Caucasus in crisis: Georgia invades rebel region
The Caucasus have descended into crisis after Georgian troops launched a full-scale military assault against Moscow-backed rebels in an attempt to wrest control of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
By Adrian Blomfield in Moscow
Last Updated: 11:38AM BST 08 Aug 2008
Georgian troops move towards the South Ossetian border
Photo: GETTY/AFP
Georgian military commanders confirmed an invasion began in the early hours of Friday morning, raising fears of a serious diplomatic crisis between the country’s western allies and Moscow.
The United States swiftly called for calm, but appeared to apportion more blame on Moscow and the separatist forces it supports for taking the volatile region to the brink of war.
“We’re urging Moscow to press South Ossetia’s de facto leaders to stop firing,” a US State department official said. “We’re urging Tbilisi to maintain restraint.”
Just hours after Mikheil Saaskashvili, Georgia’s pro-western president, declared a unilateral ceasefire, his armed forces began an artillery barrage against Tskhinvali, the rebel capital.
Military commanders indicated that a full-scale invasion was underway and would not stop until Georgia had regain control of the self-proclaimed republic, which attempted to secede in a bloody war that ended, unresolved in 1994.
“Despite our call for peace and a unilateral ceasefire, separatists continued the shelling of Georgian villages,” Mamuka Kurashvili, a senior Georgian commander, said. “We are forced to restore constitutional order in the whole region.” A rapid deterioration in the separatist crisis began over the weekend when at least six people were killed in a shoot-out after an improvised explosive device detonated as a Georgian military convoy drove past.
But tensions had been mounting in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another rebel province, ever since Nato promised Georgia that it would one day be allowed to join the alliance. Incensed by the idea of Nato expanding within the former Soviet Union, Russia stepped up its support for both regions.
The United States condemned Russia’s interference in the region as provocative, while the European Union has repeated its commitment to the inviolability of Georgia’s territorial integrity.
Relations between Russia and Georgia have been sour ever since Mr Saakashvili was swept to power in 2003 after the Rose Revolution and pursued a determined policy to break free from Moscow’s influence.
Fighting worsened yesterday morning when shelling was reported in South Ossetia’s ramshackle capital of Tskhinvali, while artillery rounds were fired between loyalist and pro-rebel villages in the province. The rebels succeeded in destroying at least one Georgian armoured personnel carrier.
At least one Georgian soldier was killed and four wounded in what Tbilisi described as “large-scale battles”. Two rebels were also said to have been killed.
“The fighting is more serious than we’ve seen for some time,” one senior diplomat said. “How serious it’s going to get is unclear. While there are hundreds of breaches of the ceasefire every year, what’s happened over the past few days is of a completely different order.
“The big question is what the Russians are doing.” Georgia repeated accusations yesterday that Russia was continuing to arm and finance the rebels. “The military assistance rendered to the separatists’ criminal regime by the Russian Federation, in violation of all agreements, cannot be assessed in any other way than as another act of aggression against Georgia,” the Georgian foreign ministry said.
Russia, however, blamed Georgia for the escalation in violence and accused Tbilisi of building up troops along the South Ossetian boundary line.
“We urge the Georgian leadership to show common sense and stop irresponsible military activities in South Ossetia,” Grigory Krasin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said. “We view the situation as extremely dangerous. It has indeed reached a stage of unprecedented drama.”
