Peninsula On-line, Qatar
Georgia pulls troops out of South Ossetia
Web posted at: 8/11/2008 3:33:43
Source ::: AP/AFP/REuters
A Georgian woman holding her baby cries at her damaged home in Gori
yesterday. (REUTERS)
GORI, Georgia ¢ Georgian troops retreated from the breakaway
province of South Ossetia yesterday as their US-allied government
ordered a ceasefire and pressed for a truce, overwhelmed by Russian
firepower in a conflict that threatened to set off a wider war.
Russia deployed a naval squadron off the coast of another of Georgia’s
separatist regions, Abkhazia, and its jets bombed the outskirts of
Tblisi, the Georgian capital.
Georgia’s Foreign Ministry said its soldiers were observing a
cease-fire on orders of the president and notified Russia’s envoy to
Tbilisi. "Georgia expresses its readiness to immediately start
negotiations with the Russian Federation on cease-fire and termination
of hostilities," the ministry said in a statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry had no immediate response to the Georgian
offer. It came as the UN Security Council ‘ where Russia has veto
power ‘ met in an open session and European diplomats sought to
mediate.
The foreign ministers of Georgia and Russia held direct talks
yesterday on the escalating conflict in the Caucasus, a German deputy
foreign minister said. The German minister, Gernot Erler, said Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier had been holding telephone talks with
his counterparts around the world with the aim of bringing the
Georgian and the Russian ministers together. "There has now been
direct contact between the Georgian foreign minister (Eka
Tkeshelashvili) and the Russian foreign minister (Sergei Lavrov),"
Erler told ARD public television.
Steinmeier spoke with Tkeshelashvili and Lavrov earlier, and the
foreign ministers of France, Poland and Finland as well as US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana over the weekend.
The United States will offer a UN Security Council resolution today
condemning the Russian military "assault" against Georgia as
unacceptable, a US spokesman said.
The spokesman for the US delegation at the United Nations, Richard
Grenell said: "We will offer a resolution today that makes clear that
the Russian actions in Georgia are unacceptable to the international
community and we condemn this military assault."
Russia, which is a permanent veto-wielding member of the council and
can single-handedly block any US resolution, had no immediate response
to the announcement.
Georgia, whose troops have been trained by American soldiers, began an
offensive to regain control over South Ossetia overnight on Friday,
launching heavy rocket and artillery fire and air strikes that pounded
the provincial capital, Tskhinvali. In response, Russia, which has
granted passports to most South Ossetians, launched overwhelming
artillery shelling and air attacks on Georgian troops.
Russia has demanded that Georgia pull out its troops from South
Ossetia as a condition for a cease-fire. It also urged Georgia to sign
a pledge not to use force against South Ossetia as another condition
for ending hostilities. Earlier, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister
Grigory Karasin said that Moscow now needs to verify the Georgian
withdrawal. "We must check all that. We don’t trust the Georgian
side," he said.
Yesterday, Russian jets raided a plant on the eastern outskirts of
Tbilisi that builds Su-25 ground jets. The attack damaged runways but
caused no casualties, said Georgia’s Interior Ministry spokesman Shota
Utiashvili.
The risk of the conflict setting off a wider war increased when
Russian-supported separatists in another breakaway region of Georgia,
Abkhazia, launched air and artillery strikes on Georgian troops to
drive them out of a small part of the province they control. Fifteen
UN military observers were told to evacuate. 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. In yet another sign that the conflict could widen, Ukraine
warned Russia yesterday it could bar Russian navy ships from returning
to their base in the Crimea because of their deployment to Georgia’s
coast.
President Bush called for an end to the Russian bombings and an
immediate halt to the violence. "The attacks are occurring in regions
of Georgia far from the zone of conflict in South Ossetia. They mark a
dangerous escalation in the crisis," Bush said in a statement to
reporters while attending the Olympic Games in Beijing. Karasin said
the ships were sent toward Abkhazia as a deterrent.
"The deployment is quite natural. We don’t want a repeat of what
happened in South Ossetia," he said at a news conference.
Italy and Poland yesterday led the evacuation of hundreds of foreign
nationals caught up in the conflict, while two airlines suspended
flights to Georgia. About 130 of the 200 Italian nationals known to be
in Georgia left by bus for the Armenian capital Yerevan, an Italian
foreign ministry spokesman said. Poland has sent a government plane to
Yerevan to collect around 180 evacuees waiting there after completing
a 260km crossing by coach from the Polish embassy in Georgia’s
capital, Tbilisi.
Britain’s Foreign Office has urged its nationals in Georgia on
non-urgent business to "leave as soon as possible," advice echoed by
Canada. The US State Department issued a travel advisory on Saturday
to discourage Americans from visiting Georgia or its rebel territories
of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Germany advised its citizens in Georgia to leave the country by
travelling overland to Armenia or Turkey. A group of Spanish tourists
were also evacuated through Armenia, a Spanish diplomatic source
said. France along with Spain, Sweden and Greece have also not made
any decisions on immediate evacuations as they monitor the crisis