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Russia rejects UN's ceasefire terms as Miliband offers 'solidarity' to Georgia
Last updated at 12:41pm on 20.08.08
The Georgia crisis deepened today as Russia rejected a draft United Nations Security Council resolution urging its immediate military withdrawal.
Moscow said the resolution contradicted last week's ceasefire deal, which it claimed allows its troops to stay in a buffer zone on the Georgia side of South Ossetia's border.
Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said the resolution should endorse a six-point peace plan promoted by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A tank passes a Russian check-point on the road from Tbilisi to Gori
As the French-drafted text did not do this, 'the Russian Federation will not be able to support it' he said.
The draft urges the return of Georgian forces to their positions before the conflict. US deputy ambassador Alejandro Wolff said South Ossetia and the other breakaway region of Abkhazia were part of Georgia.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband was in Georgia last night as Nato suspended ties with Russia until it withdraws all its forces from the former Soviet state.
Georgian civilians confront Russian soldiers at a check-point as a Russian armoured personnel carrier passes by
Mr Miliband pledged 'solidarity' with the Georgian people as Nato warned Moscow that it ‘cannot continue with business as usual’ while Russian troops remain in Georgia.
Mr Miliband said Russia ‘violated international law’ by sending troops into Georgia after violence erupted in breakaway province South Ossetia.
The Foreign Secretary was holding talks with Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili and other senior officials to update them on Nato’s support.
He told a press conference in Tiblisi: 'It is important for the Georgian people to know Britain stands in solidarity with them.'
And Mr Saakashvili thanked Britain, saying: 'If there had not been international reaction Russian troops would remain in our capital.'
Support: David Miliband, left, with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili
It came as Russian soldiers captured Georgian servicemen and paraded them blindfolded on top of military vehicles today in a day of mixed messages from the Kremlin.
And, in a move that will further anger Washington, the invasion force also commandeered American Humvee armoured cars awaiting shipment back to the U.S. from the Black Sea port of Poti.
But, elsewhere in the war-battered country, Russia exchanged prisoners of war with Georgia and pulled back some troops from the strategic city of Gori.
Under arrest: blindfolded Georgians on a Russian personnel carrier in Poti
At an emergency summit in Brussels, ministers from the 26 Nato nations agreed to form a commission to help the war-torn state along the road to membership of the organisation and to rebuild after this month’s bloodshed.
While denying that that the Kremlin would be frozen out, Nato Secretary-General Jan de Hoop Scheffer said that meetings of the Nato-Russia Council - set up six years ago - would be suspended.
Afterwards, Mr Miliband,said he would carry a message of ‘real unity’ from Nato to the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
Under the terms of the EU-brokered truce, Russian forces must withdraw from inside Georgia to their positions before violence erupted earlier this month.
Mr Miliband said: ‘I think there was a real feeling in the Nato meeting today that Russia has failed to live up to its commitments and that has serious consequences for the trust that is placed in Russia as an international partner.’
Russia needed to realise that the world had moved ‘decisively beyond the Soviet era’, he said, and ‘force is not a basis to redraw the map’ of surrounding nations.
The Foreign Secretary added: ‘Russia wants to be a respected international player but it can only be so if it lives up to its responsibilities.
A Georgian soldier is embraced on arriving at a hosptial after being released from Russian captivity
‘That is the political drive that will ensure that Russia lives up to its commitment to withdraw its troops but also that it doesn’t make further threats to other neighbours who treasure their own independence.’
Mr Miliband said the approach to Moscow should be one of ‘hard-headed engagement’ rather than seeking to isolate Russia.
In a joint statement released following the meeting, the Nato ministers said Russian military action had been ‘disproportionate’ and ‘incompatible with the principles of peaceful conflict resolution’.
The statement called for an immediate withdrawal of Russian forces and said the alliance was ‘considering seriously the implications’ on the relationship between Nato and Moscow.
‘We have determined that we cannot continue with business as usual.
‘We call on Moscow to demonstrate - both in word and deed - its continued commitment to the principles upon which we agreed to base our relationship,’ the statement said.
