Русская версияGerman leaders -- many of them still on their summer vacation --
have held back on long statements about the escalating war in the
Caucasus.
But the few voices that have been audible so far show
that the country's ruling grand coalition seems split on the
question of who is to blame.
In an interview with German mass-tabloid
Bild am Sonntag
on Sunday, Aug. 10, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier called for an immediate ceasefire.
"We face the danger of a dangerous conflagration," he said, without
identifying a culprit in the conflict.
Deputy FM: Georgia violated international law
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Gernot Erler
His deputy, Gernot Erler, who is also a Social Democrat, went a
step further. Talking to German public broadcaster NDR Info, Erler
said Georgians had breached a 1992 ceasefire agreement struck with
Russia over South Ossetia, monitored essentially by Russian
peacekeepers.
"In this sense, it is also a question of a violation of
international law as soon as you start to go down the road of
military action," said Erler, who is a Social Democrat like
Steinmeier.
He acknowledged prior provocation of the Georgian leadership from
Russian-backed South Ossetia's separatists, but said he understood
Russia's reaction. While South Ossetia remains sovereign Georgian
territory, Russia has taken over the role of providing economic
support to the region, Erler said. From a Russian perspective,
peacekeeping troops have therefore
been attacked.
"It's an insane, bloody war which will surely do nothing to resolve
the problem of this separatist Ossetian province," he said.
Adding oil to the fire?
While other Social Democrats and members of the opposition Green
party have been critical of the Georgian actions, Germany's
conservatives are more inclined to blame Russia.
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Eckart von Klaeden
Eckart von Klaeden, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's
Christian Democratic Union and his party's foreign policy spokesman
in parliament, meanwhile said that Russia was equality guilty fort
he current escalation.
"It would be good if Moscow would stop adding oil to the fire,"
Klaeden told
Neue Presse
newspaper, adding that the Kremlin had intentionally brought about
the conflict by issuing Russian passports to a majority of South
Ossetians.
Merkel herself is due to meet with Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, not far from the
border with Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia, on Friday.
Europe 's energy supplies at stake
German experts on Russia, however, said that Merkel and Steinmeier
would most likely work together to help resolve the conflict.
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Alexander Rahr
"It would be stupid for them to block each other," Alexander Rahr,
a Russia expert with the German Council on Foreign Relation (DGAP),
told AFP news agency. "After all, this is about a strategic
question, namely securing Europe's energy supplies."
Rahr added that Steinmeier's connections to Medvedev's surroundings
presented a great opportunity for him to act as a mediator in the
conflict.
But more than anything else, Europeans -- who have let the US play
the biggest role in the region so far -- would have to get active
together.
"We can't rely on the Americans fixing this yet again," Rahr said.
(Deutsche Welle)
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