The Press Association
Sept 5 2008
US warship delivers aid to Georgia
The flagship of the US Navy’s Mediterranean fleet has anchored outside
a key Georgian port, defiantly bringing in tons of humanitarian aid to
a city still partly occupied by hundreds of Russian troops.
The USS Mount Whitney was the first Navy ship to travel to Poti since
Georgia’s five-day war with Russia last month. The continued presence
of Russian troops here has been a major point of friction between
Russia and the West, which insists Russia has failed to honor a deal
to pull back to positions held before fighting broke out on August 7.
The in-your-face anchorage at Poti came as US Vice President Dick
Cheney visited nearby Ukraine, another former Soviet republic that
feels threatened by Moscow’s military aggression.
Cheney pledged in Kiev, the capital, that the United States was
committed to Ukraine’s security and freedom and said Ukrainians should
not be forced to live under Russia’s "threat of tyranny, economic
blackmail and military invasion".
In a diplomatic counterpunch, Russia received support on Friday from
six other former Soviet republics who issued a joint statement
condemning Georgia for using force to try to retake control of its
separatist province of South Ossetia.
The declaration by members of the Collective Security Treaty
Organisation – which groups Russia with Armenia, Belarus and four
Central Asian nations; Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and
Uzbekistan – also praised Russia for "helping peace and security" in
the region. However, the nations did not go as far as Russia and
recognise Georgia’s two separatist areas – South Ossetia and Abkhazia
– as independent nations.
The Kremlin has watched the arrival of the USS Mount Whitney and other
US warships carrying aid with deep suspicion, but a Russian Foreign
Ministry official said no military action was planned in response to
the US naval presence in the Black Sea.
The Mount Whitney will unload aid at Poti’s commercial port Saturday,
right next door to Poti’s badly damaged naval base.
During the war, Russian forces bombed Poti, which has a large oil
shipment facility, attacked the port and sank eight Georgian naval
vessels in the harbour.
Signs of destruction were all around. The missile boat Dioskuria – the
flagship for Georgia’s small navy – stood with its hull under water,
its badly damaged communications masts protruding from the water. The
windows of Georgia’s naval headquarters were shattered, the buildings
pockmarked by large calibre ammunition.