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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Georgian President: Russian barbarians plotted invasion, occupation for months |
| 2008-08-16 |
| Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said Friday he signed a cease-fire accord that orders Russian troops to withdraw from his country, calling the Russians barbarians who had been plotting for months to invade and occupy his country's sovereign soil. U.S. President George W. Bush called Russia's actions in Georgia "completely unacceptable" and said that Moscow must end the crisis. "The world has watched with alarm as Russia invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatened a democratic government elected by its people," Bush said in his weekly Saturday radio address, which the White House released on Friday. Bush said he would send Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to Brussels next week to meet with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials. Rice visited Tbilisi and France, which brokered a cease-fire this week, and was headed to Crawford, Texas, to meet with Bush at his ranch this weekend. "To begin to repair the damage to its relations with the United States, Europe and other nations, and to begin restoring its place in the world, Russia must act to end this crisis," Bush said. Georgian leader Saakashvili on Friday told a joint news conference with the U.S. Secretary of State that his country would never be reconciled to losing any of its territory to Russia. He also criticized the muted reaction by European nations to the build up. Of the cease-fire agreement, Saakashvili said it was not a done deal. "We need to do our utmost to deter such behavior in the future," he explained. He later said that Russian tanks had moved on two more towns in central Georgia, widening their "occupation." Saakashvili's claim could not be independently verified and Russian officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Saakashvili said the tanks had moved to the towns of Khashari and Borjomi southwest of South Ossetia. "We now have an increasing area of Russian occupation of our territory," Saakashvili told reporters several hours after signing the cease-fire agreement. Rice, visiting the Georgian capital Tbilisi in efforts to secure a peace deal between the warring states, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had also signed the pact - and that Russian troops must now withdraw from Georgia as outlined in the deal brokered earlier in the week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. "Georgia has been attacked. Russian forces need to leave Georgia at once," she said calling for the immediate and orderly withdrawal of Moscow's military and all paramilitary troops that went with the convoys. "The Russian pullout must take place - and take place now," she said, speaking at the pro-Western Georgian leader's side at a joint news conference outside his presidential palace in central Tbilisi. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #6 And how long did he plan his indiscriminate bombing of civilians? Signs of Ethnic Attacks in Georgia Conflict The reportÂ’s findings also seemed to indicate that early Russian accounts of casualties, which in the first days of fighting reached 2,000, were far too high. In Tskhinvali , where the heaviest fighting took place, the local hospital received 44 corpses and 273 wounded people from Aug. 6, after clashes between separatists and Georgians, to Aug. 12, the report said, citing a doctor. The report quoted the doctor as saying that the majority of the wounded were affiliated with the military, although it was not clear if he meant the Russian or Georgian armies or Ossetian fighters. As of Aug. 13, none of the wounded remained in the hospital, the report said. Many were transferred to mobile hospitals in the Russian Emergencies Ministry. Hook, line and sinker McZoid. |
| Posted by: ed 2008-08-16 19:53 |
| #5 Zoid, about a dozen years prior 2004, a major ethnic cleansing campaign was in progress. The victims, for the most part, were ethnic Georgians. The figures were not negligible--half a million displaced and thousands dead. It is not that a long time that people forget. I did not forget 1968 invasion and consequent occupation of Czechoslovkia and that is 40 years ago. Despite being now on the other side of the globe, I can recall it as if it were today. I did not blame Russians, I blamed their government, just to make it clear. Since then, I never had any reason to trust them. At all. But if, for example, I saw a dude across a field that murdered my family 12 years ago, dunno, I would be hard pressed not to act upon my darker instincts. It may be even difficult avoiding dark impulses when seeing just his cousins. I am a very peaceful guy... but it is possible that I would kill the sonsofbitches. |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-08-16 19:32 |
| #4 Huh? The civil war was fought between ethnic cleansing nationalists - "Georgia for Georgians" - and accomodationists with Russia. The Georgian victor - Shevardnadze - was the last Foreign Minister of the USSR. There was a period of productive peace until the neo-nationalists revived the agitation in 2004. Google "Gamsakhurdia" if you think the nationalists are like the Hungarian Revolutionaries of 1956. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-08-16 06:07 |
| #3 Russian video with rocket organs blazing |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-08-16 02:56 |
| #2 500,000 Georgians were ethnically cleansed from Abkhazia and S Ossetia during 1991-1992. About 30,000 Georgians were killed. But, that seems to be just peachy with you. Ossetian goons were raiding Georgian territory for months, prior to the current conflict. But, that seems to be just peachy with you. Reports form non-Russian, independent sources indicate that there were basically two targets of Georgian barrage: A) The Tskhinvali administrative center and a bridge on then northern accee to the town. There was little damage to residenhtial areas beside shattered glass. The chief of Tskhinvali hospital gave the casualty count on 8/9: 47 dead and 278 tretaed for various ninjuries. He did not state what portion was civilian and what military/paramilitary. You are full of shit. |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2008-08-16 02:47 |
| #1 And how long did he plan his indiscriminate bombing of civilians? He expected them to flee the country and enable completion of his "Georgia for Georgians" policy. That is ethnic cleansing. |
| Posted by: McZoid 2008-08-16 01:32 |