed to carry arms and carry out policing functions in cooperation with interior ministry forces.
At the headquarters of the Terek Cossacks in Vladikavkaz yesterday a group of men sat under portraits of fierce looking warriors with drooping moustaches watching television coverage of Georgian artillery shelling Tskhinvali. One man said there would be a meeting today to discuss forming volunteer units.
In Volgograd the leader of the Don Cossacks, Viktor Vodolatsky, called on all Cossacks under 40 to volunteer. Reports said 100 men from the region had already left for Tskhinvali. "We must help our South Ossetian brothers," he said.
Irregular troops from the north Caucasus played an important role in the conflicts that saw both Georgia's breakaway regions, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, secede in the early 1990s.
In Abkhazia, Cossack and Chechen units fought side by side against Georgian troops, despite being historical enemies. Abkhazia has promised to help South Ossetia in its conflict with Georgia.
Ossetians in Vladikavkaz yesterday said they were hoping for a decisive strike by the Russian army to drive Georgia's forces out of South Ossetia. There were emotional scenes in the city, as hundreds of protesters, mostly women, gathered outside the regional government headquarters and shouted, "Russia, save us!"
Aelita Dzhioyeva, 41, a lawyer who fled Tskhinvali on Thursday evening, showed text messages on her mobile phone from relatives still sheltering in a basement in the city. One message read: "We are dying. Ask the government for help."
Dzhioyeva said: "Our men will stay and fight until the last drop of blood, but our old people and children must be saved. We are calling on the Kremlin to intervene and create a humanitarian corridor for them to escape."
Shota Kochiev, 60, said: "This is America's doing. They are supporting Georgia's mad lust for new land - our land."
About 2,000 refugees from South Ossetia, mostly women and children, have so far been bussed to Russia and are staying in hotels around Vladikavkaz.
www.guardian.co.uk/world/20....georgia1 -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Fri, August 8, 2008 - 6:17 PMWell guys, this is full scale war... they are bombing each other's capitals...
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TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Bombs rocked Tbilisi early Saturday morning as the fight between Georgia and Russia over a breakaway region intensified and moved into the Georgian capital.
Government buildings, including the Parliament, were evacuated when the bombs fell.
Heavy casualties have reported on both sides since Russian forces moved Friday into South Ossetia, a pro-Russian autonomous region of Georgia.
Russian bombers were targeting Georgia's economic infrastructure, National Security Council secretary Alexander Lomaia said, including the country's largest Black Sea port, Poti, and the main road connecting the southern part of Georgia with the east and the airport.
Georgian television reported that the port had been destroyed.
Georgia, a former Soviet state, sent troops into South Ossetia on Thursday, aiming to crack down on the separatists, who want independence or unification with North Ossetia, which is in Russia. Russia responded Friday, sending troops into the Georgian province where it had peacekeepers stationed.
"I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars," Lyudmila Ostayeva, a resident of the South Ossetia capital, Tskhinvali, told The Associated Press on Friday.
"It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged," she said after fleeing to a village near the Russian border, AP reported.
"They are killing civilians, women and children, with heavy artillery and rockets," Sarmat Laliyev, 28, told AP.
One U.S. State Department official called the conflict a "very dangerous situation" and said diplomatic moves are afoot around the globe to stop it.
Georgia -- on the Black Sea coast between Russia and Turkey -- appealed for diplomatic intervention.
Georgia asked the United States for planes to bring back its 2,000 troops serving as part of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, a U.S. official said.
"All day today, they've been bombing Georgia from numerous warplanes and specifically targeting [the] civilian population, and we have scores of wounded and dead among [the] civilian population all around the country," Georgia's president, Mikhail Saakashvili, said Friday. "This is the worst nightmare one can encounter."
Russia's ambassador to United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, put the blame on the Tblisi government.
"What is going on is a massive bombardment of residential quarters in Tshkinvali and other towns, too," Churkin said.
Eduard Kokoity, head of the rebel government in South Ossetia, said that 1,400 people were killed in the province, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.
Hundreds of people, possibly thousands, are fleeing South Ossetia to the Russian region of North Ossetia-Alania, the United Nations reported Friday, citing Russian officials.
About 150 Russian armored vehicles have entered South Ossetia, Saakashvili said, and Georgian forces had shot down two Russian aircraft.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, quoted by Interfax, said Russians had died because of Georgian military operations in South Ossetia.
Russia "will not allow the deaths of our compatriots to go unpunished," and "those guilty will receive due punishment," he said. "My duty as Russian president is to safeguard the lives and dignity of Russian citizens, wherever they are. This is what is behind the logic of the steps we are undertaking now."
South Ossetia, with a population of about 70,000, declared independence from Georgia in the early 1990s, but it was not internationally recognized. Many ethnic Ossetians feel close to Russia and have Russian passports and use its currency.
Interfax quoted the Georgian Foreign Ministry as saying that strikes by Russian aircraft killed and wounded personnel at a Georgian air base and that Russian planes have been bombing Georgian territory throughout the day. Georgian officials also report four Russian aircraft shot down.
The U.S., NATO and the European Union have all called for an end to the fighting. President Bush and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin discussed the conflict Friday, the White House confirmed.
