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Russia calls halt to 5-day invasion of Georgia
2008-08-12
TBILISI, Georgia - Declaring "the aggressor has been punished," the Kremlin ordered a halt Tuesday to Russia's devastating assault on Georgia -- five days of air and ground attacks that left homes in smoldering ruins and uprooted 100,000 people. Muzi.com News 10076200-0 (muzi.com)Georgia said the bombs and shells were still coming hours after the cease-fire was declared, and its President Mikhail Saakashvili said Russia's aim all along was not to gain control of two disputed provinces but to "destroy" the smaller nation, a former Soviet state and current U.S. ally. Muzi.com News 10076200-1 (muzi.com) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, speaking in Moscow, said Georgia had paid enough for its attack on South Ossetia, a separatist region along the Russian border with close ties to Russia. Muzi.com News 10076200-2 (muzi.com) "The aggressor has been punished and suffered very significant losses. Its military has been disorganized," Medvedev said. Muzi.com News 10076200-3 (muzi.com) Still, the president ordered his defense minister at a televised Kremlin meeting: "If there are any emerging hotbeds of resistance or any aggressive actions, you should take steps to destroy them." Muzi.com News 10076200-4 (muzi.com) Hours later, Saakashvili told reporters that he generally accepted the cease-fire plan negotiated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, which calls for both sides to move back to their positions before fighting erupted. Muzi.com News 10076200-5 (muzi.com) Saakashvili told reporters that he agreed to the "general principles" of the deal but said he saw no reason to sign it as it was only a "political document." Muzi.com News 10076200-6 (muzi.com) Hundreds, perhaps thousands, were believed to have died since Georgia launched its crackdown on South Ossetia on Thursday, drawing the punishing response from its much larger northern neighbor. Muzi.com News 10076200-7 (muzi.com) There was evidence Russian forces were attacking Georgian targets within hours of Medvedev's televised order, if not after. Muzi.com News 10076200-8 (muzi.com) An Associated Press reporter saw 135 Russian military vehicles headed toward the Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia. Muzi.com News 10076200-9 (muzi.com) Georgian officials said Russia was attacking their troops in the gorge, but a commander in Abkhazia said only local forces, not Russian ones, were involved in push the Georgians out of the region. Muzi.com News 10076200-10 (muzi.com) The commander, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zaitsev, said the Russian-backed separatist forces in Abkhazia had driven Georgian troops out of the gorge, their last stronghold in the region, after days of air and artillery strikes. Muzi.com News 10076200-11 (muzi.com) Hours before Medvedev's order, Russian jets bombed the crossroads city of Gori, near South Ossetia. The post office and university there were burning, but the city was all but deserted after most remaining residents and Georgian soldiers fled. Muzi.com News 10076200-12 (muzi.com) Saakashvili, speaking to thousands at a square in the capital of Tbilisi, red and white Georgian flags fluttering in the crowd, said the Russian invasion was not about the two disputed provinces. Muzi.com News 10076200-13 (muzi.com) "They just don't want freedom, and that's why they want to stamp on Georgia and destroy it," he declared. Muzi.com News 10076200-14 (muzi.com) Russia accused Georgia of killing more than 2,000 people, mostly civilians, in the separatist province of South Ossetia. The claim couldn't be independently confirmed, but witnesses who fled the area over the weekend said hundreds had died. Muzi.com News 10076200-15 (muzi.com) The overall death toll was expected to rise because large areas of Georgia were still too dangerous for journalists to enter and see the true scope of the damage. Muzi.com News 10076200-16 (muzi.com) The first relief flight from the U.N. refugee agency arrived in Georgia as the number of people uprooted by the conflict neared 100,000. Thousands streamed into the capital. Muzi.com News 10076200-17 (muzi.com) Those left behind in devastated regions of Georgia cowered in rat-infested cellars or wandered nearly deserted cities. Muzi.com News 10076200-18 (muzi.com) In Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian provincial capital now under Russian control, the body of a Georgian soldier lay in the street along with debris as separatist fighters launched rockets at a Georgian plane soaring overhead. Muzi.com News 10076200-19 (muzi.com) A tour by AP journalists found the heaviest damage around the government center. Near the city center, pieces of tanks lay near a bomb crater. The turret of one