25 August 2008
Russia Still Violating Cease-fire in Georgia, Says White House
Moscow must move back to pre-conflict boundaries, U.S. officials say
Washington -- Russia has reduced its troop presence in Georgia, but still is violating a cease-fire deal brokered by the European Union following Moscow’s strike on the South Caucasus democracy, says White House spokesman Tony Fratto.
“We still see large numbers of Russian troops in undisputed territory,” Fratto told reporters August 25 from President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. “We still see them maintaining checkpoints. We still see the activity in Poti. So there’s no question that Russia remains in violation of that agreement.”
Russia withdrew the bulk of its forces August 22, following a two-week incursion into its southern neighbor in a dispute over the Moscow-backed separatist region of South Ossetia, but several hundred Russian troops remain in Georgia’s Black Sea port of Poti, as well as in “peacekeeping” checkpoints outside the conflict zone.
“There continues to be a large presence of Russian forces in Georgia,” Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters in Washington earlier in the day. “It's fair to say that they are still not living up to the terms of the cease-fire agreement.”
Russia claims its actions are justified in what it calls its “security zones,” but French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who holds the European Union’s rotating presidency and brokered the cease-fire, has criticized Moscow’s actions and has called a special meeting of EU leaders September 1 to discuss aid to Georgia and future relations with Russia.
Russia must honor its commitment to fully withdraw its forces to pre-conflict boundaries as pledged, Fratto said. Meanwhile, the United States is working to deploy 100 monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as a key confidence-building measure to set the stage for a peace process.
Fratto announced that Vice President Dick Cheney will be traveling in the region, visiting neighboring Azerbaijan for talks with President Ilham Aliyev, followed by meetings in Georgia with President Mikheil Saakashvili, in Ukraine with President Viktor Yushchenko and in Italy with President Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
“The president felt it was important to have the vice president consult with allies in the region on our common security interests,” Fratto said.
U.S. NAVY DELIVERS AID TO GEORGIA
The USS McFaul arrived August 25 at Georgia’s Black Sea port of Batumi loaded with blankets, bottled water and baby food for thousands of Georgian families displaced following the Russian attack.
The U.S. Coast Guard cutter Dallas is en route to Georgia with additional aid, while the USS Mount Whitney, flagship of the Navy’s Sixth Fleet, is being loaded with tons of relief aid in the port of Gaeta, Italy, and will be dispatched shortly, say officials. (See “United States Delivering Help and Hope to Georgia.”)
The Pentagon has delivered nearly 800 tons of humanitarian aid valued at more than $18.3 million since President Bush ordered the military to lead the U.S. relief effort, Whitman said.
Meanwhile, Fratto said, Undersecretary of State for Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Reuben Jeffery is leading a delegation of high-level representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Department of Commerce, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the Treasury Department to help Georgian officials assess damages and plan reconstruction and aid efforts.
RUSSIA MOVES TO RECOGNIZE BREAKAWAY REGIONS
Earlier in the day, Russia’s parliament unanimously called on President Dmitry Medvedev to recognize South Ossetia’s independence, as well as Moscow-backed separatists in Georgia’s Abkhazia region. While both regions have operated separately from Georgia since breaking away in the early 1990s, the United Nations and every country in the world -- including Russia -- have officially recognized them as parts of Georgian territory.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed “great concern” about the Russian parliament's resolution, but predicted that Medvedev “will not sign off” on the proposal, which she said would be a further violation of the EU-brokered August 16 cease-fire.