By early evening Friday, a Georgian Cabinet minister said the country's forces have taken control of Tskhinvali, Interfax reported.
The Novosti news agency, citing the South Ossetian government, said Georgian tanks and infantry attacked Tskhinvali, and "a large part of the city has been destroyed. Over 15 civilians have been killed, several buildings are on fire in the city center, and the local parliament building has burned down."
But Russian and South Ossetian officials said Russia was making inroads in fighting Georgian forces.
"Street fighting in Tskhinvali has lasted for many hours. Ossetian home guards are using grenade-launchers to destroy Georgian tanks. Eyewitnesses say tanks are burning throughout the city. The turning point is approaching in the battle for the capital city," said the Web site of the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee.
The committee also said Russian armored vehicles have entered the northern suburb of the city.
Violence has been mounting in the region in recent days, with sporadic clashes between Georgian forces and South Ossetian separatists.
Georgian troops launched attacks in South Ossetia late Thursday after a top government official said a unilateral cease-fire offer was met with separatist artillery fire.
Lomaia said Georgian troops responded proportionately to separatist mortar and artillery attacks on two villages, attacks he said followed the cease-fire and Saakashvili's call for negotiations.
Russian peacekeepers are in South Ossetia under a 1992 agreement by Russian, Georgian and South Ossetian authorities to maintain what has been a fragile peace. The mixed peacekeeping force also includes Georgian and South Ossetian troops.
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/e...ia/index.html -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Fri, August 8, 2008 - 11:00 PMNot good. -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Fri, August 8, 2008 - 11:36 PMWAR! VIOLENCE! DEATH!
The world just keeps getting better, don't you think? -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sat, August 9, 2008 - 10:35 AMGeorgia declares state of war with Russia
TBLISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgia's parliament Saturday approved a request by President Mikhail Saakashvili's to impose a "state of war," as the conflict between Georgia and Russia escalated, Georgian officials said.
Saakashvili accused Russia of launching an unprovoked full-scale military attack against his country, including targeting civilian homes, while Russian officials insist their troops were protecting people from Georgia's attacks on South Ossetia, a breakaway Georgian region that borders Russia.
Russia's Interfax news agency said the death toll was at least 2,000 killed in the capital of South Ossetia and claimed the city has been destroyed.
Separatist-backed South Ossetian sources reported that about 1,600 people have died and 90 have been wounded in provincial capital Tskhinvali since Russian forces entered the territory Thursday.
Georgia said the overall death toll would be closer to 100.
Georgian officials said Russia has mobilized its Black Sea fleet off the coast of Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian province.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived Saturday in Vladikavkaz, near Russia's border with Georgia, Russia's Interfax reported.
Meanwhile, President George Bush, speaking from Beijing, called for an immediate halt to the violence, a stand-down by all troops, and an end to the Russian bombings.
The Georgian "state of war" order is not a formal declaration of war, and stops short of declaring martial law, according to Georgian officials who described it to CNN.
It gives Saakashvili powers he would not ordinarily have, such as issuing curfews, restricting the movement of people, or limiting commercial activities, those officials said.
It places the government on a 24-hour alert, said Georgian National Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaia during a conference call with reporters.
Saakashvili asked Western leaders to pressure Russia to agree to an immediate cease-fire, which he said his country would willingly observe first.
"We are dealing with absolutely criminal and crazy acts of irresponsible and reckless decision makers, which is on the ground producing dramatic and tragic consequences," Saakashvili said Saturday afternoon.
A White House spokesman said President Bush spoke Saturday evening to Saakashvili and Russian President Medvedev.
The war, Saakashvili said, "is not about South Ossetia. It has never been in the first place. It is about destroying a small democratic nation aspiring to live in peace, freedom and liberty."
"This unprovoked, long-time-ago-planned invasion and aggression must stop," he said.
Russia, with a population of 146 million, is trying to destroy his country of 4.6 million people, he said, comparing it to the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
"I think what is at stake here is the post-Cold War order," Saakashvili said.
Inna Gagloyeva, spokeswoman for the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee, told Russia's Interfax news agency that Tskhinvali was being "massively shelled" with artillery guns.
It was unclear which side was in control of that city on Saturday. The Georgians said fighting raged, but the Russians said they had "liberated" the city.
"Battalion task forces have fully liberated Tskhinvali of Georgian armed forces and started pushing Georgian units out of the area of responsibility of the peacekeeping forces," said General Vladimir Boldyrev, commander of the Russian Ground Forces, in an interview with Interfax.
Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, told a news conference that the Russian paratroopers will "implement the operation of enforcing peace" on both sides.
Nogovitsyn also confirmed that Georgians had shot down two Russian aircraft. Saakashvili said his military has shot down 10 Russian bombers.
Russia said the troops were also reinforcing the Russian peacekeepers already in South Ossetia.
"Our peacekeepers, along with reinforcement units, are currently conducting an operation to force the Georgian side to accept peace," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at the Kremlin. "They are also responsible for protecting the population."
Interfax said 15 peacekeepers were killed in the Friday attack by Georgian troops. Russia has opened a criminal probe into their deaths, Interfax reported.
