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| | 'New attacks' in Georgia conflict | | | Monday, August 11, 2008 (2:25 AM)
(I'm feeling worried) | | 'New attacks' in Georgia conflict
Russia and Georgia have accused each other of launching new attacks, as diplomats press for a ceasefire in the conflict over South Ossetia.
Georgia said dozens of Russian bombers were attacking targets inside its territory, including around Tbilisi.
And Russia said Georgian attacks on the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali killed three of its troops.
Elsewhere, US President George W Bush criticised Russia's response, while EU diplomats headed to Moscow for talks.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, who met Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili on Sunday, said he was seeking a "controlled withdrawal of troops" from the conflict zone.
Fighting erupted late last week when Georgia launched an overnight assault on South Ossetia, which has had de facto independence since the end of a war in 1992.
Russia, which supports the breakaway province, hit back, bombing targets throughout Georgia.
The latest reports of violence came despite Georgia saying on Sunday that it would observe a ceasefire. Moscow has insisted Georgian forces withdraw fully from South Ossetia before it halts operations.
From Tbilisi, Georgia said up to 50 Russian fighter jets attacked targets inside Georgia overnight, with targets including a missile base and a radar station.
Georgia said the town of Gori, close to the South Ossetian border and used as a jumping-off point for Georgia's push into South Ossetia, also came under overnight attack.
Meanwhile Russian media reported that Georgian forces shelled South Ossetia's capital, Tskhinvali, killing three peacekeepers.
And in Abkhazia, a second separatist region of Georgia, reports said a Russian general issued an ultimatum to Georgian forces to pull out of Abkhazia's Kodori Gorge or Russian would send in its troops. Earlier, reports in Moscow said 9,000 Russian troops were being deployed to Abkhazia.
On Sunday, separatist leaders in Abkhazia announced a full mobilisation in order to drive Georgian troops from part of the region, and gave them a deadline to leave.
Georgia has accused Russia of landing 4,000 more troops in Abkhazia via the Black Sea. The separatists said Georgia had deployed a similar number of soldiers south of the Abkhaz border.
'Very firm'
Away from the conflict zones, US and European leaders stepped up efforts to end the fighting.
Mr Kouchner, heading a European Union delegation, was attempting to persuade both Georgia and Russia to sign up to a ceasefire agreement and stand down troops.
Separately, a Council of Europe delegation headed by Sweden's foreign minister is heading to Tbilisi for talks. The BBC's Nik Gowing, travelling with the diplomats, reports that there is deep gloom among delegates, with many suggesting Russia has crossed several "red lines" by striking at Georgia.
Speaking in Beijing, US President Bush told NBC TV that he had spoken frankly to Vladimir Putin when the pair met at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games last week.
"I said this violence is unacceptable," Mr Bush said, adding: "I was very firm with Vladimir Putin. Hopefully this will get resolved peacefully."
However, in a telephone call to Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, said Russian aggression "must not go unanswered".
Mr Cheney said the continuation of violence against Georgia would have serious consequences for Russia's relations with the US, as well as the international community.
The call appears to have been an effort to send a message not just of solidarity but also of readiness for action, says the BBC's Justin Webb, in Washington.
But White House officials refused to speculate on what America might do if the Russian military action continued.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) has called on the parties to the conflict to grant safe passage to civilians trying to escape the war zone.
The UNHCR estimates that between 10,000 and 20,000 people have been displaced within Georgia, including South Ossetia, while Russia has said that a further 30,000 people have fled north into the Russian province of North Ossetia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7553144.stm | | | 42 Views | 0  Thumbs Up | 0 Comments |  |
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| | Russia flexes muscles in Caucasus: End of post-Soviet era? | | | Monday, August 11, 2008 (2:23 AM)
(I'm feeling worried) | | Russia flexes muscles in Caucasus: End of post-Soviet era?
