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Alexander Stubb doesn't think fighting will stop any time soon
"We can always hope, but a ceasefire looks at the moment, at least
in the short term, very unlikely," Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb
of Finland, the current chairman of the 56-nation Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), told Finnish daily
Aamulehti
.
The OSCE monitors security in the region and has a mandate to
promote talks between the parties to the conflict.
According to news reports, Georgian and Russian forces were
meanwhile engaged in "fierce fighting" in South Ossetia on
Saturday, Aug.
9.
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"Fierce fighting with Russian aggressors is ongoing," Alexander
Lomaya, the head of Georgia's National Security Council told AFP
news service.
Russian foreign minister: 1,500 dead
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday that his country's
peacekeeping forces in Georgia were carrying out a "peace
enforcement operation" to protect civilians in South Ossetia.
"Our peacekeepeers and reinforcement units are currently running an
operation to force the Georgian side to (agree to) peace," Russian
news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying at a meeting with Defense
Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. "They are also responsible for
protecting the population. That's what we are doing now."
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Lavrov says 1,500 people have died so far
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov meanwhile said Saturday
that some 1,500 people have been killed so far. Lavrov said in a
conference call to foreign journalists that the death toll is
continuing to rise, according to Reuters news service.
Georgian television showed images of hundreds of rockets and heavy
artillery shells crashing into the South Ossetian capital
Tskhinvali. Shelling reduced entire city blocks to rubble,
according to eyewitnesses. Counts of civilian casualties varied
widely, with Georgia estimating between one and two dozen killed,
and some 100 injured as of Friday evening.
Eyewitnesses said many victims lost their lives when caught out in
the open by artillery fire as they attempted to flee. Georgian
television showed images of corpses sprawled along sidewalks and
streets, in some cases still holding luggage.
Who is in control?
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According to Russian sources, some 30,000 people have fled South
Ossetia
Control of Tskhinvali appeared disputed on Saturday, with Georgian
officials asserting total control of the city, and Russian
officials claiming that they had taken the city.
Refugees were leaving the region and heading north towards the
Russian border throughout the night, at times under Georgian
artillery fire.
Georgian forces late on Friday ceased fire for some three hours to
allow civilians to leave, but according to Russian observers
Georgian shelling interdicted roads leading north throughout the
night.
Georgia
pulls troops from Iraq
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Georgian has also mobilized its reserves
Georgia will reportedly withdraw its entire Iraqi contingent of
2,000 soldiers and bring them home as soon as possible as the
country is engaged in fierce fighting with Russia over breakaway
province South Ossetia.
The commander of the Georgian contingent in Iraq said that the full
brigade would go home as soon as possible.
"We are waiting for the US side. They are providing us with
transportation," Colonel Bondo Maisuradze told Reuters news
service.
(Deutsche Welle)
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