Georgia, a former Soviet Republic, is a pro-Western ally of the United States intent on asserting its authority over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. which both have strong Russian-backed separatist movements.
Russia moved troops into South Ossetia early Friday after Georgia launched an operation in the breakaway region when its unilateral cease-fire was met with what it said was artillery fire from separatists that killed 10 people, including peacekeepers and civilians.
Russia charged that Georgia had targeted its peacekeepers stationed in the region.
Medvedev said Saturday that Georgia must be held responsible for the situation in South Ossetia.
"The people responsible for this humanitarian disaster need to be held liable for what they have done," Medvedev said. He said the humanitarian problems were caused by "the aggression launched by the Georgian side against the South Ossetian civilians and Russian peacekeepers."
Russian officials said more than 30,000 refugees have left South Ossetia and crossed into Russia over the past two days, since fighting began, Interfax reported.
Maia Kardava, a Red Cross spokeswoman in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi was unable to provide refugee or casualty figures Saturday morning because she said aid workers were still gathering information and visiting hospitals in South Ossetia and western Georgia.
Russian forces bombed several targets in Georgia on Saturday, according to Kardava and the British Foreign Office, which advised against all nonessential travel to Georgia.
Russian aircraft bombarded military and civilian targets the port town of Poti, on Georgia's Black Sea coast, Kardava and British and Georgian officials said. Eight Georgians were killed in the port town, Georgian officials said.
In the town of Senaki, just inland from Poti, Russian forces damaged a railway line, a military base, and a center housing civilians who fled from nearby Abkhazia.
Military bases at Vaziani and Marneuli also came under attack, the British Foreign Office said, and Russian aircraft bombed the Georgian town of Gori, about 35 miles northwest of Tbilisi, Georgian officials said.
Inside South Ossetia, civilians have been without water, electricity, and basic services for more than a day, Kardava said. She said the Red Cross was unable to reach colleagues based in Tskhinvali because their phones had lost power and they were huddled in bomb shelters.
Also Saturday, the commander of Georgian troops stationed in Iraq said the 2,000 soldiers there will be withdrawn from Iraq "very soon."
Colonel Bondo Maisuradze said the United States would provide the transport to get them out of Iraq. He said he had no time frame for the move.
Saakashvili told CNN Friday that the troops were needed in Georgia to defend against the Russian military.
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/e...ia/index.html -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sat, August 9, 2008 - 10:40 AM1,500 Reported Dead As Russian Troops Raid Georgia
OUTSIDE TSKHINVALI, Georgia — Russian tanks and troops rumbled into the separatist province of South Ossetia and Russian aircraft bombed a Georgian town Saturday in a major escalation of the conflict that has left hundreds of civilians dead and wounded.
Russia, which has close ties to the province and posts peacekeepers there, sent in the armed convoys and combat aircraft to prevent Georgia from retaking control of its breakaway region. The military convoys included volunteers from around Russia's North Caucasus.
Georgia, a U.S. ally whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, launched a major offensive overnight Friday. Heavy rocket and artillery fire pounded the provincial capital, Tskhinvali, leaving much of the city in ruins.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow on Saturday that some 1,500 people have been killed in South Ossetia, with the death toll rising.
The figures could not be independently confirmed. But Tskhinvali residents who survived the bombardment by hiding in basements and later fled the city estimated that hundreds of civilians had died. They said bodies were lying everywhere.
The risk of the conflict setting off a wider war increased Saturday when Russian-supported separatists in another breakaway region, Abkhazia, launched air and artillery strikes to drive Georgian troops from their bridgehead.
Georgia, which borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia, was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia have run their own affairs without international recognition since splitting from Georgia in the early 1990s and have built up ties with Moscow. Russia has granted its passports to most of their residents.
It was unclear which side controlled the provincial capital of South Ossetia by Saturday evening. Russian military commanders claimed they had driven Georgian forces out of Tskhinvali, which Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili denied. Smoke rose from the city, and intermittent artillery shelling and sporadic gunfire continued.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Moscow sent troops into South Ossetia to force Georgia into a cease-fire. Saakashvili said he has proposed a cease-fire, but Medvedev's office said Saturday evening that Russia had not received his proposal.
Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer, long has pledged to restore Georgia's rule over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Georgia has angered Russia by seeking NATO membership _ a bid Moscow regards as part of a Western effort to weaken its influence in the region.
The fighting is the worst outbreak of hostilities since South Ossetia won de facto independence in a war against Georgia that ended in 1992. It also is likely to increase tensions between Moscow and Washington, which Lavrov said should bear part of the blame for arming and training Georgian soldiers.
Moscow has said it needs to protect its peacekeepers and civilians in South Ossetia. Ethnic Ossetians live in the breakaway Georgian province and in the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia.
Georgia has accused Russia of bombing its air bases and a Black Sea port, located on Georgian territory outside South Ossetia. One of the Russian airstrikes Saturday hit the Georgian town of Gori, the hometown of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin.
An Associated Press reporter who visited Gori shortly afterward saw several apartment buildings in ruins, some still on fire, and scores of dead bodies and bloodied civilians. The elderly, women and children were among the victims.
