標題:Georgia signs cease-fire agreement
TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili signed a
cease-fire agreement on Friday, which the U.S. said means Russian troops must
begin withdrawing.
The office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who brokered the agreement,
said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also had confirmed Russia's
cooperation.
"His country will sign a cease-fire accord with Georgia and scrupulously
respect all agreements, including a troop withdrawal," Sarkozy's office said.
Fighting that started last week has died down in the region, but Russian
forces remain. The warfare raged for several days until Sarkozy's diplomatic
efforts helped lessen the violence. Sarkozy undertook the role because he
holds the rotating presidency of the European Union.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the priority now was "all
Russian troops and irregulars that entered Georgia with them must leave
immediately."
Rice said international observers followed by neutral peacekeepers should be
dispatched quickly to Georgia and its separatist regions of South Ossetia and
Abkhazia, where Russia has a peacekeeping mission.
Saakashvili warned at a news conference with Rice that "this is not a done
deal yet" unless it included ways of stopping a repeat.
"We are under Russian occupation," he said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that President Dmitry Medvedev has
agreed to sign the document but added that it was not clear whether it has
been amended since Russia made the commitment to sign.
The conflict began late last week, when Georgia launched a military
incursion into South Ossetia in an effort to rout separatist rebels.
Russia -- which supports the separatists, many of whom claim Russian
citizenship -- has peacekeeping responsibilities for the region and responded
by sending tanks into the province for what it said was peace enforcement.
From there the violence spread into Georgia and Abkhazia.
Under the cease-fire, about 1,500 Russian peacekeepers are allowed to remain
inside, and can do patrols about 6 kilometers outside, the "zone of
conflict," a reference to South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
They are not permitted to patrol in Gori and other Georgian cities and cannot
hamper aid distribution or control ports, highways or railroads, the
officials said. The limited exception for the Russian peacekeepers is allowed
only until a more robust international peacekeeping force can be deployed.
Analysts see the conflict in Georgia, which is seeking NATO and EU
membership, as having wider international implications as Russia seeks to
reduce Western influence on its doorstep.
President Bush earlier chided Russia for Cold War-style behavior in its
territorial conflict with Georgia, accusing it of "bullying and intimidation"
as international pressure grew on Moscow to withdraw its troops from the
region.
Medvedev remained defiant over Moscow's actions, saying Russia had brought
peace to the region.
Russian troops remained in control of two key Georgian cities despite pledges
of a withdrawal. The Russians occupied the cities of Gori and Poti after
conflict flared over the breakaway province of South Ossetia.
Reports emerged Friday of widespread looting in the decimated city of Gori
and witnesses said they heard small-arms fire in South Ossetia, one of the
two disputed territories at the center of the conflict.
But Russia's military spokesman said Friday that "there's absolutely no
firing" under way in Georgia and that his government is concentrating on
getting humanitarian aid to residents there.
Bush said the United States stands "with the people of Georgia and their
democratically elected government."
Medvedev said Russia will "guarantee" peace in the Caucasus region but made
no commitment to remove Russian forces from Georgia or its breakaway
territories.
"Peace needs to re-established in the region and guaranteed and underpinned
so that no one again will get idiotic ideas, and this I see as the main task
of the Russian Federation," Medvedev said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in a news conference with Medvedev, called
for the withdrawal of Russian troops from central Georgia, where they remain
in control of large areas of the country.
International rights body Human Rights Watch on Friday accused Russia of
dropping cluster bombs -- outlawed by more than 100 nations -- on Georgia,
killing civilians. The claim was denied by Russian officials.
A senior U.S. State Department official familiar with negotiations said the
version of the one-page, six-element agreement that Rice carried to Tbilisi
closed a loophole in the hastily written preliminary peace plan that Georgia
and Russia agreed to Tuesday.
Under Rice's plan, new wording would clarify that Russian would have a "very
limited to a light patrolling ability, such as a few kilometers outside of
South Ossetia, not the right to maintain a presence inside Georgia."
It is unclear how many people have been killed in the conflict, but various
claims put the figure in the thousands.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday that it estimated that
more than 118,000 people have been displaced by the fighting, citing
statistics supplied by the Russian and Georgian governments.
About 30,000 people from South Ossetia fled to Russia, according to
officials in the Russian region of North Ossetia, and up to 15,000 people
from South Ossetia went south into Georgia proper, the Georgian government
said.
Around 73,000 people in Georgia proper are displaced, including most of the
population of Gori. A further 732 Georgians living in Abkhazia were evacuated
from the remote Khodori Valley.
CNN's Cal Perry, Diana Magnay, Frederik Pleitgen, Zain Verjee and Elise
Labott contributed to this report.
Copyright 2008 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this
report.
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/08/15/georgia.russia.war/index.html
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