Did Georgia’s young and ambitious President Mikhail Saakashvili miscalculate everything when he ordered an offensive in his country’s breakaway region of South Ossetia?
Given the scale of the defeat his army suffered at the hands of the Russian forces responding to the Georgian offensive, this appears to be a reasonable conclusion. But whether his miscalculation is to blame for the latest tragedy in the troubled Caucasus or not, it is a clear fact that Russia’s backlash was massive and ominous in threatening to shift the power balances prevailing in the Caucasus since the end of the Cold War.
And as Moscow teaches Georgia the lesson that there is no way to return to the status quo before the South Ossetia offensive, there is little the West can do to stop Russia from overrunning Tbilisi’s ambitions to assert control over its breakaway regions despite statements from the US administration that it supports Georgia’s “territorial integrity.” The Russian military victory over tiny Georgia is also a painful message to both Tbilisi and its Western allies that Georgian desires to join NATO, a milestone in Georgia’s eventual integration with the US-led West, are unlikely to become a reality anytime soon.
"My heart aches at this repetitious history of Russian dominance and aggression, whether Czarist, Bolshevik or Oligarchic," said Thomas Goltz, a US expert on the Caucasus. "We can ask the question: Did Misha [Saakashvili] go too far or get pulled into a trap? But it really makes no difference right now. Russia has just declared the 'post-Soviet era' over and a new age has begun."
South Ossetia is one of the breakaway regions in Georgia which declared independence in the early 1990s and ran its own affairs without any international recognition. It has been one of the "frozen conflicts" of the Caucasus in the post-Cold War era and thus its turning into a full-scale conflict like this is no surprise to observers. But it is very important to note that this is the first time in the post-Cold War era that Russia has resorted to military action on such a scale to defend its interests in a region it sees as its backyard.
"One of the most important features of the post-Cold War era is the emergence of 'geopolitical pluralism,'" said Özdem Sanberk, a former undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, referring to the emergence of new states in what used to be the Soviet Union territory during the Cold War years. But a combination of what Russia sees as a hostile encirclement by the rival West -- through US moves to build an anti-missile shield system in eastern Europe and Western support for Kosovo's independence from Russian ally Serbia -- and growing Russian power thanks partly to rising oil prices, now prompts Russia to take steps to destroy this "geopolitical pluralism" in the Caucasus. "That means a return to the Cold War era," Sanberk said.
A New York Times analysis said yesterday that the US administration officials acknowledge that "Moscow is in the driver's seat," given the fact that Russia's emerging aggressiveness is now also timed with America's preoccupation with Iraq and Afghanistan and a looming confrontation with Iran. The newspaper quoted George Friedman, the chief executive of Stratfor, a geopolitical analysis and intelligence company, as saying: "We've placed ourselves in a position that globally we don't have the wherewithal to do anything. One would think under those circumstances, we'd shut up."
Saakashvili won the last elections on promises of NATO membership, something which Georgia hopes will give it Western protection against former ruler Russia, and control over the breakaway regions. But NATO's Bucharest summit earlier this year disappointed the Georgian administration, saying it still has problems in ensuring its territorial integrity.
Russia, on the other hand, sees Georgia's NATO membership as part of the hostile encirclement by the West. After Russian diplomacy failed to stop Kosovo's independence earlier this year, Russian leaders warned this would be a precedent for breakaway regions in the Caucasus, including South Ossetia.
Georgia is the most loyal US ally in the Caucasus and is of key importance in the transfer of natural gas and oil from Caspian fields to the West via a non-Russian route. But now, having paid a high price for its high-stake offensive in South Ossetia, Georgia, and others who counted so far on the West to counterbalance Russia, are being forced to reconsider their trust in the US and NATO. The Russian victory in South Ossetia may well force a change of power in Georgia, with Saakashvili eventually being replaced by a less pro-Western leader in a blow to US interests in the region.
