Tbilisi, Georgia: President Bush said Wednesday that the United States has received reports of Russian actions that are "inconsistent" with Moscow's statement it had halted military operations in Georgia.
His remarks came amid fears a Russian convoy advance into Georgia, and claims of violations on both sides, has left in tatters a one-day-old agreement by both sides to return to pre-hostility positions.
"The United States and the world expect Russia to honor that commitment," Bush said, adding that he was concerned over reports of Russian unit movements near the conflict-hit Georgian city of Gori.
Bush said he was sending Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to France and Georgia to discuss the violence.
President Bush also said US Defense Robert Gates will oversee a "vigorous and ongoing" humanitarian mission to Georgia involving aircraft and Naval forces. It was not immediately clear when the mission will begin.
Russia insists its movement of troops along the road to the Georgian capital of Tbilisi is not an act of aggression, and has rejected accusations it is not respecting the cease-fire.
Georgia's president Mikheil Saakashvili has accused Russian troops of continuing to attack Gori in the wake of the internationa-brokered agreement.
A spokesman for Russia's Foreign Ministry bristled at reports that Russia had breached the cease-fire, and said they "are not reflecting the real situation."
"We as the Russian Federation are (sticking) to the agreement which (has) been made in Moscow yesterday and we hope that the other side will show its readiness to do the same," Andrei Nesterenko told CNN.
Russia says its convoy was merely on a short-range demilitarizing mission on the road to the Georgian capital Tbilisi, but both sides in the conflict have traded accusations that the cease-fire was being violated.
CNN correspondent Matthew Chance, who was riding with the Russian convoy, said there was no resistance from Georgian soldiers, and it was possible that the Russians were on a scouting mission to choose a buffer zone between the breakaway region of South Ossetia and Georgian territory. Chance described the flag-waving Russians as relaxed.
He said most soldiers refused to comment, but one told him, "We have come here with the approval of the Georgian people."
Earlier Wednesday, a Georgian official told CNN the troops were headed to the abandoned military base Uplistsikhe, which they intended to destroy. The base is six miles (10 kilometers) east of Gori.
A cease-fire agreement reached Tuesday between Georgia and Russia through the mediation efforts of France called for both forces to return to the positions they held on August 6.
Saakashvili told CNN Wednesday that Russian forces "are encroaching upon the capital" in violation of a cease-fire agreement. He said the Russians never intended to hold up their end of the truce agreed to Tuesday.
The column of Russian military vehicles, including armored personnel carriers and trucks carrying Russian troops, had been traveling slowly toward the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, and was about 30 miles away, Chance said, before it turned. The convoy was about 10 miles from Gori, he said.
The Russian General Staff in Moscow accused the Georgians of not honoring the cease-fire, saying Georgia troops should return to their barracks.
Saakashvili told CNN Western leaders had "failed to analyze Russia's intentions" before it invaded Georgia and "are partly to blame" for the current situation.
"The response has not been adequate," Saakashvili said. "Not only those people who are committing all those atrocities are responsible, but those who don't react to that, I think they also share responsibility."
The six-point deal agreed between the sides was meant to end the fighting over the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
However Saakashvili, flanked by the leaders of Lithuania, Poland, Estonia and Latvia in a media briefing early Wednesday, said Russian tanks were attacking and "rampaging" through the Georgian town of Gori despite the cease-fire.
However journalists in Gori, the birthplace of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, said they had seen no Russian tanks. Residents there told the journalists they had earlier seen "some," but not in large numbers.
A Russian military official said its forces were at an abandoned Georgian artillery base near Gori, but not inside the town itself.
"I tell you with full responsibility that there are no Russian tanks in Gori today and there is no reason to be," because Gori authorities have fled the city, said General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian General Staff.
Nogovitsyn said the conflict had killed 74 Russian troops, wounded 171 and left 19 missing in action. Officials have estimated at least 2,000 civilians were killed in South Ossetia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called for international observers to help ensure peace and "prevent any aggressive ambitions on the part of the Georgian leadership."
Lithuanian President Valdas Adamkus said an international force would be the only way to stop violence and ensure Georgia's territorial integrity.
"Let the world finally wake up and take the action and provide the real security for the region," Adamkus said.
Fighting has raged since Thursday when Georgia launched its crackdown on separatist fighters in autonomous South Ossetia, where most people have long supported independence.
Russian troops and tanks moved into South Ossetia on Friday and quickly pushed back the Georgian forces. Russian forces also moved into Abkhazia, another breakaway Georgian region.
Russia called a halt Tuesday to its military incursion, insisting it had been aimed at stopping Georgian military actions against its peacekeepers and citizens in the breakaway regions.
Comments
0 comment