tank was blown into the front of the printing school across the street. A severed foot lay on the sidewalk nearby. Several residential areas seemed to have little damage beyond shattered windows. Muzi.com News 10076200-20 (muzi.com) A poster hanging nearby showed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and the words "Say yes to peace and stability." Broken glass and other debris littered the ground. Muzi.com News 10076200-21 (muzi.com) Besides the dead, tens of thousands of terrified people have fled the fighting -- South Ossetians north to Russia, and Georgians east toward the capital of Tbilisi and west to the country's Black Sea coast. Muzi.com News 10076200-22 (muzi.com) Among those left behind was 70-year-old Vahktang Chkekvadze, a Georgian villager living in Ruisi who was picking away what was left of a window frame torn by an explosion. Muzi.com News 10076200-23 (muzi.com) "I always hide in the basement," he said, used to living in a conflict zone. "But this time the explosion came so abruptly, I don't remember what happened afterward." Muzi.com News 10076200-24 (muzi.com) Two men and a woman in the village, in undisputed Georgian territory just outside South Ossetia, were killed just half an hour before Medvedev went on television to announce the pause in fighting. Muzi.com News 10076200-25 (muzi.com) Amid the suggestions the military action was cooling down, the Russia-Georgia dispute reached the international courts, with the Georgian security council saying it had sued for ethnic cleansing. Earlier the Russians accused the Georgians of genocide. Muzi.com News 10076200-26 (muzi.com) Russian officers accompanying journalists visiting Tskhinvali argued that the battle damage showed Georgian troops specifically targeted by Georgian troops. But the worst damage was confined to the area around the government center, and several residential areas seemed to have little damage, except for shattered windows, perhaps from bomb concussions. Muzi.com News 10076200-27 (muzi.com) The conflict -- and its Cold War echoes -- continued to play out on the international stage. The leaders of five former Soviet bloc states spoke out against Russian domination at a rally in Tbilisi. Muzi.com News 10076200-28 (muzi.com) "Our neighbor thinks it can fight us. We are telling it no," said Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was joined by the leaders of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine at the rally. Kaczynski says Russia wanted a return to "old times. Muzi.com News 10076200-29 (muzi.com) The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin told CNN his country is seeking details on what started the fighting. Muzi.com News 10076200-30 (muzi.com) "We do not want to believe that the United States has given a green light to this adventurous act," he said. "But our American colleagues are telling us that they're investigating now what may have happened in the channels of communication for Mr. Saakashvili to have behaved in such a reckless manner." Muzi.com News 10076200-31 (muzi.com) President Bush, one day earlier, had called the Russian invasion unacceptable, and on Tuesday the Russian president assailed the West for supporting Georgia. "International law doesn't envision double standards," Medvedev said. Muzi.com News 10076200-32 (muzi.com) U.S. officials were focused on confirming a cease-fire and attending to Georgia's urgent humanitarian needs. Muzi.com News 10076200-33 (muzi.com) "The Russians need to stop their military operations as they have apparently said that they will, but those military operations really do now need to stop because calm needs to be restored," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. Muzi.com News 10076200-34 (muzi.com) Georgia, which is pushing for NATO membership, borders the Black Sea between Turkey and Russia and was ruled by Moscow for most of the two centuries preceding the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Muzi.com News 10076200-35 (muzi.com) South Ossetia and Abkhazia have run their own affairs without international recognition since fighting to split from Georgia in the early 1990s. Both separatist provinces are backed by Russia, which appears open to absorbing them. Muzi.com News 10076200-36 (muzi.com) Medvedev said Georgia must allow the provinces to decide whether they want to remain part of Russia. Muzi.com News 10076200-37 (muzi.com) "Ossetians and Abkhaz must respond to that question taking their history into account, including what happened in the past few days," Medvedev said grimly. Muzi.com News 10076200-38 (muzi.com) Medvedev said Russian peacekeepers would stay in both provinces, even as Saakashvili said his government will officially designate them as occupying forces. Muzi.com News 10076200-39 (muzi.com)
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