Peace Plan Signed, But Russian Forces Appear to Advance

As Russian forces reportedly made steady advances within Georgia, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed a six-point plan for a lasting peace agreement with Russia. How long the agreement will last remains a weak point, however.

Charging that Russia had earlier reneged on a verbal agreement to withdraw its forces from Georgia, Rice presented the signed document as a tool Moscow must respect. "I have to assume that the president of Russia, having given not just his word but his signature to the president of the E.U. [French President Nicolas Sarkozy], will honor it," she said.

She slammed Russia for using the Soviet power tactics of the past to assert its dominance in the region. "This is no longer 1968 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia, when a great power invaded a small neighbor and overthrew its government," Rice said. "The free world will now have to wrestle with the profound implications of this Russian attack on its neighbor for security in the region and beyond."

The August 8 Russian attack on Georgia, she added, "will have profound implications for Russia's relations with its neighbors and with the world."

Speaking in Washington, DC, US President George W. Bush had already set the tone for that message with a verbal broadside that cast Russia as not among the world's "responsible nations."

"Bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st century," he said, adding that "[t]he people of Georgia have cast their lot with the free world and we will not cast them aside."

If Russia wants to rebuild its ties with the US, European Union and other countries, Bush continued, "Russia must respect the freedom of its neighbors."

But Moscow appears to interpret its mission differently. At an August 15 meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev stated that Russia will intervene as needed to protect its peacekeepers and Russian passport-holders.

"If our peacekeeping troops and our citizens are attacked, we will respond in the future in the same way that we have responded. Let there be no doubt about this," wire agencies quoted the Russian leader as saying.

Medvedev, generally cast as more liberal in his governing style than his predecessors, noted, however, that Moscow was not eager to see its relations with the outside world frozen.

While underlining that the Kremlin did not oppose international peacekeepers, Medvedev contended that "The problem is the Ossetians and the Abkhaz believe only Russian peacekeepers, and nobody else. The past 15 years have shown more than once that the sole forces capable of protecting . . . interests, and quite often lives, are Russian troops," ITAR-TASS cited Medevedev as saying.

Tbilisi and Washington, however, would argue that Russia's war record to date belies that argument. Both US Secretary of State Rice and Saakashvili maintain that Moscow was the first party to violate the terms of the proposed peace agreement, within hours of approving them.

As the tug-of-war continues, Russian forces on August 15 continued consolidating their territory within Georgia. The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported the presence of tanks again in Poti and, at the same time, movement of a column of 14 armored vehicles and four personnel trucks from Senaki further eastward via the village of Abashi, about 10 kilometers from the country's central railway-highway junction. The information could not be independently verified.

The government claims that some 17 Senaki residents were killed by Russian forces –some locals confirm the event, but give lower numbers.

Such a movement would have placed Russian troops within range of Kutaisi, Georgia's second-largest city; President Saakashvili had earlier reported tanks moving towards the city. Gori, a city occupied by Russian troops since August 11, lies roughly 80 kilometers to the southeast.

For Georgian officials, the reported movement – as yet, unconfirmed by Russian military officials – has underlined the need to uphold the concept of Georgia's territorial integrity, a concept twinned with the need to bring in international peacekeepers to both South Ossetia and breakaway Abkhazia.

Rice echoed that call, saying that a "more robust and impartial peacekeeping international force" should be stationed in the conflict zone. International monitors to check that agreement terms are observed are needed immediately in the area, she added, saying that she counted on "Russian cooperation in" allowing such observers into South Ossetia. "Finnish Foreign Minister [Alexander] Stubb, who is chairman in office of the OSCE, has told us that the monitors could come to Georgia in a matter of days," she said.

Moscow, passing the buck to its two protectorates, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, is unlikely to embrace such a proposition. "We are, of course, not against international peacekeepers... but the problem is that the Abkhazians and the Ossetians do not trust anyone except for Russian peacekeepers," President Medevedev said on August 15.

(While South Ossetia has remained more of an isolationist region, breakaway Abkhazia has persisted in its attempts to broaden contacts with the European Union.)

Meanwhile, accusations that Russian peacekeepers or regular soldiers used disproportionate force against civilians continue to increase.

In Gori, not far from Tbilisi, Georgian police forces moved to take back control of the town from Russian police in an organized handover, but the outcome is so far unclear.

Taxi driver Temur Andriadze, who traveled to Gori with a group of journalists yesterday, told EurasiaNet that the city was all but deserted of its population. "Streets were empty and silent," Andriadze said. "Near one house, people came out when we were passing by. They were scared, said they were hiding in their cellars trying to stay low. They said there were lootings and burglaries going on."

Reports have circulated that Russian forces are attempting to discipline marauders, usually reported as Ossetian militia members, and get them under control, but few individuals will willingly return to the city's vicinity as yet. South Ossetia remains a no-go zone, although Russian military officers maintain that their troops have withdrawn from the region.

Random shelling runs outside of the conflict zone have also been reported. The latest, at mid-afternoon on August 15, had Russian helicopters setting fires in 12-15 locations in the mountains near the mineral water spa town of Borjomi. The government claims that the Russian military has confirmed the overflight.

A recent Human Rights Watch report that cluster bombs have been used throughout the country has added to Georgian officials' growing rage. The most recent incidents, on August 12, left 11 people dead and "dozens" dead. The information could not be immediately confirmed.

Use of the weapons, the government contends, "vividly reveals the inhuman brutality of Russian troops . . . "