Moscow on attack as desperate Georgian forces sue for peace

The Times/UK
August 11, 2008

Tony Halpin in Gori Kevin O’Flynn in Moscow and James Bone in New York

Georgia sued for peace with Russia yesterday but Moscow showed little
sign of ending its military campaign over South Ossetia.

President Saakashvili appealed for international support as he ordered
troops to pull out of the region, called an immediate ceasefire and
urged Russia to begin talks to end hostilities.

In a televised address to the nation last night, the besieged leader
said that the `existence of the Georgian state is under threat’.

Russia continued its offensive in a day of intensifying military
action, while Georgia faced the threat of a second front opening up in
its other breakaway region of Abkhazia.

Times Archive, 1924: The revolt in Georgia
The movement against the Bolshevists is considered to be more than a
mere rising. It is considered to be a war of independence

President Medvedev, in Moscow, accused the Georgian leadership of
genocide as Russian troops and tanks seized full control of the region.
There was panic in the Georgian city of Gori, 17 miles (27km) from the
border, last night as thousands of people fled, convinced that a
Russian invasion was imminent.

Russian aircraft twice bombed a military airfield eight miles from the
Georgian capital Tbilisi, even after Mr Saakashvili made his20offer of a
ceasefire. One Russian bomb exploded near the capital’s civilian
airport hours before Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister,
arrived on an EU peace mission. France holds the EU presidency, and has
cordial ties with Georgia.

America, which trains the Georgian Army, condemned Russia’s `dangerous
and disproportionate actions’ and warned the Kremlin that any further
military escalation would have a `significant long-term impact’ on
relations.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy to the United Nations, accused Russia of
targeting civilians and waging a campaign of terror. His Russian
counterpart, Vitali Churkin, said: `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.’

The US threatened last night to force a vote at the UN on a resolution
calling for an immediate ceasefire in Georgia despite the threat of a
Russia veto. `The world needs to know that everyone is united. Russia
is on the wrong side,’ Mr Khalilzad said.

Russia, a veto-bearing permanent member of the 15-nation council, said
that a ceasefire call was not enough and demanded that Georgia pledge
to renounce the use of force.

Russia confirmed that it had received Mr Saakashvili’s offer of a
ceasefire, but said that Georgian troops were continuing to shell South
Ossetia. Meanwhile, Georgia claimed that Russia had opened a second
front in its military offensive in Abkhazia on the Black Sea coast.

Moscow denied involvement, but Sergei Bagapsh, the Abkhaz President,
said that he had sent 1,000 troops to force Georgian soldiers out of
the Kodori Gorge, the only remaining part of the region not under
separatist control. Russian television, however, reported that Russian
troops were in Abkhazia and moving toward the Georgian border. Georgia
accused Moscow of landing 4,000 troops in Abkhazia by ship after Russia
sent its navy to the Black Sea coast. The ships later docked at a
Russian port, though only after Ukraine gave warning that it would bar
any vessels engaged in action against Georgia from returning to the
Black Sea Fleet’s home in Sevastopol.

Russian jets bombed Gori, the Black Sea port of Poti and the airfield
near Tbilisi, all outside the conflict zone in South Ossetia. Mr
Saakashvili said that Russia planned to take over the whole of Georgia
because it wanted `control over energy routes from Central Asia and the
Caspian Sea’. Russia claimed that it had sunk a Georgian cruiser in the
Black Sea.

The West regards Georgia as a vital conduit for supplies of energy from
Central Asia through pipelines that bypass Russia. The governments of
Britain, the US, Germany, Italy, Poland and Canada have advised their
citizens living in Georgia to seek safety in Armenia.