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U.S. flies aid into Georgia, Russia occupies towns
Workers unload humanitarian aid from a U.S. military cargo plane at Tbilisi airport August 14, 2008. |
Russian troops and armor moved in or around at least three Georgian towns on Thursday, ignoring demands by Washington that Moscow respect Georgia’s territorial integrity.
Reuters witnesses saw Russian troops in the key central Georgian town of Gori and outside the western town of Zugdidi. Residents in the Black Sea port of Poti saw a Russian incursion.
In Moscow, the Russian General Staff said it was legitimate for “Russian peacekeepers” to be in Poti and for what it termed “reconnaissance parties” to be in Gori, two days after Russia signed up to a French-led peace plan to stop the fighting.
Russian armed forces have occupied parts of Georgia since repelling a Georgian attack last week on the tiny pro-Russian separatist territory of South Ossetia.
The conflict has spooked oil markets and alarmed the West, which fears it could spiral out of control.
Sharpening the confrontation with the United States over the future of Georgia, Medvedev received in the Kremlin on Thursday the leaders of the two separatist regions at the heart of the week-old conflict and promised them Moscow’s backing.
“Russia’s position is unchanged: we will support any decisions (on future status) taken by the peoples of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in accordance with the U.N. Charter…and not only do we support but we will guarantee them,” a stern- looking Medvedev said.
In Georgia, U.S. military planes airlifted aid in a show of Washington’s support for its embattled ally.
“For another two days Russian troops will stay in the region to carry out procedures of handing over control functions to Georgian law enforcement bodies after which they will leave,” Major-General Vyacheslav Borisov told Russian news agencies.
POTI
In the Black Sea port of Poti, a small oil terminal, witnesses said Russian tanks had rolled in on Thursday morning, accompanying trucks carrying troops to the port area.
“Just a few minutes ago, they (Russians) entered Poti in tanks,” shipping agent Nikoloz Gogoli told Reuters by telephone.
The harbormaster in Poti, who did not want to give his name, said Russian troops sank six Georgian cutters — old military boats — based at Poti on Wednesday. Gogoli said the cutters were blown up with explosives and that Russian troops warned bystanders of their plans. Nobody was hurt, he added.
Russia’s deputy chief of the General Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, denied Moscow had amour or troops in Poti.
Stepping up diplomatic efforts to end the week-old conflict, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to meet the architect of the European Union-sponsored ceasefire, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, before heading to Tbilisi.
The conflict has unnerved oil markets because of the region’s importance as an energy transit route from the Caspian to Europe and alarmed Western governments because of its potential to spiral into a bigger international confrontation.
Sarkozy negotiated a six-point ceasefire which appears to have halted most of the combat, although there were reports from the conflict zone of marauding Ossetian militias burning and looting Georgian villages to exact revenge. more
Source: Reuters
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