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Georgian Forces Battle Separatists in Ossetia
By Mark MacKinnon
Globe and Mail
August 13, 2004The prospect of war loomed large over the former Soviet republic of Georgia yesterday, as a tenuous ceasefire in the breakaway region of South Ossetia evaporated into an exchange of artillery fire between government troops and pro-Russian rebels. Three Georgian soldiers were reportedly killed early yesterday morning during the fighting in the Caucasus mountain region. There were conflicting reports of how many people were wounded on the South Ossetian side, and Russian television showed pictures of a damaged hospital in the province's capital, Tskhinvali, that was reportedly hit with a mortar shell.
"This morning, I could not leave my house because bullets were piping all over the town. A real war has started," Irina Gagloyeva, a spokeswoman for the South Ossetian government, told the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. While there have been several exchanges of fire in recent days, the deaths were the first announced by either side.
Both sides contended that the other fired on their position first, and there were reports in the Georgian news media that Russian peacekeepers had aided the South Ossetian side during the firefight. "It's obvious that the South Ossetian leadership and some other forces are trying to involve us in a military conflict," said Nino Burdzhanadze, speaker of Georgia's parliament. Tbilisi has long accused Moscow of backing the separatist region as a way of maintaining influence over its former colony.
Tensions have been high since last fall's so-called "Rose Revolution" in Georgia brought nationalist Mikhail Saakashvili to power. Mr. Saakashvili has promised to bring South Ossetia and a second breakaway province, Abkhazia, back under central government control. Both have had de facto independence from Tbilisi since the 1990s, although lack of international recognition has made their economies reliant on smuggling. "We must not allow for ethnic cleansing of the Georgian population or a humanitarian catastrophe," Mr. Saakashvili told reporters as he entered a meeting of the Georgian security council in Tbilisi.
But Eduard Kokoity, the self-styled Ossetian president, appeared on a Russian television network and vowed to continue the fight to break from Georgia. "We are prepared to fight to the end to defend our independence," he said. Many South Ossetians feel little ties them to Georgia and would prefer instead to unite with North Ossetia, an autonomous republic within Russia. A majority of South Ossetians have Russian passports, a factor that some fear could drag Moscow into any conflict.
Russia's Foreign Ministry called yesterday for emergency multiparty talks to calm the situation. "The situation is escalating with every hour and could go out of control any moment" with potentially "catastrophic" consequences, deputy foreign minister Valery Loshchinin said in a statement.
Tensions are also escalating in Abkhazia, after Mr. Saakashvili warned Russian tourists this week to stay away from the area's popular Black Sea resorts, which he said are "soaked in Georgian blood." He warned that tourist boats could potentially be fired on, prompting Russia's ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky to head there on vacation.
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