The Russian planes appeared to have been targeting a military base in Gori's outskirts that also sustained hits.
Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's Security Council, estimated that Russia has sent 2,500 troops into Georgia. The Russian military has not said how many of its troops were deployed.
One Russian unit deployed near Tskhinvali had to change location quickly Saturday when Georgian shells started to land nearby.
A 19-year-old Russian conscript, a member of a tank crew, said his unit was supposed to take part in a military exercise in North Ossetia but was suddenly sent into South Ossetia. The soldier, who asked not be named because he wasn't allowed to speak to reporters, said that his tank accompanied a motorized infantry unit that was hit by Georgian shelling and suffered casualties. The tank was broken and the soldiers were trying to fix it on the edge of the woods.
Georgian forces knocked out about 40 Russian tanks around Tskhinvali, said Georgia's Deputy Interior Minister Eka Sguladze. "Our units are well-equipped with anti-tank rockets, and they thwarted a Russian tank attack," she told reporters.
The Interior Ministry said Russian warplanes bombed the Vaziani military base on the outskirts of the Georgian capital and near the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline overnight. The ministry said two other military bases were hit, and that warplanes bombed the Black Sea port city of Poti, which has a sizable oil shipment facility.
Lavrov said Georgia brought the airstrikes upon itself by bombing civilians and Russian peacekeepers. He warned that the small Caucasus country should expect more attacks.
"Whatever side is used to bomb civilians and the positions of peacekeepers, this side is not safe and they should know this," Lavrov said.
Asked whether Russia could bomb the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Lavrov answered: "I don't think the bombing is coming from Tbilisi, but whatever part of Georgia is used for this aggression is not safe."
The foreign minister said the United States should bear some of the blame for Georgia's aggression because of the role it played in arming and training Georgian troops.
It was unclear what might persuade either side to stop shooting. Both claim the battle started after the other side violated a cease-fire that had been declared just hours earlier after a week of sporadic clashes.
President Bush on Saturday urged an immediate halt to the fighting, which he said endangered peace throughout the volatile region. White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Bush had spoken very recently with Medvedev and Saakashvili.
Georgia, meanwhile, said it has shot down 10 Russian planes, including four brought down Saturday, according to Lomaia. It also claimed to have captured two Russian pilots, who were shown on Georgian television.
The first Russian confirmation that its planes had been shot down came Saturday from Russian Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the General Staff, who said two Russian planes were downed. He did not say where or when.
Russian military commanders said 15 peacekeepers have been killed and about 150 wounded. Russian military spokesman Col. Igor Konashenkov accused Georgian troops of killing and wounded Russian peacekeepers when they seized Russian checkpoints. Konashenkov's allegations couldn't be independently confirmed.
In Abkhazia, the separatist government said it intended to push Georgian forces out of the Kodori Gorge. The northern part of the gorge is the only area of Abkhazia that has remained under Georgian government control.
Lomaia, the Georgian Security Council secretary, said that Georgian administrative buildings in the Kodori Gorge were bombed, but he blamed the attack on Russia.
www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0...91.html -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sat, August 9, 2008 - 10:44 AMRussian bombs spread panic in Georgia
GORI, Georgia (Reuters) - In front of a destroyed apartment block, a man sat clutching the body of his dead brother, trying to clean blood from his face.
Nearby, a woman knelt screaming over the body of another man killed in the Russian bombing raid on the Georgian town of Gori.
Covered in blood, an old woman stared into the distance. A man sat by the roadside with his head in his hands.
Those who could, scrambled to flee the town with whatever they could pack in their cars on Saturday.
"I can't understand their logic. They are bombing everything. Why are they bombing civilians?" said Nick Kipshidze, a local doctor.
The normally sleepy town of Gori, birthplace of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, had never expected to come under attack.
The panic after the bombing was a reflection of the shock in Georgia at the ferocity of Russia's response to its attempt to win back control of breakaway South Ossetia from Russian-backed separatists.
"It's unbelievable this kind of thing could be happening in the 21st century," said Kateran, in her 20s. She did not want to give her surname.
"You know Stalin was from here. He created this big country, big and powerful. It's just ironic that this should be happening."
A plume of smoke rose as a bomb hit the five-storey apartment block in Gori, just a few km (miles) from South Ossetia. It was unclear what the intended target of the strike had been.
DESTRUCTION
Five bodies could be seen lying in the wreckage. A Red Cross official, who asked not too be named, told Reuters he had counted 17 bodies at a local morgue. It was not clear how many of them died in the apartment bombing.
Georgia and Russia came into direct conflict over South Ossetia this week after Tbilisi launched a military offensive to regain control over the separatist region.
Russian officials said the death toll in South Ossetia stood at 2,000. Georgian officials said 129 Georgians had been killed in the fighting.
The situation was calmer in the capital Tbilisi, about 70 km (43 miles) from Gori, but Georgia's largest city was very much on edge.
Despite the shock, many were in a defiant mood and spoke up for President Mikheil Saakashvili over the assault launched on Friday to gain control over South Ossetia.
