Русская версияThe bus is headed for the Armenian capital Yerevan, the German
foreign ministry said.
The German embassy emphasized that the
citizens are not being "evacuated" but are leaving the country
voluntarily.
Some 300 German citizens are still in Georgia. They are being
contacted and offered the chance to leave if they wish, ministry
spokesman Jens Ploetner told a news conference Monday.
Ploetner said that the German embassy in Tbilisi was also prepared
to help citizens from other European countries.
Germans in Georgia told to contact embassy
"There is no reason for panic but we are calling on all German
citizens... to contact the embassy," he said.
Russia has bombed radars near the Georgian capital of Tbilisi and
has hit residential areas in the Georgian city of Gori near the
South Ossetian border. The United Nations refugee agency said that
nearly 80 percent of Gori's 50,000 residents have fled due to the
bombings.
Merkel urges end to violence
German Chancellor Angela Merkel repeated her call for an end to the
violence in a Monday morning phone conversation with Georgian
President Mikheil Saakashvili, her spokesman Thomas Steg said.
Merkel also gave her full support to French President Nicolas
Sarkozy, who plans to travel to Moscow, Steg added. France
currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency.
Merkel said it was "essential that there is an immediate
and non-conditional ceasefire and for all armed forces to
withdraw to the positions held before the conflict" and that "the
territorial integrity of Georgia should be respected," Steg said.
Merkel plans to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on
Friday, but said that the meeting will entirely focus on the
current conflict.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has also spoken
several times by phone with his Russian and Georgian counterparts,
and also took part in a conference call on Sunday with other EU
foreign ministers, Ploetner said.
(Deutsche Welle)
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