Georgia alleges Russia has broken truce

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-08-14 07:35

Russian troops and paramilitary forces rolled into the strategic Georgian city of Gori Wednesday, apparently breaking an EU-brokered truce designed to end the six-day conflict.

A Russian official, however, said Russian troops checked a Georgian military base near Gori and found lots of abandoned weapons and ammunition. They moved to take the supplies to a safe place as part of the efforts to demilitarize the area.

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev (R) and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy meet in Moscow's Kremlin, August 12, 2008. [Agencies]

Georgian officials said Gori, which sits on Georgia's main east-west highway, was bombed by the Russians, but Russian officials denied the allegation.

To the west of Gori, militants in breakaway Abkhazia pushed out Georgian troops and even moved beyond their territory to plant a flag on the banks of the Inguri River and laughed at the retreating Georgians.

The developments came less than 12 hours after Georgian president said he accepted a ceasefire plan brokered by France.

On Tuesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia was halting military action because Georgia had paid enough for its Aug 7 attack on South Ossetia.

The EU peace plan's concept of having both sides retreat to their original positions was running into the stark reality on the ground, with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili saying the Western response had not been adequate.

"I feel that they are partly to blame," he said. "Not only those who commit atrocities are responsible ... but so are those who fail to react."

About 50 Russian tanks entered Gori yesterday morning, according to a top Georgian official, Alexander Lomaia.

But Russia's deputy chief of General Staff Col-Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn rubbished his claim, saying Russians went into the city to try to implement the truce with local Georgian officials but could not find any.

Sporadic clashes took place in breakaway South Ossetia where Georgian snipers fired sporadically on Russian troops who returned fire, Nogovitsyn said.

"We have to respond to provocations."

Russia has reportedly granted passports to most people in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and stationed peacekeepers in both the regions since the early 1990s. Georgia wants the Russian peacekeepers out, but Medvedev insisted on Tuesday they would stay.

Russia has accused Georgia of killing more than 2,000 people, mostly civilians, in South Ossetia. The claim couldn't be independently confirmed, but witnesses who fled the area said hundreds had died.