Russia urges Georgia to sign ceasefire deal with rebel regions

Russia urges Georgia to sign ceasefire deal with rebel regions
15:21 | 04/ 07/ 2008
  


MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is concerned over the escalation of
violence in South Ossetia and is urging the international community to
press Georgia to sign a ceasefire deal with its breakaway regions,
Russia's foreign minister said on Friday.

According to confirmed reports, an alleged Georgian attack on South
Ossetia's capital of Tskhinvali left one dead and three injured late last
night, Igor Alborov, a deputy defense and emergencies minister in
Georgia's breakaway republic said.

"We...want the international community to take urgent steps in both
conflicts with South-Ossetia and Abkhazia to persuade Tbilisi to sign a
ceasefire agreement," Sergei Lavrov told the press.

Reports early on Friday said three people had died and another 11 were
injured in an attack on Tskhinvali, South Ossetia's capital, and the
villages of Ubiat and Dmenis on Thursday night.

"According to confirmed reports, a South Ossetian was killed in a mortar
attack on the village of Ubiat," Alborov said adding that a security
officer and two civilians were injured.

Vladimir Ivanov, an aide to the commander of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces
in the conflict zone, said seven unidentified planes were observed above
Tskhinvali during the attack.

South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity, who threatened earlier in the day
to use military hardware if the incident repeats, also urged Georgia and
its president Mikheil Saakashvili to prevent a new conflict in the area.

"We are doing everything to maintain stability in the region, not to take
it to a tragic point, when it will be hard to change anything... We do not
want this war, and we are repeatedly requesting that Georgia withdraw all
these units deployed illegally in the republic of South Ossetia," Kokoity
told the Vesti-24 television channel.

He described Saakashvili's policy as "short-sighted" and warned that the
consequences of a potential war would be appalling mostly for Georgia
itself.

The Russian foreign minister also expressed bewilderment that
"reconciliatory, constructive signals" from Abkhazia were accompanied by
an escalation of tension in South Ossetia.

South Ossetia declared its independence from Georgia following the
collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. A bloody conflict that followed
killed hundreds of people. The pro-Western Georgian leadership has said it
is determined to bring the breakaway region, along with the rebel region
of Abkhazia, back under central control.

A joint commission co-chaired by officials from Russia, Georgia, and North
and South Ossetias has been involved in conflict resolution negotiations.
However, Tbilisi has indicated that it doubts results can be achieved in
the current format.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have been strained since Russia
stepped up support for the breakaway Georgian republics in April.
Saakashvili's pro-Western government has said it is determined to bring
the rebel regions back under its control, while Moscow says Tbilisi's
policies could lead to new bloodshed.






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