"(He) has done the right thing," said Tamila Gordeziani as she walked hand-in-hand with her grandson. "It's our land and our people. Russia is in the wrong and we need to finish this."
Giga Kvenetadze, 30, owns a music studio. He had lived in Russia for one year and had many Russian friends.
"To fight Russia is crazy," he said checking the latest information on his iPod.
"But I do support Saakashvili and his aim of having a fully independent country not controlled by Russia or the United States. And what Russia is doing is wrong. They must stop."
www.reuters.com/article/ne...89020080809 -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sat, August 9, 2008 - 1:23 PMGeorgia Clash Provides a Lesson on the United States’ Need for Russia
WASHINGTON — The image of President Bush smiling and chatting with Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin of Russia from the stands of the Beijing Olympics even as Russian aircraft were shelling Georgia outlines the reality of America’s Russia policy. While America considers Georgia its strongest ally in the bloc of former Soviet countries, Washington needs Russia too much on big issues like Iran to risk it all to defend Georgia.
And State Department officials made it clear on Saturday that there was no chance the United States would intervene militarily.
Mr. Bush did use tough language, demanding that Russia stop bombing. And Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice demanded that Russia “respect Georgia’s territorial integrity.”
What did Mr. Putin do? First, he repudiated President Nicolas Sarkozy of France in Beijing, refusing to budge when Mr. Sarkozy tried to dissuade Russia from its military operation. “It was a very, very tough meeting,” a senior Western official said afterward. “Putin was saying, ‘We are going to make them pay. We are going to make justice.’ ”
Then, Mr. Putin flew from Beijing to a region that borders South Ossetia, arriving after an announcement that Georgia was pulling its troops out of the capital of the breakaway region. He appeared ostensibly to coordinate assistance to refugees who had fled South Ossetia into neighboring Russia, but the Russian message was clear: This is our sphere of influence; others stay out.
“What the Russians just did is, for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, they have taken a decisive military action and imposed a military reality,” said George Friedman, chief executive of Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis and intelligence company. “They’ve done it unilaterally, and all of the countries that have been looking to the West to intimidate the Russians are now forced into a position to consider what just happened.”
And Bush administration officials acknowledged that the outside world, and the United States in particular, had little leverage over Russian actions.
“There is no possibility of drawing NATO or the international community into this,” said a senior State Department official in a conference call with reporters. “There is none. There is not a danger of a regional conflict in our mind.”
The unfolding conflict in Georgia set off a flurry of diplomacy. Ms. Rice and other officials at the State Department and the Pentagon have been on the telephone with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and other Russian counterparts, as well as with officials in Georgia, urging both sides to return to peace talks.
The European Union — and Germany, in particular, with its strong ties to Russia — called on both sides to stand down and scheduled meetings to press their concerns. At the United Nations, members of the Security Council met informally to discuss a possible response, but one Security Council diplomat said it remained uncertain whether, with Russia and China both holding veto power on the Council, much could be done.
“Strategically, the Russians have been sending signals that they really wanted to flex their muscles, and they’re upset about Kosovo,” the diplomat said. He was alluding to Russia’s anger at the West for recognizing Kosovo’s independence from Serbia earlier this year.
Indeed, the decision by the United States and Europe to recognize Kosovo may well have paved the way for Russia’s lightning-fast decision to send troops to back the separatists in South Ossetia. During one meeting on Kosovo in Brussels this year, Mr. Lavrov, the foreign minister, warned Ms. Rice and European diplomats that if they recognized Kosovo, they would be setting a precedent for South Ossetia and other breakaway provinces. As easily as the West could encourage a former Russian satellite toward independence and away from Russia’s sphere of influence, the Russians warned, so too, could Moscow encourage pro-Russian breakaway regions like South Ossetia to follow suit.
For the Bush administration, the choice now becomes whether backing Georgia — which, more than any other former Soviet republic has allied with the United States — on the South Ossetia issue is worth alienating Russia at a time when getting Russia’s help to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions is at the top of the United States’ foreign policy agenda.
One United Nations diplomat joked on Saturday that “if someone went to the Russians and said, ‘OK, Kosovo for Iran,’ we’d have a deal.”
That might be hyperbole, but there is a growing feeling among some officials in the Bush administration that perhaps the United States cannot have it all, and may have to choose its priorities, particularly when it comes to Russia.
The Bush administration’s strong support for Georgia — including the training of Georgia’s military and arms support — came, in part, as a reward for its support of the United States in Iraq. The United States has held Georgia up as a beacon of democracy in the former Soviet Union; it was supposed to be an example to other former Soviet republics of the benefits of tilting to the West.
But that, along with America and Europe’s actions on Kosovo, left Russia feeling threatened, encircled and more convinced that it had to take aggressive measures to restore its power, dignity and influence in a region it considers its strategic back yard, foreign policy experts said.
Russia’s emerging aggressiveness is now also timed with America’s preoccupation with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the looming confrontation with Iran. These counterbalancing considerations mean that Moscow is in the driver’s seat, administration officials acknowledged.
“We’ve placed ourselves in a position that globally we don’t have the wherewithal to do anything,” Mr. Friedman of Stratfor said. “One would think under those circumstances, we’d shut up.”
