Daily Star, UK
Aug 11 2008

BRITS FLEE HELL ZONE

11th August 2008 By Steve HughesYour Shout ( 0 )

BRITS were fleeing Georgia last night as Russian troops took control
of the battle-scarred region of South Ossetia.

The Foreign Office urged all Brit workers in the former Soviet state
to leave as soon as possible as the conflict’s death toll rose to
2,000.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: `It is wise to leave while some air
services are still available and the border remains open.’

But charity worker Sian Davies, who is based in Georgia’s capital
Tblisi, said she was determined to stay unless the situation got
worse.

She said: `There have been skirmishes in the South Ossetian region in
the last couple of weeks but on Thursday night there had been an
agreed time for negotiations and we were understanding that things
were quietening down. We woke on Friday morning to the news that war
had been declared and Georgia had been invaded and since then it has
just snowballed.

`The situation here is extremely confusing. Tbilisi is fairly quiet
but we are hearing about horrible things happening in the rest of the
country.

`A lot of Britons are leaving ` basically the British Embassy is
advising us all to get out if we can.

`They are telling us to go on our own and get to the Armenian
border. A couple of my British friends have done that already but a
few of us are still here.’

Last night Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili called for a
ceasefire and said his troops were pulling out of the separatist South
Ossetia region.

His government was last night also trying to start talks with Russia.

Russia stormed into South Assetia’s capital Tskhinvali three days
after the start of the fierce fighting.

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, who met ref-ugees from
Tskhinvali, accused Georgia of `complete genocide’, saying: `They are
mad!’

But the move angered the Americans.

The US said Moscow’s response had been `disproportionate’ and any
further military action could have a `long-term impact’ on relations
between the countries.

6989/Brits-flee-hell-zone/