Russian experts, on the other hand, argue that the Russian position is promising and peaceful. Moscow-based political analyst Dmitry Peskov argues that in fact Russia was not preparing for this conflict. "With our president on vacation and our prime minister at the Olympics, Russian officials were not ready for such a fast-paced and dramatic story," he said. Speaking to Today's Zaman yesterday, Peskov said that following three days of Georgia's offensive a humanitarian crisis had erupted and a number of Russian soldiers had died in Ossetia. The Russian society is considering the question of when and where it will be ready to stop the military action. "With Georgian troops outside Ossetia and with peacekeepers, working under a UN mandate, Russia will stop immediately," he said.
Turkey, which is cooperating with Georgia in all key trans-Caucasus transportation and energy transfer projects and is helping Tbilisi modernize its army, has also been caught in a difficult situation. Despite its strong support for Georgia's integration with Western institutions and the reliance on Tbilisi to reach the region due to problems with neighboring Armenia, siding with Georgia in its conflict with Russia is not a smart policy move. Trade with Russia has grown tremendously over the past years and Russia is Turkey's largest natural gas supplier, providing about 70 percent of its annual gas needs.
11 August 2008, Monday
FATMA DEMIRELLI, MAHIR ZEYNALOV TODAY’S ZAMAN | | | | 33 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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| | War rages despite Georgia pullout | | | Monday, August 11, 2008 (2:22 AM)
(I'm feeling worried) | | War rages despite Georgia pullout
Russian troops have warned that they intend to push further into western Georgia, Georgian officials claimed Sunday, as an increasingly violent territorial dispute in the former Soviet state threatened to spiral into a major international conflict.
The warning came after Georgian troops began withdrawing from South Ossetia, a breakaway region where military action by Tbilisi last week triggered a full scale military clash with Russia that some say has left hundreds dead.
Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Shota Utiashvili said on Sunday Russian forces plan to move into the city of Zugdidi, which is beyond the border of the second Georgian restive province of Abkhazia. White House Deputy National Security Advisor Jim Jeffrey said the United States was urgently looking into the report, saying that it would be a very serious escalation for Russia to move into Georgia beyond the Abkhazia region. He said the US has made clear that “if the disproportionate and dangerous escalation on the Russian side continues, that this will have a significant long-term impact on US-Russian relations.”
The Georgian Foreign Ministry said Georgian troops have begun observing a cease-fire in South Ossetia in compliance with an order from President Mikhail Saakashvili. The ministry said Sunday it was ready to start immediate negotiations with Russia on a ceasefire and ending hostilities.
The US presented a UN Security Council resolution later on Sunday that condemned Russian military action against Georgia as unacceptable, a spokesman for the US delegation to the UN told Reuters.
The first major US foreign policy crisis of the presidential campaign saw Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama join in condemnation of Russian attacks on neighboring Georgia, with McCain warning the Kremlin of long-term consequences and Obama calling for immediate mediation.
Russia, nevertheless, expanded its bombing campaign Sunday against US-allied Georgia, targeting the country's capital for the first time even though Georgia said it had pulled out of South Ossetia, as Moscow has demanded.
Earlier Saturday, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Edmond Mulet told the UN Security Council that the Abkhaz authorities had asked him to withdraw UN military observers, known as UNOMIG, from the Upper Kodori Valley in Abkhazia but had declined to give him a reason.
Growing concerns over the conflict have threatened to spill over Georgia's borders, with Ukraine saying it might ban Russia's fleet from Crimea bases after it mobilized off the coast of Abkhazia, another breakaway region. Georgia said overnight, Russia had landed 4,000 troops by sea in Abkhazia.
Abkhaz leader Sergei Bagapsh said he had sent 1,000 troops to the disputed Kodori Gorge and mobilized reservists. "We are ready to act independently," he told reporters. "We are ready to enforce order and go further if there is resistance from the Georgian side." In a statement, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he was profoundly concerned over mounting tensions in Abkhazia.
