EASTERN EUROPEANS VOW DEFIANCE AS RUSSIA ENDS ONSLAUGHT
By Tom Lasseter and Steven Thomma
McClatchy Washington Bureau
August 12, 2008
TBILISI, Georgia — Russia declared a ceasefire in Georgia on Tuesday
after a five-day war that left Georgia’s military in tatters and Russia
seemingly on the verge of reasserting old Soviet-style authority over
its neighbors.
But Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and the heads of state of
five other nations that had once been dominated by the Soviet Union
vowed never to concede the independence they’ve enjoyed since 1991,
when the Soviet Union was dissolved.
"The entire world is with us," Saakashvili told a crowd of thousands
that thronged downtown Tbilisi in a late night rally.
On the podium with him were the leaders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland and Ukraine.
"We know that if other peoples’ freedom is threatened … then it’s
not long before our freedom is threatened," Estonian President Toomas
Hendrik said.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski told the roaring crowd that Russia
can’t return to the days when the Soviet Union could have its way
militarily with smaller countries on its borders.
"That time has ended forever," Kaczynski said. "We are here to say
that we are not afraid."
The rally was an emotional outpouring after five days in which Russia
asserted its military might in ways not seen outside its borders
in nearly 30 years. Russian forces pummeled Georgia from the air,
the sea and on land in a multi-pronged assault that on Monday seemed
likely to end in the capture of Tbilisi and the overthrow of its
U.S.-allied government.
The United States and the European Union seemed powerless to stop
the onslaught, though both roundly denounced it. President Bush on
Monday called the Russian action "unacceptable."
Then on Tuesday, Russian President Dimitry Medvedev announced that
the campaign was ending.
"I have taken the decision to end the operation to force Georgian
authorities into peace," he said in a statement.
"The purpose of the operation has been achieved. . . . The aggressor
has been punished and has suffered very considerable losses," he said.
He threatened more punishing military strikes, however. "If there
are any emerging hotbeds of resistance or any aggressive actions,
you should take steps to destroy them," he told Russian leadership.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia wouldn’t
attempt to oust Saakashvili’s pro-Western government. But he suggested
the Georgian president should go.
"I don’t think Russia will feel like talking with Mr. Saakashvili
after what he did to our citizens," Lavrov said. "The best thing
would be for him to resign."
A Russian military leader said the order to stop attacking didn’t
automatically mean that his forces had been withdrawn.
"If we have received the order to cease fire, this does not mean that
we have stopped all actions, including reconnaissance," said Anatoly
Nogovitsyn, the deputy head of the Russian General Staff.
That threat of renewed violence led the United States to recommend
that American citizens leave Georgia. Many were reported to be ready
to evacuate overland to Armenia as early as Wednesday.
Russian planes again struck the town of Gori, which sits between the
Georgian region of South Ossetia and Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, and
helicopters launched missiles at surrounding villages. Smoke could be
seen climbing from the area, where helicopters were swooping around a
ridgeline and, in red flashes, sending down a rain of missile strikes.
Georgian troops had completely evacuated the route from Gori to
Tbilisi overnight, abandoning artillery and troop transports on the
side of the road.
On Tuesday, trucks and vans crammed with families sped down the road
from Gori to Tbilisi in a rush to escape bloodshed. There were sacks
filled with clothes strapped to the rooftops, suitcases jumbled in
truck beds, and foam mattresses crammed on top of cooking pans.
In Tbilisi, Georgians were glad to hear that the fighting was mostly
over, after days of panic that the Russians would take the capital. But
they voiced deep resentments about the war.
"It’s like the old Soviet days. They were making an example of us for
Ukraine and others to see," said Dato Gorgodze, who was walking back
from a rally downtown. "They wanted to demoralize the people."
In Moscow, French President Nicolas Sarkozy — the head of the European
Union — met with Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev to
propose a peace agreement. Sarkozy said that while the deal wasn’t
perfect, "what we need is to get out of a crisis. . . . I just want
to push people to dialogue."
The proposal reportedly calls for a cease-fire, free access to
humanitarian aid, withdrawal of Georgian and Russian forces to their
original positions, and discussions about the future of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia, two breakaway Georgian provinces whose status are at
the root of the Russia-Gerogia conflict.
At a news conference, Medvedev said that the South Ossetians and
Abkhazians should be asked whether they wanted to remain part of
Georgia, a thinly veiled push for their independence.
Russian tanks and infantry poured into Georgia last week after
Georgian forces attempted to seize the capital of pro-Russian South
Ossetia. Russian air power established dominion over Georgia’s skies,
and Georgian forces were quickly forced out of South Ossetia.
By Tuesday, Russia controlled both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another
pro-Russian province, and had seized Georgia’s principal Black Sea
port and the outskirts of the strategic Georgian town of Gori.
The Russian military said the capital of the South Ossetia region
was destroyed and blamed the Georgians.
"Tskhinvali doesn’t exist. It’s like Stalingrad was after the war,"
Nogovitsyn said. "Schools, hospital, houses, all infrastructure is
ruined. There’s no water, no electricity. We will rebuild it."
There was no independent confirmation of the scope of the destruction
or whether it was caused by the initial Georgian strikes last week
or the fighting since then. Because of the level of violence, and
shut roads, it was not possible for journalists to travel to the
town independently.
An official Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, quoted Tskhinvali Mayor
Robert Guliyev as saying that more than two-thirds of the buildings
in the town had been damaged or destroyed.
Half of the city’s 30,000 residents have fled the violence, he said.
What few accounts had surfaced were horrific. Moscow Times quoted one
Russian military peacekeeper, Pyotor Bezhov, as saying he saw a tank
blow up a car with a family inside.
"There was a mother, father and their two children," the paper quoted
Bezhov as saying. "They were all dead. A tank just shot them."
In Gori, the devastation was also massive. Scores of people had been
killed in days of bombings, many of them in the last hours of war on
Tuesday, after Georgian military forces had vanished from the town.
"They are punishing us," said Nikoloz Kvachatze, a doctor at a main
hospital in Tbilisi where many of Gori’s wounded were taken for
treatment. "They are punishing us for trying to be independent."
(Lasseter reported from Tbilisi, Thomma from Washington. James Rosen
contributed to this report from Washington.)