Georgia accuses Russia of breaking ceasefire

By Margarita Antidze and Matt Robinson
August 13, 2008

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080813/ts_nm/georgia_ossetia_dc

TBILISI (Reuters) - Georgia accused Russia of breaking a ceasefire in their six-day-old conflict on Wednesday, a claim denied by Moscow, as chaos reigned around an undefended key Georgian town west of the capital.

U.S. President George W. Bush mounted his strongest show of support yet for his close ally Georgia, sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the former Soviet republic and pledging to airlift aid in military planes.

Both he and Rice warned Russia to stick to the agreement brokered by France and clinched a day earlier.

"Russia must keep its word and act to end this crisis," Bush said, referring to Kremlin leader Dmitry Medvedev's announcement on Tuesday of a halt to military operations, part of the ceasefire agreement.

Rice said that if Russia was shown to have violated the ceasefire "that will only serve to deepen the isolation to which Russia is moving."

The conflict began last Thursday, when Georgia attempted to recapture the pro-Russian rebel province of South Ossetia, which broke away from Georgia in the 1990s. Moscow's surprise counter-offensive overwhelmed the smaller Georgian forces.

Moscow denied its troops and armor had advanced on Tbilisi or looted the key town of Gori, 60 km (35 miles) west of Tbilisi, as claimed by Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

STOP THE LOOTING
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, told by Rice that Russian servicemen were failing to prevent looting by irregular militias, said such actions would not be tolerated.

"I said from the very beginning that if any such facts prove true, we will react in the most serious way...The peaceful population should be protected. We are investigating all these reports and will not allow any such actions.

The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who oversaw the ceasefire deal, said the French leader had made plain his concerns about the ceasefire "and received assurances from President Medvedev that Russia would uphold its commitments."

Witnesses saw Russian tanks and armored vehicles moving outside Gori, briefly traveling along the main road to Tbilisi before turning off. The Moscow General Staff said they were attempting to secure an abandoned Georgian ammunition dump and had no intention of advancing on the capital.

Photographers south of Gori saw irregular troops in armored vehicles among the traffic. Most had no identification, but one soldier had the South Ossetian flag on his arm.

Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based organization with staff on the ground in Georgia, said its researchers had witnessed looting of ethnic Georgian villages in South Ossetia, the rebel province at the heart of the conflict.

"We saw looting with our own eyes, they were taking household items, loading electric heaters, bicycles and carpets," Anna Neistat of Human Rights Watch told Reuters by phone from Tskhinvali, the capital of the breakaway region.

The current chairman of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb, called for strict observance of the ceasefire and proposed increasing military monitoring in the area.

PENTAGON DENIAL
Saakashvili also said Bush's pledge to airlift relief supplies to Georgia in military aircraft meant that Georgian ports and airports would be taken under U.S. military control -- a claim swiftly denied by the Pentagon.

Russia said it had shot down two spy drones over South Ossetia and vowed to destroy other such craft it encountered because they violated assurances of an end to military action.

The fighting in the Caucasus, an important transit route for Caspian oil, has unnerved the United States, NATO and the European Union and rattled investors.

It has also led to increasingly sharp exchanges between old Cold War foes Moscow and Washington.

Lavrov said the United States needed to choose between partnership with Moscow or the Georgian leadership, which he described as a "virtual project."

In Brussels, the European Union backed sending peacekeeping monitors to South Ossetia to supervise the French-brokered ceasefire. It also agreed to step up humanitarian aid.

"We are determined to act on the ground," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said after briefing an emergency meeting on his country's mediation efforts as EU president.

The moves masked deep divisions within the 27-nation bloc, with Britain and some former communist nations demanding tough action against Moscow, while close Russian trade partners France, Germany and Italy favored a more diplomatic approach.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was also prepared to contribute to peacekeeping arrangements.

Flags flew at half mast in both the main parties to the conflict on Wednesday as Russia and Georgia mourned their dead.

Russia says 1,600 civilians died when Georgia attacked South Ossetia, though the figure has not been independently verified. Moscow's General Staff says it lost 74 soldiers in the fighting, with 171 wounded and 19 missing.

Tbilisi puts deaths on its side at over 175, with hundreds injured. That figure does not include South Ossetia.

Moscow announced an emergency aid package for South Ossetia, with Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin pledging 10 billion roubles ($414 million) to rebuild the shattered region.

Analysts said Georgia's failed attempt to seize South Ossetia by force last week made it much less likely that the breakaway territory, along with a second rebel region, Abkhazia, would return to Tbilisi's control in the future.

But analysts said Georgia may yet have to make painful concessions, having been routed on the battlefield and forced to concede precious ground in both South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Abkhazia said its forces had pushed out Georgian troops and captured the disputed upper reaches of the Kodori Gorge on the region's boundary.