One senior administration official, when told of that quote, laughed. “Well, maybe we’re learning to shut up now,” he said. He asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
www.nytimes.com/2008/08/10...0diplo.html
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sat, August 9, 2008 - 2:12 PM -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sat, August 9, 2008 - 7:37 PMRussian ceasefire refusal dims UN hopes for peace
Russia refused to agree to a cease-fire or a diplomatic agreement with Georgia on Saturday, ensuring that fighting over the breakaway South Ossetia region would keep spilling over to areas such as Abkhazia's Kodori Ridge, where 15 U.N. military observers were told to evacuate.
The diplomatic standoff continued Saturday in the U.N. Security Council, which met for the third time since late Thursday night to try to help resolve the situation.
Negotiations were intense as the council dynamics mainly pitted Russia against the other 14 council members led by the United States, an ally of Georgia, who were pressing for a cease-fire that respects Georgia's sovereignty, diplomats said.
"A cease-fire would not be a solution. The fighting is still going on. The Georgian forces are continuing to be on the South Ossetian territory," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said. "All those actions and signals we have seen are not things which would not be conducive to a cease-fire."
Russia, the U.S., Britain, France and China are the five nations with council veto power.
"This conflict is expanding, this conflict is escalating," U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff told reporters.
Churkin also said "the fighting is spreading" and thousands were killed since Georgia launched a major military offensive to maintain control of South Ossetia, a separatist area of Georgia, and then Russian troops and tanks rumbled in.
"The Georgian forces must pull out of South Ossetia," he said. "And then they must accept the need to sign an agreement on nonuse of force with South Ossetians."
Many of the council members who met in private chambers appealed for an immediate cease-fire and "expressed grave concern on the further deterioration of the situation," said Belgian Ambassador Jan Grauls, the council president this month. "And it is clear that the conflict has now expanded to other areas of Georgia than only South Ossetia."
Georgia is not a member, but its ambassador has attended some of the council meetings over the past three days. Georgia has requested another meeting, but it was not clear if and when one would be held.
Despite diminishing hopes, the council plans to keep trying for an agreement in the form of a unanimous public statement.
"Regrettably, I have come to the conclusion it will be very difficult if not impossible to find common ground in the council on a draft statement to the press," Grauls said.
After his closed-door briefing to the council, Edmond Mulet, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, said the U.N. was immediately pulling out the military observers in Kodori on advice from Abkhazia, where a military offensive was imminent.
The northern part of the gorge is the only area of northern Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia republic that has remained under Georgian government control.
The U.N. observers patrolled Kodori due to bloodshed between Georgia and Abkhazia in the early 1990s after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Russia, which backs the Abkhazia separatists, insists Georgian troops must withdraw from Kodori. Russia warns the U.S.-allied Georgia's moves toward joining NATO bolster the separatists in Abhkazia and South Ossetia.
"At this point we are particularly concerned that the conflict appears to be spreading beyond South Ossetia into Abkhazia," Mulet said, adding that Abkhazia had warned of preparations for "a military operation in the Upper Kodori Valley, probably tomorrow morning."
Outside U.N. headquarters, hundreds of Georgians protested into the evening, shouting "Russia out of Georgia," and carrying flags and signs with such messages as "Stop Russian Aggression" and "Georgia Without Russia."
www.iht.com/articles/ap/...h-Ossetia.php -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sun, August 10, 2008 - 1:23 PMCool, now Ukraine is getting involved! This is turning out to be quite an exciting summer. Hopefully, McCain will win in November so we can all join in on the fun.
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Georgian breakaway city in ruins
TSKHINVALI, South Ossetia (CNN) -- Tskhinvali, the capital of the separatist Georgian province of South Ossetia, lay in smoldering ruins Sunday after three days of fighting between Georgian troops and Russian forces.
Russia's deputy foreign minister said at least 2,000 people, mostly South Ossetians who claim Russian citizenship, have been killed in Tskhinvali.
The fighting had spread well beyond South Ossetia, with Russian airstrikes on Georgian cities and with thousands of Russian troops in the breakaway province of Abkhazia.
The United States warned Sunday that "disproportionate" actions against Georgia could have a "significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations."
The foreign ministers of France and Finland were both expected to arrive in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi on Sunday evening to talk with Georgian officials about peace efforts, a Georgian foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
President Bush on Sunday called French President and current EU head Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss the conflict, the White House said.
Both presidents "are on the exact same page" and emphasized the need for a cease-fire, disengagement and respect for Georgia's territorial integrity, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters.
Georgia began withdrawing its soldiers from Tskhinvali early Sunday, but Georgian troops remained south of the provincial capital inside South Ossetia. Georgian troops and their tanks lined the road leading from Tskhinvali back to the positions they held before Thursday.
Alexander Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said the withdrawal was a show of goodwill, aimed at encouraging Russia to accept a cease-fire.
Heavy shelling from Russian artillery also prompted the pullback. Lomaia said about 200 Georgian soldiers have died so far in Russian attacks.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said talks could begin if Russian forces confirmed Georgia has completely withdrawn from South Ossetia and when Georgia signs a non-hostilities agreement.
