CSTO MEMBERS UNAMBIGUOUSLY CONDEMN GEORGIA’S ACTIONS IN S.OSSETIA
Interfax
Sept 8 2008
Russia
The members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have
been unambiguously negative in their assessment of Georgia’s actions
in relation to South Ossetia, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.
"Our partners from the Organization have made an unambiguously negative
judgment about Georgia’s actions, about Georgia’s aggression against
South Ossetia," he said.
The CSTO has expressed concern over Georgia’s military attempt to
regain control of South Ossetia last month and has complained about
a current "military buildup" in the Caucasus.
"The CSTO member states are deeply concerned about the attempt by
Georgia at a military resolution of the conflict in South Ossetia,
which led to numerous fatalities among the civilian population and
peacekeepers," a CSTO summit said in a declaration as quoted by
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a news conference.
The summit was held in Moscow on Friday.
Medvedev said the Georgian military operation had "serious humanitarian
consequences."
The summit also expressed anxiety at "a military buildup and escalating
tension in the Caucasus region."
It called on all countries "to make a balanced and objective assessment
of the situation, without the use of double standards, and to avoid
action that could provoke its further exacerbation."
The CSTO member states, "which consistently advocate peace, security
and the supremacy of international law, hailed the settlement
principles evolved by the presidents of Russia and France," Medvedev
said in reference to the six-point plan for the settlement of the
conflict in Georgia developed by him and his French counterpart,
Nicolas Sarkozy, last month.
Interfax learned from another source that the section of the
declaration dealing with the issue of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was
the product of a compromise.
A minimum of three versions of the declaration had been drafted,
the source said. Russia, Kazakhstan and Armenia each proposed their
own version.
Georgia was not directly mentioned in either the Kazakh or the Armenian
version. "The final document is based on the toughest version, the
Russian one," the source said.
Medvedev told the news conference that the summit’s main result was
"a consolidated position."
"[Russia’s] partners in the organization made an unambiguously negative
assessment of the Georgian aggression in South Ossetia," he said.