Georgia says tanks violate truce

http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hskkwHZDrgrBS3PkLsoIiw4dYPBQ

1 hour ago

Russian tanks rolled into the strategic Georgian city of Gori then pressed deeper into Georgia territory, smashing an EU-brokered truce designed to end the six-day conflict that has uprooted 100,000 people and scarred the Georgian landscape.

Georgian officials said Gori was looted and bombed by the Russians. An Associated Press reporter later saw dozens of tanks and military vehicles leaving Gori, roaring south.

Soldiers waved at journalists and one soldier shouted to a photographer: "Come with us, beauty, we're going to Tbilisi!"

He was jokingly referring to the Georgian capital, but Russia and their separatist allies were clearly carving out new lines of control on the map.

To the west, Abkahzian separatist forces backed by Russian military might pushed out Georgian troops and even moved into Georgian territory itself, defiantly planting a flag and laughing that retreating Georgians had received "American training in running away".

The developments came less than 12 hours after Georgia's president said he accepted a ceasefire plan brokered by France. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Russia was halting military action because Georgia had paid enough for its attack on South Ossetia.

The EU peace plan's concept of having both sides retreat to their original positions was running into the stark reality of Russian dominance on the battlefield.

About 50 Russian tanks entered Gori, according to a top Georgian official, Alexander Lomaia. The city of 50,000 sits on Georgia's only significant east-west road about 15 miles south of South Ossetia, a separatist province where much of the fighting has taken place.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93561996

President Bush on Wednesday called on Russia to live up to a cease-fire deal with Georgia, expressing concern over the continuing crisis and pledging humanitarian aid to the Western-backed former Soviet republic.

The president's remarks from the White House Rose Garden came as Georgia's President Mikhail Saakashvili said Russian forces were still burning and looting towns despite the truce. Saakashvili said the West's response to Russia's military intervention "looks like appeasement."

"There is no cease-fire," Saakashvili told CNN Wednesday a day after Russian forces shattered the Georgian army Monday after forcing it out of South Ossetia. "We have a humanitarian disaster on our hands."

There is a real good possibility that even Russia is having a hard time controlling their troops. These are troops from that area, and the people from that area may well have decided to fight their own little war. It's happened before.