Blaze: A Russian military vehicle rolls past a house set on fire by South Ossetian militia in the Georgian village of Kvemo-Achebeti
The Government was criticised for not sending a representative to Georgia earlier in the crisis.
Tory leader David Cameron visited Tbilisi last week, a high-profile trip which highlighted the fact that neither Mr Miliband nor Prime Minister Gordon Brown had travelled to Georgia.
Earlier today Mr Miliband indicated the UK would play a ‘full part’ in sending observers to monitor the ceasefire in the region.
Geiorgia has been left in full of anxiety about whether Russia was aiming for a long-term military presence there or was just trying to inflict the maximum damage before adhering to a troop withdrawal that Russia promised under an EU-brokered cease-fire.
It was in Poti - Georgia’s key oil port city - where Russia flexed its military muscle most visibly.
Russian forces blocked access to the city’s naval and commercial ports this morning and towed the Georgian missile boat Dioskuria, one of the navy’s most sophisticated vessels, out of sight of observers.
Burned out: An elderly Georgian couple escapes from a house set on fire by South Ossetian militia in the Georgian village of Kvemo-Achebeti
A loud explosion was heard minutes later, leaving an assumption but without clarification that the vessel had been destroyed.
Several hours later, witnesses saw Russian trucks and armored personnel carriers leaving the port with about 20 blindfolded and handcuffed men riding on them.
Port spokesman Eduard Mashevoriani said the men were Georgian soldiers.
The Russians also took with them four Humvees that were at the port awaiting shipment back to the United States, equipment that had been used in earlier U.S.-Georgian military exercises.
Reader views (9)
Here's a sample of the latest views published.
I wouldn't worry too much. If the going gets tough Old Europe will ask USA to do the heavy lifting and offer to supply a token "force" to keep the paperwork in order. Then of course their "courts" will prosecute the people they think are culpable. Did somebody say hypocrites?
- Frank, England.
Milliband has clearly lost all touch with reality, so in saying 'It is important for the Georgian people to know Britain stands in solidarity with them.' will British troops help start WW3 against the Russians? British support for Georgia will do it about as much good as Soviet support was for Cuba during the cold war. Thank god for the French and Germans who seem the only NATO countries able to demonstrate a mature and intelligent foreign policy. Grow up Milliband and get real and stop pandering to the American idiots who if he hasn't noticed are addressing their domestic policy agenda.
- Nick, London
Ian: Equating Russia with fascism is breathtakingly stupid.
Why don't you question the US-backed Georgian government's unprovoked bombing of South Ossetia (killing upwards of 2,000 people)?After all, this is why Russia moved into the territory. Maybe you're too busy on your knees lapping up US anti-Russian propaganda to care?
- Mark, London
Milliband v Putin. I'd say it's TKO in the first round to the Russian.
- Tom, St. Albans
It is embarrassing to have 'little boy lost' Milliband as our representative in such a serious matter.
Labour need to call a general election now, before our credibility as a nation is damaged beyond repair.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
Russia believes it's OK to murder people on the streets of London (e.g. with Polonium), invade its neighbours (e.g. Georgia), and raze its own territories to the ground (e.g. Chechnya).
I feel very sorry for the Russian people I know because Russia has returned to its roots of violence, oppression and criminality.
If it looks like a duck, walks like duck and quacks like a duck then most likely it is a duck. It's time the West woke up and started to treat Russia like the fascist state it has become.
- Ian, London
Sending "school boy" Miliband to Georgia is such a waste of time and money as everyone knows the UK does not really have a foreign policy and the Foreign Office is just an extension of the US State Department.
- George, London, UK
Russia's aim is to control the pipelines and hold an economic knife to Europe's throat. A straightforward blackmail move, that is typical of recent Russian behaviour with foreign companies. They will maintain complete control over the economic future of Georgia and the use of it's strategic resources, because they can and it is to their advantage. Thinking in terms of morality there is an act of stupidity. However, most European politicians have not had to deal with people like this, who are normally found in places such as Africa and Asia.
- Ian, Vancouver, Canada
Russia = Third world country with immature politics and politicians.
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