The agreement, however, would have to include political changes for South Ossetia, Karasin said. "They no longer believe they can live safely in the state of Georgia," he said.
The finger-pointing over which side began the battle last Thursday intensified with Russia accusing Georgia of a genocidal plot to cleanse the region of ethnic Ossetians loyal to Russia. Georgia accuses Russia of executing a long-planned war to take control of a pipeline that carries Asian oil to Black Sea ports.
Russia's Black Sea navy imposed a blockade on Georgia's coast, which it said was aimed at stopping shipments of military supplies into the country, according to Interfax, Russia's official news agency.
Urkaine, which, like Georgia, is a former Soviet republic, said it might prevent Russian navy ships involved in the blockade from returning to their bases in the Crimea, an spokeswoman with Urkaine's foreign ministry said.
"This statement is new to us, and it requires analysis," said Russian Defense Ministry Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn. "It is a case of a third party intervening in the process, which is quite surprising."
Russia's navy leases the bases from Ukraine through an agreement that was signed in 1997 and expires in 2017.
Meanwhile, Russian soldiers in the breakaway Georgian province of Abkhazia warned Georgian troops to move out of their way as they intend to advance into Georgia's western region, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said Sunday.
The Russian forces plan to move into the city of Zugdidi, which is beyond the border of the breakaway province of Abkhazia, Utiashvili said.
White House Deputy National Security Adviser Jim Jeffrey said the United States was urgently looking into the report, saying that it would be a very serious escalation for Russia to move into Georgia beyond the Abkhazia region.
"We have made it clear to the Russians that if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on U.S.-Russian relations," said Jeffrey, speaking to reporters in Beijing, China, on Sunday.
Russian forces launched an airstrike against a military airfield near the Tbilisi International Airport early Sunday, Georgian officials told CNN.
The attack near the Georgian capital city came after a day of intense fighting, with dozens of Russian warplanes bombing civilian and military targets in Georgia on Saturday.
Some of Georgia's 2,000 troops who have been in Iraq returned to Georgia's capital Sunday, Georgia's government said. Georgia has said it is pulling all of its troops from Iraq. U.S. military aircraft flew the troops back to Georgia, U.S. military officials told The Associated Press.
The situation in South Ossetia has escalated rapidly from Thursday night, when Georgia said it launched an operation into the region after artillery fire from separatists killed 10 people, including peacekeepers and civilians. It accused Russia of backing the separatists.
Russian tanks began rolling into Georgia on Friday night.
Bush, speaking from Beijing, where he is attending the Olympic Games, called Saturday for an immediate halt to the violence, a stand-down by all troops and an end to the Russian bombings. He urged the sides to return to "the status quo of August the sixth."
Bush spoke Saturday evening to Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a White House spokesman said.
Sarkozy, who spoke to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at the Olympic opening ceremonies, also called for both sides to stand down and for "the full respect of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity."
The United States, the European Union and NATO are working toward a cease-fire, and the U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the issue Saturday.
Georgia, a pro-Western ally of the United States, is intent on asserting its authority over South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Both have strong Russian-backed separatist movements.
www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/e...ia/index.html -
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sun, August 10, 2008 - 3:09 PMIt's time for us to join the war, the last war before the return of Jesus Christ. Russians, Muslims, terrorists, communists and liberals have joined forces to threaten our supply of oil through Georgia. This must be stopped. Time to launch nukes and start another world war.
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US accuses Russia of seeking regime change in Georgia
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The United States on Sunday accused Russia of seeking regime change in Georgia as it pushed the UN Security Council to call for a ceasefire in the widening Caucasus conflict.
In highly contentious exchanges with his Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin reminiscent of the Cold War, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told the Council that Moscow was seeking "regime change" in Tbilisi and waging "a campaign of terror" in Georgia.
He later huddled with his European colleagues on the council to finalize a draft resolution that would call for "an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of all forces to the status quo" in the breakaway Georgian enclave of South Ossetia.
Khalilzad particularly stressed the need for Moscow to withdraw the thousands of combat forces it sent to South Ossetia in the past week.
And he said Churkin cited comments made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a confidential telephone conversation with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice suggesting that the president of Georgia "must go."
"This is completely unacceptable and crosses the line," the US ambassador said. "Russia must affirm that its aim is not to change the democratically elected government of Georgia and that it accepts that territorial integrity and sovereignty of Georgia."
In his response, Churkin said that the fact that the US side had chosen "to bring up publicly the idea of (President Mikheil) Saakashvili stepping down ... may be an interesting signal."
"Sometimes there are democratic leaders who do things which create great problems for their country," Churkin said. "Sometimes those leaders need to contemplate how useful they have become to their people."
From Moscow, Lavrov denied that Russia was seeking to oust the Georgian government and, in comments relayed to AFP by the Kremlin, said his remarks to Rice had been "incorrectly interpreted."
Despite the harsh rhetoric, a diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Western ambassadors would bargain with their Russian colleague on the language of their proposed truce draft.
Diplomats said any vote by the full council on the proposed text was not expected until next week.
The diplomat said the draft would include elements of a plan which French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who is trying to mediate an end to the conflict, planned to present to the parties.
