Russia keeps up attacks

2008-08-11 07:25

Tbilisi - Russia kept up its attacks on Georgia in the early hours of Monday, brushing aside appeals for a ceasefire after its forces swept through the Georgian rebel region of South Ossetia.

Russian planes bombed the base of a special forces battalion and an air traffic control centre in the suburbs of the Georgian capital Tbilisi early on Monday, Interior Ministry spokesperson Shota Utiashvili said.

The explosions could be heard from the centre of the city.

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said late on Sunday Russian tanks were on Georgian territory outside South Ossetia and Utiashvili said a "massive" aerial bombardment of the central Georgian city Gori was taking place.

"Gori is being bombed massively from the air and from artillery as well," said Utiashvili, who added that Tbilisi had reports that Russian troops and tanks were preparing a ground attack.

Russian troops "are not there yet but it looks like they are getting ready for it", he said.

There was no independent or Russian confirmation, but it would be the first time Russian ground forces have moved out of South Ossetia, where the fighting between the two sides has so far been concentrated.

Russian planes have bombed targets across Georgia, including a military airport on the outskirts of the capital Tbilisi on Sunday, and Moscow said it had sunk a Georgian naval vessel.

Active confrontation

Russia said it had taken control of most of South Ossetia from Georgian forces, though the Russian foreign ministry told Interfax news agency that Georgia still had soldiers and tanks in the area.

The claim of a new offensive by Russia came after Georgia said it had ended its offensive in South Ossetia and offered a ceasefire.

"Georgia expresses its readiness to immediately start negotiations with the Russian Federation on a ceasefire and termination of hostilities," an official Georgian statement said, adding its troops in South Ossetia had ceased their attacks.

Russia disputed this, however, with the commander of the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia saying they had come under attack by Georgian forces overnight on Sunday-Monday.

"In certain zones (near Tskhinvali) Russian peacekeepers met active confrontation" overnight, Marat Kulakhmetov told the Interfax news agency.

The United States continued to keep up pressure on Russia.

US President George W Bush said on Monday he had told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin that the violence in Georgia was "unacceptable".

Grave concern

"I said this violence is unacceptable," Bush said in reference to an exchange he had with Putin while they were attending Friday night's opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

"I expressed my grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia and that we strongly condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia," he said in a live interview with US broadcaster NBC in Beijing on the final day of his visit to the Chinese capital to watch the Olympics.

Vice President Dick Cheney told Saakashvili in a telephone conversation "that Russian aggression must not go unanswered", his office said in a statement.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner arrived in Tbilisi on Sunday to spearhead mediation efforts.

"We must find the means for an immediate ceasefire, accepted by both sides. We must talk about negotiations and a political solution, there is no military solution," Kouchner told reporters after meeting with Saakashvili.

The European Union-backed plan calls for an immediate ceasefire, medical access to victims, controlled withdrawals of troops on both sides and eventual political talks.

Kouchner was set to travel to Moscow on Monday, where he hopes to meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Death toll at 2 000

European Union foreign ministers are to hold a crisis meeting to discuss the bloc's response to the conflict on Wednesday in Brussels, an EU source told AFP.

Russia sent thousands of troops, tanks and air support into South Ossetia on Friday after Georgia launched an offensive to seize control of the province, which broke from Georgia in the early 1990s.

The conflict has already forced about 40 000 people from their homes in areas around the conflict zone, an International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson told AFP.

While Russia put the death toll in South Ossetia at 2 000, estimates of the toll in Georgia ranged from 92 to 150. The general in charge of the Russian army in South Ossetia was also injured by artillery fire, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Georgian officials also claimed on Sunday that Russia was bombing areas around another breakaway region, Abkhazia, where the separatist government has declared a state of war in areas populated by Georgians.

Russia's armed forces denied plans to move into Abkhazia, in the west of Georgia, but Russian battleships had been moved to the nearby Black Sea.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev described Georgia's military operations in South Ossetia as "genocide", according to Russian news agencies.

"They were on a mass scale and were directed against individuals," they reported him as saying.

South Ossetia, a patchwork of ethnic Georgian and Ossetian settlements in the mountainous north of the country, has a population of about 70 000, many of whom have been granted Russian passports.

- AFP