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標題:Russia says attacks on Georgia will end soon
Dimitry Medvedev remains defiant over military action in South Ossetia
despite widespread condemnation
* Helen Womack in Moscow, James Meikle and agencies
* guardian.co.uk,
* Monday August 11 2008 11:41 BST
The Russian president, Dimitry Medvedev, today said military operations in
South Ossetia were nearing their conclusion, according to the Russian agency
Interfax.
However, despite sharp criticism from the US and Nato, Moscow was unrepentant
about its armed punishment of Georgia.
Tbilisi said up to 50 Russian bombers had attacked its territory overnight,
with one Russian bomb reported to have landed near the capital's civilian
airport shortly after the French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, had
landed.
Britain has condemned the Russian attacks as "deplorable" while Nato's
secretary general today joined George Bush in criticising Russia over its
"disproportionate" use of force against Georgia in the Caucasus.
A Nato spokeswoman said the Nato head, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, was "seriously
concerned" about Russia's "lack of respect for the territorial integrity of
Georgia", the former Soviet republic that Nato leaders declared in April
would one day be a member of the alliance.
The statement followed Bush's comments to a US sports broadcaster in Beijing,
where he was watching the Olympics. He said he had spoken firmly to the
Russian prime minister, Vladimir Putin, who has been directing the Kremlin's
actions in Georgia.
"I was very firm with Vladimir Putin," Bush told NBC Sports. "I expressed my
grave concern about the disproportionate response of Russia. We strongly
condemn bombing outside of South Ossetia."
Russia accused Georgia of violating its own ceasefire in the breakaway
region. Moscow justified beefing-up its forces in a second separatist region,
Abkhazia, as an attempt to prevent a repeat of what it called Georgia's
"genocide" in the South Ossetian capital, Tskhinvali.
In a move that could widen the conflict, Russia said it had boosted its
forces in the Black Sea region to 9,000. Peacekeeping agreements allow it to
have only 2,500 troops there. Moscow has flown in heavy artillery for the
last two days and its Black Sea fleet is blockading the coast.
"The strengthening of the peacekeeping force is aimed at ruling out a
repetition of the situation Russian peacekeepers faced in Tskhinvali, "
Alexander Novitsky, the commander of the Russian peacekeepers, told Interfax.
"Our troops have to defend civilians and avert a humanitarian catastrophe."
Russia says 2,000 civilians were killed and thousands made homeless when
Georgia attacked South Ossetia last week in an attempt to bring separatists
to heel. Witness accounts suggest the death toll was very high.
Abkhazian fighters were blocking Georgian troops in the Kodori Valley, the
last part of Abkhazia still controlled by Tbilisi. Russian peacekeepers
issued an ultimatum to Georgia to lay down its arms in the Zugdidi district
bordering Abkhazia, but the Georgians refused, according to Interfax.
The French and Finnish foreign ministers, who visited Tbilisi last night,
were due in Moscow today hoping to persuade Russia that its retaliation
against Georgia had gone far enough.
In a phone call to the Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili, the US
vice-president, Dick Cheney, said Russian aggression must not go unanswered
and that there would be serious consequences for its relations with the west
if Moscow persisted.
Cheney did not spell out what sanctions might follow, but threatening Russia
with expulsion from the G8 - something the Republican presidential candidate,
John McCain, has advocated in the past - might be considered.
新聞來源: (需有正確連結)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/aug/11/georgia.russia8
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