Kouchner arrived in Tbilisi late Sunday and was due to travel to Moscow on Monday on a mediation mission on behalf of the European Union which is currently presided by France.
Kouchner's three-point peace plan is based on "an immediate cessation of hostilities; the full respect of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia" and "the re-establishment of the situation that existed before."
The sharp words between the US and Russian envoys came during the Security Council's fourth meeting in three days to review prospects for a truce in the conflict that has spread to Abkhazia, another Moscow-backed rebel enclave of Georgia.
Churkin said Russia's action in South Osssetia was "appropriate" as it "could not allow Georgian attacks on civilians and Russian peacekeepers" in the separatist enclave which he claimed amounted to "genocide."
He also dismissed US claims that the Russian military in Georgia has waged a campaign of "terror."
"This is completely unacceptable, especially from the lips of a representative of a country whose actions we are aware of in Iraq, Afghanistan and Serbia," he responded.
Khalilzad however warned Moscow that its "relations with the United States and others would be affected by its continued assault on Georgia and its refusal to contribute to a peaceful conclusion of the crisis."
Georgia's UN Ambassador Irakli Alasania pleaded for UN "immediate diplomatic and humanitarian intervention" to protect his country from "Russian aggression."
Georgia said it had withdrawn troops from South Ossetia where its assault to regain control of the breakaway territory sparked Russia's military onslaught.
Churkin reiterated Moscow's conditions for agreeing to a ceasefire: a full Georgian withdrawal from South Ossetia and Tbilisi's commitment to signing an agreement to "renounce the use of force" in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Russia has sent thousands of troops into South Ossetia and said it now controlled nearly all the territory, though it insisted Georgian troops were still fighting.
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sun, August 10, 2008 - 3:16 PMIn case you are wondering why the world gives a shit about this war and not others is because two important pipelines run through Georgia, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and the Baku-Supsa pipeline.
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Georgia: Russia targets key oil pipeline with over 50 missiles
Russian jets targeted a key oil pipeline with over 50 missiles in a weekend bombing raid in Georgia that raised fears the conflict will tighten Moscow's stranglehold on Europe's energy supplies.
Deep craters pockmark the landscape south of the Georgian capital Tblisi in a Y-shaped pattern straddling the British-operated pipeline.
The attack left two deep holes less than 100 yards either side of a pressure vent on the pipeline. Shrapnel of highly engineered munitions litters the area.
There was no visible damage to the pipeline. Its vulnerability is summed up by a yellow hazard sign next to the vent warning against digging in the area. Anyone venturing on to the site is warned against smoking.
Local police recorded 51 strikes. "I have no doubt they wanted to target the pipeline, there is nothing else here," said Giorgi Abrahamisvili, a policeman who witnessed the attack.
"It was terribly intense, the smell of cordite spread everywhere. I had to abandon my car and hide in a ditch but the jets weren't interested in other targets."
BP operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which transports one per cent of the world's oil needs, or one million barrels a day from Azerbaijan to the Mediterranean. A spokesman played down the impact of the strike, pointing out that pumping was suspended last week because of a terrorist attack in Turkey.
"At the moment the pipeline is not running at any capacity, because there was a fire," the spokesman said.
Georgia is a crucial link in a three country energy corridor vital to Western Europe's oil and gas supply. The £2 billion pipeline is the only major conduit for Central Asian resources not under Russian control.
The Kremlin under Vladimir Putin, Russia's former president and now prime minister, used gas exports to Europe as a tool of foreign policy.
Reduced supplies to eastern Europe forced Russia's neighbours to curtail pro-Western ambitions. Western Europe, especially Germany, is dangerously vulnerable to reduced supplies from Russia at times of political tension.
Georgian politicians accused Russia of waging the war, which Moscow has portrayed as an intervention on behalf of beleaguered renegade enclaves, to achieve wider strategic goals.
"They need control of energy routes," the Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili said. "They need sea ports. They need transportation infrastructure. And primarily, they want to get rid of us."
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, alluded to the importance of the pipeline as he prepared to travel to Georgia and Russia on a mediation mission. He said: "The strategic nature of this region is a secret for no one."
Attacks beyond the borders of the two disputed regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia provoked a mixture of fear and anger among Georgians, who see Russia at war with the country as a whole.
"Churchill should never have helped the Soviet Union," said a local police chief. "I am not a Nazi but Russia is a curse in the world."
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Re: Russia vs Georgia: Outbreak Of Hostilities After Georgia Tries To Regain Breakaway Province
Sun, August 10, 2008 - 5:44 PMRussia Expands Bombing Blitz Against Georgia
TBILISI, Georgia — Russia battled Georgian forces on land and sea, reports said late Sunday, despite a Georgian cease-fire offer and its claim to be withdrawing from South Ossetia, the separatist Georgian province battered by days of intense fighting.
Russia claimed to have sunk a Georgian boat that was trying to attack Russian vessels in the Black Sea, and Georgian officials said Russia sent tanks from South Ossetia into Georgia proper, heading toward a strategic city before being turned back.
Russian planes on Sunday twice bombed an area near the Georgian capital's airport, officials said.
The violence appeared to show gargantuan Russia's determination t
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