"Russia's actions in South Ossetia are totally legitimate," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said, visiting an adjacent region of Russia to which thousands of refugees have fled. Putin said Georgia's bid to join the Western alliance NATO -- anathema to Moscow -- was part of the problem.
Underlining his paramount role in the Russian leadership, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cut short his visit to the Beijing Olympics and flew on Saturday to a field hospital in North Ossetia, visiting wounded troops and evacuees, and denouncing what he termed Georgia's crimes against its own people. Russian television later showed Putin briefing President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin on the trip. Medvedev, who has taken a back seat in the handling of the crisis, said little and looked uncomfortable as Putin expounded at length on the situation, detailing what needed to be done.
The United Nations, which has international monitors in the area, had warned of a possible second front opening in the Georgia-Russia conflict, with Russia already pushing Georgian forces from breakaway South Ossetia. Georgia has police stationed in the gorge, protecting a parallel pro-Tbilisi Abkhazian government. Like South Ossetia, Abkhazia broke away for Georgian control in the early 1990s.
The conflict in the heart of the Caucasus has raised alarm in the West, which is vying for influence with Russia over crucial oil and gas supply routes in the region. Russia is rankled by Georgia's pro-Western policies and its drive for NATO membership.
Russia bombed a military airfield outside the Georgian capital early on Sunday and Russian warships had arrived at Georgia's Black Sea coast, the RIA news agency quoted a Russian navy source as saying. Interfax agency said the naval force would stop weapons landing by sea. But RIA-Novosti news agency quoted a defense source as saying Russia had no plans to mount a blockade. "A naval blockade means war with Georgia," the source told RIA. "We are not at war with Georgia." Russia's Nagovitsyn also denied Russian forces had hit any civilian targets during air raids and said they had only struck military units.
Russian warships earlier said to be near Georgian waters on Sunday put into Novorossiisk, a Russian Black Sea port to the north, the Russian navy said. "I hereby confirm that the Moskva and the Smetlivy have come into the port of Novorossiisk," Igor Dygalo, navy spokesman and aide to the naval commander, said by telephone. News agencies had earlier quoted naval sources as saying that the Moskva, flagship for Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and the Smetlivy were in waters by Russia's border with Georgia.
Analysts say Russia is trying to assert its authority in the former Soviet Union territories, where it claims many people have greater allegiance to Moscow than to Western-leaning Tbilisi, a US ally vying for NATO membership.
Russia on Sunday accused Western countries and media of a biased pro-Georgian position in the conflict in South Ossetia and said this might hamper future relations with Moscow. "Western countries behaved strangely in the first hours of aggression towards South Ossetia; they were silent," Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told a news conference. "This raises very serious questions about sincerity and their attitude towards our country and will of course be taken into account in the future when we hold talks and talk about global issues," Karasin said. Karasin stated that the US criticism irked Moscow. "Our position is of course negative. It will of course be expressed when our minister [Sergei Lavrov] speaks on the phone with Secretary (of State Condoleezza) Rice," he said. Karasin also accused foreign media of an anti-Russian bias.
On another development, European Union foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday in Brussels to discuss the situation in South Ossetia, a spokesman for the French EU presidency said on Sunday. Georgia called for a ceasefire on Saturday after Russian bombers widened an offensive to force back Georgian troops seeking control over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
France urged Russia on Saturday to accept the ceasefire offer and has proposed a three-point plan to end the fighting, including a withdrawal of forces to their previous positions. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the "EU could send a stabilization mission on condition that the actors of that drama cool down their emotions and stop escalating the conflict." "It seems the EU would be a less abrasive partner and peace-keeping force than, for instance, NATO and a more effective one than the UN," Sikorski was quoted as saying by Poland's PAP news agency in Warsaw. Sikorski said he had had signals from France and the German foreign ministry that the EU would be ready to play a stabilizing role in the region.
11 August 2008, Monday
TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES ISTANBUL | | | | 43 Views | 0 Thumbs Up | 0 Comments | |
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