Русская версияGeorgian National Security Council Secretary Alexander Lomaia told
AFP news service on Sunday, Aug.
10, that his country's forces had
"practically left" all of South Ossetia "as an expression of good
will and our willingness to stop military confrontation."
Georgian and Russian forces had exchanged artillery fire in the
early hours of Sunday, Aug. 10, South Ossetia officials said, while
Russian planes bombed the runway of a military airfield near
Tbilisi international airport according to a Georgian official.
Russia sending more soldiers, ships to Georgian coast
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Moscow and Tbilisi have been unable to agree on a ceasefire deal
Russian warships meanwhile arrived at the Georgian Black Sea coast,
according to news reports.
"The navy was ordered not to allow supplies of weapons and military
hardware into Georgia by sea," a Russian navy source was quoted as
saying by Russian news service Interfax, Reuters reported.
The Russian ships were blocking access to the port for ships
carrying grain and fuel, Lomaia told the AFP. He added that Russian
planes bombed a military airfield some five kilometers outside the
capital Tbilisi.
Georgia said a Russian air raid had "completely devastated" the
Black Sea port of Poti in attacks that the country's UN ambassador
likened to "a full-scale military invasion"
This was followed up with air raids on Gori, the main Georgian city
closest to South Ossetia. Apartment blocks in Gori were left in
flames and residents said scores of people were killed.
Georgia : "Annihilation of a democracy"
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Georgia's offensive to take the enclave of South Ossetia has been
unsuccessful
Russian bombers also headed for the coast, Georgian Foreign
Minister Eka Tkeshelashvili said Saturday after air raids on the
port of Poti and the city of Gori, where inhabitants said scores of
people were killed.
"What they are doing is nothing to do with conflict, it is about
annihilation of a democracy on their borders," Georgian President
Mikheil Saakashvili said in an interview with the BBC.
Saakashvili declared a "state of war" on Saturday but also offered
a ceasefire to Russia.
But a meeting of the UN Security Council on Saturday failed to
agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire. Russia's ambassador to
the UN said Moscow would not agree to a ceasefire until Georgia
removed all its troops from South Ossetia.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Moscow viewed the
Georgian offensive as "something that has elements of genocide and
war crimes situation," and Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said
he would order an investigation of Georgian crimes against
civilians.
US Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff made it clear Washington
blamed Russia for escalating the fighting.
"This is a conflict that is expanding and getting out of control,"
he said. "The proximate cause is the massive escalation perpetrated
by outside forces."
Conflict widens to Abkhazia
Fears of the conflict spreading added urgency to international
calls for a ceasefire.
The conflict spread to Abkhazia, another breakaway region of
Georgia, where the separatist government said its forces had
launched attacks on Georgian troops. Georgia accused Russia of
staging the attacks in the Kodori Gorge region, the only part of
Abkhazia controlled by Georgia.
Britain said a joint European-US mission was due to have arrived in
Georgia late Saturday to try to help broker a ceasefire with
Russia.
"We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down
by all troops," US President George W. Bush told reporters. "We
call for an end to the Russian bombings."
The European Union "strongly states its commitment to the
sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Georgia and its
internationally recognized borders and urges Russia to respect
them," said a statement released by France, which hold the EU's
rotating presidency and said it would host a meeting of EU foreign
ministers early next week.
Source of friction
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Russia and Georgia disagree on the number of casualties and
refugees
Russian and South Ossetian estimates put the death toll on the
South Ossetian side at a minimum of 1,400. All but a few of the
dead were civilians, according to Moscow. Georgian figures ranged
from 82 dead, including 37 civilians, to a total of some 130 dead.
South Ossetia broke from Georgia in the early 1990s. It has been a
constant source of friction between Georgia and Russia, which
opposes Tbilisi's aspirations of joining NATO and has supported the
separatists without recognizing their independence.
Russia backs the separatist government in South Ossetia and sent in
tanks and troops on Friday in response to pro-Western Georgia's
military offensive to take back the province which broke away in
the early 1990s after a separatist war.
(Deutsche Welle)
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