NATO VOICES SUPPORT FOR GEORGIA AS FOREIGNERS FLEE; Russia orders halt to attack

Arab Times
August 13, 2008
Kuwait

World News

WASHINGTON (Agencies): Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the
United States welcomes Russia’s pledge to stop its attacks in Georgia
and urged Moscow to follow through on its promise. Rice briefed
President George W. Bush over lunch on the crisis in the former
Soviet republic, then stepped outside to talk with reporters in the
White House driveway. She said that "these military operations need
to stop," and the United States will continue seeking a diplomatic
solution. Administration officials said the United States and its
allies are considering expelling Moscow from an exclusive club
of powerful nations and canceling an planned joint Nato-Russia
military exercise. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered a halt
to military operations in Georgia on Tuesday but Tbilisi cast doubt on
the announcement, saying Moscow was still bombing towns and villages.

The announcement coincided with the visit of French president Nicolas
Sarkozy to Moscow on an EU peace mission and seemed intended to help
international efforts to negotiate a lasting truce.

Sarkozy said Russia and Georgia, who have been fighting since last
Thursday, had not yet agreed a peace deal, adding: "We don’t yet have
peace. But we have a provisional cessation of hostilities. And everyone
should be aware that this is considerable progress. There is still
much work to be done….What we want is to secure the best result."

In a first US reaction, Washington’s envoy to the region, Matthew
Bryza, termed the Russian move "extremely positive".

The conflict over the tiny separatist province of South Ossetia has
spooked markets and rattled the West. It began when Georgia tried
to retake the pro-Russian region last week, provoking a massive
counter-offensive from Moscow.

Using language redolent of his mentor Vladimir Putin, Medvedev
criticised Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili on Tuesday as a
"lunatic". Saakashvili had promised voters he would win back South
Ossetia and a second separatist area, Abkhazia.

"You know, lunatics’ difference from other people is that when they
smell blood it is very difficult to stop them. So you have to use
surgery," Medvedev told a news conference.

Georgians saw it differently, with a huge crowd outside the parliament
building in Tbilisi hailing Saakashvili as a hero for defending his
country against aggression from Moscow.

Speakers denounced Russia as the crowd chanted: "Georgia,
Georgia!". Posters held up by demonstrators showed a photograph of
Putin with the caption: "Wanted: Crimes against humanity in the world."

Saakashvili then appeared to cheers and pledged that one day Georgia
would beat Russia. "I promise you today, that I’ll remind them of
everything they have done and one day we will win," he said.

In the conflict zone, a series of sudden, unexpected explosions on
Tuesday in the town of Gori, about 70 kms (40 miles) west of Tbilisi,
killed at least five civilians, a Reuters correspondent said.

Television footage and pictures suggested the blasts were caused by
mortars, although it was not clear who fired. Russian forces were
reported to be around 12 kms (7 miles) away at the time and denied
attacking the town, which is the birthplace of Soviet leader Josef
Stalin.

Nato The Nato allies supported Georgia in its military confrontation
with Russia and said Tuesday the Caucasus nation stays on course to
one day join their alliance — a prospect Russia strongly opposes.

Meanwhile, Russia’s Nato envoy said it’s time for Georgia to surrender
its claim to the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.

The 26 Nato ambassadors, at a meeting with the Georgian envoy to the
alliance, reiterated "in very strong terms" support for a sovereign,
independent Georgia, said Nato Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

He told a news conference the allies "condemned and deplored (Russia’s)
excessive, disproportionate use of force."

De Hoop Scheffer welcomed comments by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev
that he had ordered an end to the fighting in Georgia, but said he
could not confirm that has happened. If true, "this would be good
news. But this is, of course, not enough," said De Hoop Scheffer.

Russia’s five days of air and land attacks left Georgia’s army
retreating and some of its military bases and towns in flames. Despite
Medvedev’s call, Georgia said Russia’s military attacks had not
stopped Tuesday.

More than 30 Filipino workers have left Georgia due to fighting
there between Georgian and Russian forces, the Foreign Department
said Tuesday.

The group has travelled to neighbouring Azerbaijan. They were among
80 Filipino construction workers in Georgia who were considering
evacuating amid the fighting, said department undersecretary Esteban
Cornejos.

Another 47 Filipinos working in Georgia have been given visas to
Turkey so they can immediately move out if needed, Cornejos said.

So far, all the workers are safe and far from the fighting, he added.

Eight million Filipinos, or nearly 10 percent of the country’s
population, work abroad in scores of countries. Remittances they send
home are a major pillar of the domestic economy.

Japan on Tuesday urged its nationals to leave Georgia immediately
and warned travellers not to go to the country due to the fighting
with Russia.

The foreign ministry issued the highest of four travel advisory levels,
telling all Japanese to leave the country.

"As for planned trips to the region, postpone any visits, no matter
what the purpose, until the situation stabilises," the advisory said.

Seven Japanese have already left Georgia since Russia started pouring
troops into pro-Moscow South Ossetia on Friday but six Japanese
nationals are still in the country, a foreign ministry official in
Tokyo said.

However, public broadcaster NHK put the number of Japanese still
staying in Georgia at 11.

Hundreds of foreign nationals have been caught up in the conflict. The
United States said Monday that it had evacuated about 170 of its
citizens to neighbouring Armenia.

The United States advised all its citizens to leave Georgia on Tuesday
as officials said they had been unable to confirm an end to Russian
military operations in the country.

Despite a statement by Medvedev that hostilities were ending, the the
White House said it could not confirm that and Georgia cast doubt on
Medvedev’s announcement, saying Russian fighter jets had bombed two
Georgian villages.

"We saw the reporting and the announcement from the Russian president,
Medvedev," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. "We’re trying to
get an assessment of what exactly it means, what a halt means and
whether it’s taken place."

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said the situation was still
unclear. "We don’t know what the Russians are doing. We want them to
stop the attacks," Wood told reporters. The United States was working
diplomatically to try to halt "plain and simple blatant aggression on
the part of Russia" and return to the situation that existed before the
fighting over the breakaway region of South Ossetia began last week,
Wood said. In the Georgian capital, US envoy Matthew Bryza called
Russia’s announcement ending military action "extremely positive,"
but said it seemed elements of Moscow’s military wanted to continue
limited action against Georgia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
cut short a holiday to return to Washington to deal with the crisis,
which began last Thursday when Georgia sent forces to retake South
Ossetia, a pro-Russian province that threw off Georgian rule in the
1990s. Moscow responded by sending its troops into Georgia.

Complaint Georgia on Tuesday filed a complaint at the International
Criminal Court accusing Russia of ethnic cleansing, the government said
in a statement. "The government of Georgia has today filed a complaint
at the International Criminal Court in The Hague against the Russian
Federation for alleged acts of ethnic cleansing conducted on Georgian
sovereign territory between 1993 and 2008," the statement said. The
complaint covers the period since Russian soldiers began operating
on Georgian soil under peacekeeping missions in the early 1990s,
the statement said.